After 4 days of waiting for the postman, my birthday present from friends is all here. A heatproof mat, some wooden shapes, some finishing oil and a pyrography set! I had a brief dalliance with pyrography last summer when I used Dave’s soldering iron to burn the numbers to 20 into discs of wood for school. (The soldering iron came off worst but the less said about that the better!) I decided I’d quite like to give it a whirl properly so I was quite excited when the postie delivered it this morning.
I researched pyrography basics online and was a little disheartened to discover most sites deemed it to be a suitable hobby for men or older children (no mention of 30 something ladies hooked on craft. Not even once!) Despite the internet telling me it was not something I should be doing I proceeded to plug the pyrography tool anyway. I’m not sure how it was going to identify that a woman was using it, and it didn’t self destruct as I switched it on so I presumed I was fairly safe.
There were lots of rather attractive designs online and most sites referred to using carbon paper. I’m sure I have some in Narnia (also known as the dresser in the conservatory) but I thought since I was going against the rules by actually participating in the unwomanly art of wood burning that I’d just keep doing things my way. I used one of my new craft stamps and ordinary black ink to stamp on to the wood and guess what-I survived! The ink didn’t bleed into the grain of the wood as much as I thought it would and I set to work with my new (and very hot) toy.
It was quite hard to determine what level of pressure was appropriate, and going across the wood grain meant I got some uneven results. The results weren’t perfect and I found curved lines tricky at first too. I think more practise might be in order, but I had fun trying. The smell of burning wood is also strangely pleasant, though I’m not sure it will do my delicate feminine lungs much good. I couldn’t resist adding some faux stitching with the heat tip-it’s one of my favourite cardmaking finishes too. I’m hoping further attempts will work better as I have some grand plans for allotment related things.
My first attempt, warts and all. Not too bad for a girl! What do you think?
Well done! New skills are always good!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha thanks, you never know when skills might come in handy!
LikeLike
Loved this post, made me laugh. Love the fact that women are ‘useless’ with tools even on the 21st century Internet 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, I felt the same! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like it 🙂 I also have a pyrography tool that’s just sitting around waiting for me to have the time to try it out! I have plans for it…
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s terribly addictive-get loads of wood ready! 😁
LikeLike