Celtic Pyrography Tutorial Page 1

Celtic Pyrography Page 1

We’re often asked about our “woodburning” techniques used on our artworks. To partially answer some of these questions, we offer this short tutorial on pyrography, as we use for our Celtic knives and baskets. Pyrography is Greek for “Fire Writing”, and is an art form probably as old as fire. Some artists today are advancing this peculiar art form by leaps and bounds with stunning “paintings”, but it still has not caught on in the mainstream art world. There has been a new resurgence due to the popularity of bird and duck decoy sculpture. The burners used for this work are not the kid’s clumsy burning pens we remember, which were more like pen-style soldering irons, and which were difficult to use and highly unsatisfactory. The newer units are small, hot knives capable of broad ranges of temperatures and intricate detail, and are a pleasure to use. Thank you, modern technology...

Pyrography has many advantages as we use it. Pyrography allows a wide range of lights and darks, and burned areas do not “run” in porous woods like liquid colors. Lights and darks, as long as brown to black color range is acceptable - colors are permanent and not fugitive. Lights and darks are “in” the wood, with no chance of them being worn away without significant erosion of the material - colors are not always “in” the wood and are sometimes fragile as well as fugitive (fade over time or in light). Pyrography allows a fairly substantial range of textures available, with wide range of accurately placed lights and darks, with no color bleeding.

We’ll start by looking briefly at Celtic line drawing. We started our Celtic careers by taking a Celtic line drawing course offered by Cheryl Samuel.

http://www.ravenstail.com/celtic_line_
drawing/celtic_workbook_series.htm

Or Click here to contact Cheryl by email:

Here’s a link to her Web site, where you can contact her for training, or to purchase her very well written and clear instruction booklets. They are delightful, and a great introduction to an enjoyable artform just in itself, and very reasonably priced. From her beginnings, we’ve developed a method to take highly detailed and interwoven Celtic art from paper to wood.

Click Here to go to the NEXT PAGE

Celtic Pyrography Page 1 We’re often asked about our “woodburning” techniques used on our artworks. To partially answer some of these questions, we offer this short tutorial on pyrography, as we use for our Celtic knives and baskets. Pyrography is Greek for “Fire Writing”, and is an art form probably as old as fire. Some artists today are advancing this peculiar art form by leaps and bounds with stunning “paintings”, but it still has not caught on in the mainstream art world. There has been a new resurgence due to the popularity of bird and duck decoy sculpture. The burners used for this work are not the kid’s clumsy burning pens we remember, which were more like pen-style soldering irons, and which were difficult to use and highly unsatisfactory. The newer units are small, hot knives capable of broad ranges of temperatures and intricate detail, and are a pleasure to use. Thank you, modern technology... Pyrography has many advantages as we use it. Pyrography allows a wide range of lights and darks, and burned areas do not “run” in porous woods like liquid colors. Lights and darks, as long as brown to black color range is acceptable - colors are permanent and not fugitive. Lights and darks are “in” the wood, with no chance of them being worn away without significant erosion of the material - colors are not always “in” the wood and are sometimes fragile as well as fugitive (fade over time or in light). Pyrography allows a fairly substantial range of textures available, with wide range of accurately placed lights and darks, with no color bleeding. We’ll start by looking briefly at Celtic line drawing. We started our Celtic careers by taking a Celtic line drawing course offered by Cheryl Samuel. http://www.ravenstail.com/celtic_line_ drawing/celtic_workbook_series.htm Or Click here to contact Cheryl by email: Here’s a link to her Web site, where you can contact her for training, or to purchase her very well written and clear instruction booklets. They are delightful, and a great introduction to an enjoyable artform just in itself, and very reasonably priced. From her beginnings, we’ve developed a method to take highly detailed and interwoven Celtic art from paper to wood. Click Here to go to the NEXT PAGE	Burnt Offerings
	Tools - We use a solid state control box, with two types of burning pens. The first is a small hot knife tip. This tip outlines the areas to be darkened. The second type is a specially modified tip with a small point jutting off to the side, which is used to “stipple” the dark areas.
	The “Detailer”, by Colwood Electronics. A good inexpensive unit, other types and other manufacturers also available.
	The two types of pens
	Detail of the tips Click Here to go to the NEXT PAGE