In past posts, I've given some attention to how surface imperfections and flaws need to be planned for. It is both an aggravation and an attraction for the pyrographic artist. A pyrographer often must affect a more conscious relationship with wood than many artists do their respective mediums. Wood is far more than a canvas. Each piece is as unique as a fingerprint and each brings to our table is own peculiarities in densities, moisture and grain. A pyrographic artist learns quickly to train his hand, and with it the hot tool, to respond to how the wood surface is acting as he works. In planning an image we hope to burn, we often find ourselves with a pyrographic truism: what can't be ignored must be used.
A variety of species tool very well with a woodburner. Bass and poplar will always be personal favorites of mine. Owing to its relative inexpensiveness and that most of my pieces have ended up on furniture items, most of my time has been spent with pine. Generally speaking, pine takes a burner very nicely and usually has accommodating grain features. It can also be nightmarish when it comes to knots and surface defects. These days, when working with pine, I most often let the panel decide what it will become. Nature presents us with certain challenges. Letting our imaginations run rampant with them is precisely part of the magic for the pyrographic artist.
We often find ourselves with panels that are just ugly. This one, for example...
This panel is actually a single board, 4 feet long and with widths as wide as 2. It is just under two inches thick. Both the top and bottom edges are "live edge," meaning that edge had been the exterior surface of the tree. It had bark...and often becomes stunning furniture. This particular panel is destined to become a coffee table. We just have to get it well past its current ugly duckling stage.
The most obvious challenge presented us here are this panel's knots. There are 3 bands of them, right up the middle and on both sides. They are too large and defined to be ignored, so they must be used. Laid out in "bands" as they are, they strike me as just calling out to become trees. I frequently like using knots to this end as they incorporate themselves very readily into such images.
They are not, however, without their issues. Most often, there will be moisture (i.e. dried/drying sap) associated with these knots, even in very seasoned wood. When your burner tip comes into contact with this, the heat draws it to the surface and you will hear it sizzle. Notice the smoke rolling back from my burner here:
Knots and their surrounding surfaces are denser and tend to burn (i.e. darken) more slowly. The melted sap, which caramelizes as we go, helps slow the process even further. The result, incorporating what would be a very intrusive knot into the image itself, is usually worth the added patience.
I've found that using a 25-watt burner to be invaluable. Pine knots can be hard on the more-delicate 20-watt hot tool (my preferred burner). The heavier 25-watt tool not only takes the abuse better but also darkens the surface more quickly in the bargain. In the above picture, this stouter hot tool acquits itself nicely in helping to "form" the knot into the end-grain of a broken tree limb.
With the trees (as good a starting point as any...) established, the picture is taking shape. At this point, the problems which made this panel such an initial challenge, are actually resolved. All that's left is straight-forward pyrography and composition...
(My work companion, wholly unimpressed with the artistic process...)
In bringing things closer to completion, I found myself with an opportunity to truly "paint with fire" ...or at least to use open flame to affect some of the heavier shades along the larger tree trunks.
Such opportunities present themselves very infrequently for me. Flame is an exceedingly unpredictable tool. It's rather like using a broad axe instead of a scalpel. One tends to bite the inside of one's cheek (not that I, uhm, er, ever do...) when taking open flame to a piece in which he's already invested so many hours. It is a gamble. Flame can char too deeply without warning. Occasionally your piece catches fire.
Each piece presents its unique headaches and challenges. Finding their resolution is part of the magic of pyrography. The character of a piece, its knots and defects, inform the vision. Together, they are bound only by the limits of our imaginations...
