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Previous Issues > October 2005 > All About Art > Wood Burning Or
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 All About Art
Wood Burning Or
The word Pyrography is of greek origin, pur meaning fire and graphos meaning writing, which then easily translates to our more common name of wood burning. It is simply the art of drawing a picture on a piece of wood or leather by burning lines into the surface in various shapes and intensities with a soldering iron type tool. The longer you hold the wood burning pen on the surface of the wood, the greater the charring, thus the darker the color and the more depth you add. In the old days, even before I was born, they used just a piece of heated metal to add patterns to their furniture.
My personal introduction to wood burning was when I was about 12. I received a wood burning kit for Christmas. In the kit was a wood burning tool, small pieces of wood with simple patterns on them, and there was some colored foil to be used for burning colored letters into wood or leather. Frankly, all this turned out to be pretty boring stuff. I burned a few of the patterns into the wooden pieces and burned my name into my leather wallet, which did look pretty neat. If you decide to burn something into leather, be sure its leather! If its fake, the plastic will melt, covering the end of your wood burning pen with a smelly mess.
My wood burning kit got shoved into a closet and given away. Many years later, I decided to burn something into a plain piece of board with a wood burning pen that my uncle let me use. I quickly discovered that the wood burning pencil could do shading, lines, and other neat things that turned a plain board into a work of art! I wood burned a lighthouse into the wood, and since then, I have done many lighthouses and seascapes. I soon discovered that pictures of really old barns looked neat if burned into pieces of wood. You can also draw pictures of animals and even pictures of people by using that tool. But be careful. The wood burning tool tip is hot, and I mean hot! The temperature reaches anywhere from 600 to 900 degrees. Dont touch it when the cord is plugged into the wall, and watch where you lay it! Also read how to do pyrography before you start your wood burning art. Then have fun and be safe!
Larry Frazier is a retired English teacher with 30 years of experience for the Cumberland County, NC schools. A quadriplegic since birth, Larry paints, draws, and does wood burning by using his mouth.
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