Pyrography and the Art of Painting with Fire

Since the Stone Age, men have been using flame and heated tools to ornament the corners of their lives. Thousands of years later, fully evolved into a crafter's hobby, it remains a somewhat obscure art form. I stumbled into pyrography accidentally some years back, whilst doing the grunt work for a fellow woodworker. He opened his locker, waved at the dizzying array of tools and equipment and asked if I recognized any of it. "That," I said, pointing to a standard Hot Tool. My father had kept such a burner in a kitchen cabinet for branding certain items for personal identification. At the time, it was all I knew of woodworking tools.

I found myself immediately fascinated by the possibilities of creating art with wood and hot metal. More than two decades on, I find myself still a student. The wood will always be our teacher. It tells us what it wants to be and guides us to that end.

It is now the end of August and if for no other reason, I'm launching this blog to chronicle the process me and my longtime road-dawg, Farmer Dave, will be experiencing as we prepare for our first formal craft shows this fall. Dave and I have been selling our crafts for years through such places as Wood To Goods in York, ME (!!!), though this fall marks a new phase for us.

We invite you to share our journey.


Among the pieces coming out of the studio right now...

Franco-American Woodcarver

The Smith




Dark Harbor Fishermen (from N.C. Wyeth, 1943)