Beginners guide book on pyrography

Table of contents Introduction Chapter 1. Pyrography: A Brief History Chapter 2. Pyrography Supplies and Tips for Beginners One Temperature Burning Tool Rheostat Burning Tools Adjustable Temperature Burning Tool Tips to Use Basic Burner One Temperature Choose Your Wood Other Tools of Pyrography Chapter 3. Wood Burning Textures and Strokes Chapter 4. Tips for Successful Design Chapter 5. The Tricks and Techniques for the Beginners Best Woods to Burn How to begin?

Tricks burning with a tip Chapter 6. Pyrography Projects with Guidelines for Beginners Project 1: Monogram Cutting Board Project 2: Perfect Engraved Wooden Spoons Project 3: Wood Burned Flowers Project 4: Beautiful Turntable Project 5: Imprinted Snowflake Ornaments Project 6: Pyrography of an Owl Project 7: Wood Burning Reindeer Project 8: Wood-Burning Dragon Project 9: Wood Burning Alphabets Project 10: Wood Burned Bracelets

Introduction Pyrography is stemmed from the Greek graphos (writing ) and pur (fire) and has always been there since fire itself. As there isn’t strong evidence, it’s pretty likely that cave dwellers drew the cliffs of their caves using fire sticks. As of today, it is fundamentally drawn on wood using a heated pen. It has also been done (and remains to be done) on clay, gourds and even leather.

Historically, it was utilized in branding and decorating various devices and musical instruments. Folk guitars or kitchenware were chronicled with a bit of art to communicate the owner’s character, and to differentiate their stuff from the other individual’s. It was not until the late Victorian time that the art design was abruptly taken up in earnest, and made on blank “portraits” of wood and different other materials rather than an ornamental embellishment.

Traditionally pyrography is commonly performed in the less-developed regions while advanced tools are used in the more progressive countries. You can also get a large variety of designs from internet for your furniture’s pyrography. Honestly, it is a fun task performed by the kids as well as adults.

This is an entertaining project for both men and women, and also kids (under grown-up guidance, of course). Fortunately, the startup costs are affordable, and it is a simple hobby to master. If you fancy it, pyrography can be the origin of Do It Yourself (DIY) gifts for both your friends and siblings for years to come!

Let’s get started.

Thanks for downloading this book. It’s my firm belief that this guide will help you to have the best experience possible with your new wood burning tool.

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Chapter 1.

Pyrography: A Brief History Although there is no solid evidence, pyrography is purported to have been around since the discovery of fire. If you can imagine a sect of cavemen and women who undoubtedly decorated the inner walls of caves with depictions of animal sacrifices, group slaughtering’s, gatherings and celebrations, then you can easily imagine how these prehistoric peoples would have moved from the etchings of cave walls to the personalizing of wooden tools and other items by the use of heat from a fire. Although it is not proven, prehistoric peoples most likely drew designs on cave walls by using sticks burned with fire.

The word pyrography has its beginning roots in the Greek language.

The word breaks down into two parts in Greek. The word pur in Greek means fire, while the Greek word graphos means to write or writing. Having said that, you can see how the word has come to be the English word pyrography, meaning to write with fire. Today, we have evolved from using charred sticks to using heated metal pens.

It was not until the Victorian era, however, that the art form took on a more artistic role, as those who practiced pyrography moved to using large blank wooden canvasses rather than focusing on simply marking or decorating smaller personal items. This Victorian era spark was mainly because of the creation of tools and machines used specifically for pyrography. A widespread interest manifested because of these inventions. In the early 1900’s, heated pens or soldering pens were created and manufactured thus making pyrography a more modern embellishment.

Today, pyrography has modernized into a craft that adults and children from all walks of life have learned to respect and enjoy.

Although the art form is not as popular as other forms of arts and crafts, it does have a following in many countries around the world.

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Currently, there are pyrography clubs, gatherings, and forums in several different countries around the world. Australia, Holland and the United States are few countries with the larger number of members. In the United States, every state in the country has one or more pyrography clubs. California and Florida seem to have the largest number of groups overall among the states. States like Hawaii, Montana, and Mississippi have only one known official club.

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Chapter 2.

Pyrography Supplies and Tips for Beginners A wood burning requires five elements, such as a media to work, pen tips, wood burning units, design or pattern to burn and art style to create a design. In the first step, you have to choose a wood burning tools. These tools come in three styles, such as rheostat-controlled tools, variable temperature tools, and one temperature tool.

One Temperature Burning Tool This burning tool is parallel to soldering irons. The solid exchangeable tips are designed from brass and screw in the front end of the burner. This tool was plugged into the outlet of the wall to heat to a particularly high temperature. The most used brass solid tip is known as a universal tip. This tip is useful for shading work and fine line work.

Other solid tips are available for this style of burning, such as calligraphy tip used for lettering. The flow of pen is used to fill large areas and a cone-shaped tip is used for detailing work. The large tip is used for shading. You can add shadows with the use of this tip.

Rheostat Burning Tools It is a temperature burning tool with adjustable temperature rheostat. This tool comes with similar interchangeable tips made of brass. These temperature tools are good for shade and detail any design or pattern. With rheostat burning tool, you can easily control the heat between pale cream tonal values and dark black like chocolate. With the use of rheostat dial, you can use a particular color code for heat settings from pale yellow color to dark red.

Adjustable Temperature Burning Tool This tool uses a particular thermostat controlled base device into which a cord of pen is attacked. The burning pen comes with a fixed tip or exchangeable tip pens, attached to a cord. You can put thermostat unit on a table so that you can work without bearing 6

extra weight. The variable burning unit has a variety of heat settings.

Tips to Use Basic Burner One Temperature • The temperature of the tip may vary between 600 and 90 degrees. It will burn or scorch anything that comes to its contact, such as work area, pattern paper near it, etc. Use a heavy plate or glazed tile to rest the tool in an idle state.

• While working on a project, there will be a buildup of carbon residue on the tip of the point. The carbon will appear as a black covering around point area. Make sure to remove this built up frequently while burning. Put a sandpaper with a fine grit on a glazed title and promptly pull the top crossways the paper. It will clean the tip and keep the edge of your tool crisp and clean.

Carbon residue is the basic cause of this problem while burning wood.

• While using the brass tip, the gold-toned area will turn darker.

It is just because of carbon residue so you have to use fine sandpaper to clean brass to bring its bright finish back. The clean tool will allow you to have more control over width and darkness of the stroke.

• You can use an electrical tape to secure a film canister to the middle of the power cord burner. If you are using a tool with extra tips, you can roll extra tips in a sandpaper and store them in a canister.

• Basswood can be a good choice for its burning surface in this art, but you can also choose sugar pine and butternut. Shading work of different tones on basswood looks really obvious because of its pale creamy color.

• For straight burning strokes, choose a smooth work surface.

Rough surfaces may drag or push the edge of tool away from the line of the pattern. Clean up any gouge stroke or rough chisel to bring perfection to your work. You can use a sandpaper to sand your selected carving before you start working with the burners.

• Avoid the use of extension cord with burners. If it is necessary to use an extension cord, make sure to choose a heavy-duty cord instead of a lightweight wire as you are using to plug in your lamp. The power cord/supply pulled by the burner is important and require an extra heavy cord.

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You have to be careful while changing tips of burning tool. There is no need to touch this tip until it is completely cooled. These tips are designed for brass that is a soft metal and becomes very soft at high temperature while burning. This tip is threaded to lock into shaft area and this threading may be damaged, when the pen’s tip is really hot. Once the threading is wrapped or bent, the tip will not be able to screw down tightly to its shaft. It will cause uncontrollable and uneven lines in the work.

Choose Your Wood A plenty of wood styles and types are available to choose from with numerous grain patterns, figures, textures, and colors. It will be good to stay away from pressure treated wood, such as green colored wood is used for outdoor railings and decks. Pressure treated pieces of wood contain chemicals; therefore, these can be harmful to burn. You can work on cedar, oak and basswood wood.

Make sure to collect all tools before you get started with this art.

Other Tools of Pyrography Along with a burning pen and a piece of wood, you will need a sanding block, sandpaper, clean workspace and safety tools like gloves, fan, and the dust mask. These all things are necessary for your safety.

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Chapter 3.

Wood Burning Textures and Strokes There are numerous fill textures, patterns and strokes to create your pyrography. There is an unlimited burning palette, such as you can change tonal values from pale cream to chocolate black. With the help of these patterns, you can make a full design.

Practice these patterns to improve your pyrography skills. To make specific stroke patterns, you can try special tips. These tips can make your work easy.

Initially, practice different lines, dots, and curves. It will bring perfection to your work, and you can easily manage your work. After purchasing wood burning tools, it is essential to carefully read the instructions of the manufacturer. It will help you to understand the use of this tool.

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Chapter 4.

Tips for Successful Design Paper towels, tape, sandpaper, etc. After your area is set up and you are ready to start, it is a good idea to get your pen hot. You will know how hot you need the tip to be when you first touch the tip to the wooden or leather canvas. If there is too much smoke, then it is too hot, and it needs to be turned down. If there is no mark being left or the burn is too light, then the pens heat needs to be turned up to adjust for the lack. When setting your pen down, it is important to have a special place to set the hot pen down. This is so the pen cannot fall on the ground or be exposed to kids or animals, as the pen will be extremely hot.

Your first few projects may not turn out the way you like. Do not fret. A lot of this may have to do with picking out the right type of design. Today, it is easy to seek and find all kinds of sketches and designs online. Just go to any search engine such as Google and type in pyrography designs or sketches and you will see a large selection of designs to choose from. Some will be simple, and some will be complex. It is truly up to you. Tracing or creating your own sketching designs is always an option, as well. One way to be certain things go well is to choose a design or logo that is simple to recreate and burn.

After the pen is heated and the wood has been chosen, now comes the time to sand the piece of wood that is to be used. This is just common sense. Sanding the canvas down will get rid of the splinters and make the wood have a smoother appearance. The next step involves taping the design to the wooden canvas and then using a pen to trace the design onto the wood firmly. After tracing the design to the wood, the next step is to fill in the tracing with the tip of the hot pen. It is important to note that using different amounts of pressure and making different motions with the wrist and hand will enable you to learn exactly how to get certain effects out of a combination of factors. Those are the tool, its temperature and the motion of your hand. As you switch from wood to leather or vice versa, keep in mind that the temperature and tip will most likely need to be changed or adjusted.

See also chapter 5. The Tricks and Techniques for the Beginners 10

Chapter 5.

The Tricks and Techniques for the Beginners If you find of learning pyrography, then you must be capable enough to keep all of their techniques and tips in mind. The tricks of making any wood burning project actually help to make it successful.

Therefore, you don’t have any chance to miss the single trick if you’re serious about learning pyrography. You can even become able to make 3D art by transferring the skills into a wood. But remember that it’s only possible if you are dedicated and highly ambitious to learn it. In other words you should be passionate and have the patience.

Here are some steps that would help you to know the hacks of doing excellent pyrography.

The Best Woods to Burn There are numerous kinds of wood available for pyrography.

However, you must go for the most useful one. Make sure that you never burn the polished or varnished wood. First of all, it is hazardous as there are possibilities that wood burst into small flames. Secondly, the smoke of such kinds of wood can cause an ulcer. The most suggested woods that you can use for burning with no reluctance are Cherry Wood, Cedar Wood, Pinewood, and MDF. Among all of these, the pinewood is the finest choice. It is easy to burn and soft wood, widely available in various shapes and available at the cheap prices comparatively.

The only problem is to varnish effect to internal resin area. All in all, it is the best choice to perform any of your wood burning projects.

Pinewood is also recommended an option for the beginners. The pyrography experts make excellent wood burning projects using pinewood.

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How to begin?

The first suggestion is to use a heat press or common iron to print the drawings and transfer the toner with the heat from paper to toner. You won’t have any control on the transference of certain lines so make it sure to draw exactly what you wants to be in the wood.

The drawing on the wood (which you’d make using graphite pencil) must be tidy. Don’t make uneven lines ever. Keep in mind that you’ve to burn the wood by following these lines. Do some practice on the spare wooden pieces as there are higher chances of mistakes in wood burning process initially?

Many experts do mistakes so the first-time users of wood burners would definitely face a lot of difficulties. The best trick is to perform every step slowly. Try to do it in a single stroke and use traces. Also, move the piece of wood and your hand for gentle movement in case of making large curves.

There is a lot of difference between scratching and burning.

Therefore, never scratch the wood as you won’t be able to get desired results through it. It is easy to change the direction of traces with the freedom of movement by using round tip of wood burner’s pen that doesn’t sink into the wood. When you buy a burner, make sure that its tips don’t get cool in few seconds.

Tricks burning with a tip Be careful not to overtightening tip or tightening tip while the tip/ pen is hot. This might lead to breaking the tip off, as this gets very soft when hot. Overtightening most often happens when using pliers to tighten up the tip. Pliers should never be used to tighten the tip inside the pen barrel.

If you experience tip loosening after some use, then while the tip is cold - i.e. you can hold it with your hands, screw it in using your hands and make at most 1/16 of turn using pliers. Remember - if while tightening you leave marks/dents/scratches on the tip - you are applying too much force.

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NEVER re-tighten tip while it is hot - in 99% cases this will seize the tip inside the barrel for good, rendering the entire pen inoperative.

Another problem is putting too much pressure on the tip. This is usually done to increase the amount of heat transferred to the wood to either speed up the burning process, or while working on harder types of the wood.

Tips are made of brass. While this metal is great for heat transfer and heating response, it gets softer as temperature rises. While woodburning remember to put only minimal amount of pressure on the tip. You always should be burning with the heat and not pressure. And to increase the amount of burn use slower strokes instead of pressing harder - your hand will also thank you for that.

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Chapter 6.

Pyrography Projects with Guidelines for Beginners You are going to get your hands on pyrography with the help of wood burning tools. Initially, you have to move slowly and be extra careful. There is no need to touch hot tips with bare hands or even with gloves. As a beginner, you have to experiment pressure on the tip and notice its results. Try to create some light dots in a line along with some dark dots. Carefully note the time for which the tip remains in contact with the wood. This contact will affect your dots.

Try numerous dots or lines in a consistent row.

Try to make dark and light lines by focusing on heat, speed, and pressure. If you have to make darker shading or lines, it is essential to put extra pressure on the tip. Slowly drag your pen over wood to make dark marks. The hot tools can make darker lines at a faster rate. If you don’t have a symmetrical tip, you can rotate it and see the difference in results. Practice different curves, zig-zag, and doodles.

To make your work easy, you can draw stencils of your design over wood and burn the image precisely and accurately. Before drawing stencils on a wood, you can sand your wooden piece. Working on an uneven wooden piece will not help you to get a neat and clean design. Here are a few projects to practice.

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Project 1: Monogram Cutting Board

You can send a custom cutting board as a gift to your friends. It can be a good gift for a newly wedded couple. Try this project.

Supplies: • Wood cutting board: 1 (or more as you like) • Wood burning pen with numerous nibs • Graphite transfer paper: 1 • Pencil and eraser • Cutting board template design (you can choose your favorite design) • Painter’s tape Procedure: Use your favorite template and print it on a regular paper sheet.

Trim this paper as per the size of your cutting board.

Tape the printed paper sheet to cutting board with the help of a tape. Carefully slide the graphite paper under printed paper sheet between the design and wood. Keep the darker graphite side downward and carefully tape down its edges.

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Use a giant color pencil to press down the design and leave a clear trail of marks to transfer design (you have to erase the marks so choose a pencil that leaves erasable marks). Carefully trace with a pencil and press down over every letter and line to draw the whole paper. After completion, remove the printed pattern and graphite paper.

It is time to use wood burning tool to trace the design. You can use a tool with multi-nib and a flat-angled nib for straight lines in the design. If you are using a Spirit Stream pen, preheat it for almost 4 to 5 minutes and test this pen. Use a scrap wooden piece to try numerous burning strokes. When you are ready, carefully guide your pen over wood and trace over the lines of graphite on cutting board.

If you need bolder and darker line, hold the pen longer over each place. The whole board will take almost 20 to 30 minutes.

Once you are done, erase all blue lines and wash this cutting board before sending as a gift or before using.

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Project 2: Perfect Engraved Wooden Spoons As a beginner, you have to practice with some dots and lines. This project can be an easy start for every beginner.

Supplies: • Wooden spoons: A set easily available online • Etching tool Procedure: Heat up your etching tool and let it burn. You can start doodling anywhere with a hot etching tool. Design can be made on different parts of utensils, such as the head of utensils or handle. You can draw hatch marks, lines, and dots.

It is quite simple to do without a template. You can use any design for your references. If you want to do it more comfortably, you can use a pencil to sketch lines and dots on a spoon. Simply trace the design on the spoon and put the etching tool on the traced design.

You can make dots, signature, little symbol or anything else as per your choice. After finishing pyrography, you can send them as a gift for a housewarming party or mother day. Just tie these spoons with a ribbon and your gift is almost ready to send.

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Project 3: Wood Burned Flowers You can make an art piece with this project. It is a little bit more complicated, but focus on the curves and lines to make a perfect design.

Supplies: • Wood burner Value pen • Basswood rectangle plaque • Graphite transfer sheet • Eraser • Bristle brush or foam • Flourish pattern • Paper towel • Mug or ceramic dish • Stylus or pencil • Fine sandpaper • Pliers • Tape • Satin varnish • Wood sealer

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Procedure: For this pyrography, you can print the following design.

Carefully read the instructions of the manufacturer on burning pen.

Firmly secure its universal point with the use of pliers on a hot tool.

Tape this tool stand to your work surface. Put tool on a stand and plug in an electric outlet. Switch the burner on and heat for almost 4 to 5 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare your basswood rectangle plaque and use a fine sandpaper to generously sand the whole plaque. Use a paper towel to remove dust.

Tape flower pattern on a wood surface to tape pattern on the corners to secure. Carefully slip a graphite paper between wood and pattern. Use a stylus or pattern to transfer pattern on the wood.

Use a universal point of wood burner to burn all branch lines and fill in thick areas of the branch. Remove point with the help of pliers and drop in a ceramic dish.

Attach a cone point with the use of pliers to the tool and burn thinner lines of the branch, scroll lines and carefully outline leaves with the middle vein. Remove point with pliers and drop in a ceramic dish. Now, attach flow point with pliers to burn all dots in the design.

For large dots, put a point on wood and for small dots, barely touch your wood surface with a flow point. With the use of pliers, remove this point and put in a ceramic dish.

Attach a shading point with the use of plier to slightly add shading on every leaf and shade all edges of plaque.

Switch off the tool and use the eraser to remove uncovered transfer lines.

Use one brush to apply a coat of wood sealer to the whole surface.

Let it dry and sand lightly.

Brush on 3 coats of the satin varnish for a protecting finish. Let it dry.

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Project 4: Beautiful Turntable You can customize your serving turntable with the use of colorful stains and wood burning tool.

Supplies: • Woodburning tool set • Brushes of artist • Sandpaper: 120-grit • Pine round: 18-inch • Pine round: 15-inch • Susan hardware: 6-inch • Rubbed pads: 1-inch round • Water-base stain: Green Tea, Mustard, Mandarin Orange • Polycrylic spray semigloss finish Procedure: Sand edges and face of two rounds. Print out the following pattern and assemble pieces. You can also create your own design.

Put a graphite sheet on the larger round and arrange your selected pattern at your desired place. You can put the pattern in the middle or toward the side of wooden round. Tape this pattern in its place and use one ballpoint pen to trace this design and transfer it to wooden round.

Use different tips of woodburning tools to create a beautiful design 20

in the wood. Experiment with different tips on pine scraps before filling your selected design with patterns.

Make sure to work slowly and avoid hard pressing on wood. Let the tool work over wood. Before making curve lines of your design, make sure to practice curves on the board. It will help you to understand the changes in the wood grain.

Use brushes of the artist to fill in numerous design areas with wood stains of your choice. You can choose colors as per your preferences.

Let the stain dry and spray on 2 coats of clear finish of semigloss.

If the wood is rough even after the second finishing coat, you can lightly sand the edges of the table without penetrating its finish and apply the 3rd coat.

After designing, attach the hardware of turntable.

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Project 5: Imprinted Snowflake Ornaments

You can design beautiful snowflake ornament with the help of this tutorial. Decorate your house during winter holidays.

Supplies: • Etching tool • Natural twine or ribbon • Small drill bit and drill • Bow saw • Birch branch Directions: Cut the branches into desired slices (width will be your decision).

You can use a bow saw or rent a power tool. Real birch may peel a bit and sawed edges can be rough; therefore, you can rub them down with the use of a sandpaper or rag towel.

Draw snowflakes with an erasable pencil on the wooden slices and burn this design away.

After burning flakes, make a hole in the wooden piece with the help of a drill to insert ribbon.

Finally, add a twig or ribbon to the hole to hang. They are ready to send as a gift on Christmas.

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Project 6: Pyrography of an Owl

Supplies: • Wooden board: 1 (or more as you like) • Wood burning pen with numerous nibs • Graphite transfer paper: 1 • Pencil and eraser • Cutting board template design (you can choose your favorite design) • Painter’s tape Procedure: You can choose this template to make this design.

Use above image or take your favorite template, and print it on a regular paper sheet. Trim this paper as per the size of your wooden board.

Tape the printed paper sheet to wooden board with the help of a tape. Carefully slide the graphite paper under printed paper sheet between the design and wood. Keep the darker graphite side downward and carefully tape down its edges.

Use a giant color pencil to press down the design and leave a clear trail of marks to transfer design (you have to erase the marks so choose a pencil that leaves erasable marks). Carefully trace with a pencil and press down over every letter and line to draw the whole 23

paper. After completion, remove the printed pattern and graphite paper.

It is time to use wood burning tool to trace the design. You can use a tool with multi-nib and a flat-angled nib for straight lines in the design. If you are using a Spirit Stream pen, preheat it for almost 4 to 5 minutes and test this pen. Use a scrap wooden piece to try numerous burning strokes.

When you are ready, carefully guide your pen over wood and trace over the lines of graphite on cutting board. If you need bolder and darker line, hold the pen longer over each place. The whole board will take almost 20 to 30 minutes.

Once you are done, erase all blue lines and wash this wooden board before sending as a gift.

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Project 7: Wood Burning Reindeer You can make a beautiful art piece with the picture of reindeer. Get the advantage of this tutorial.

Supplies: • Etching tool • Natural twine or ribbon • Small drill bit and drill • Bow saw • Birch branch Directions: Cut the branches into desired slices (width will be your decision).

You can use a bow saw or rent a power tool. Real birch may peel a bit and sawed edges can be rough; therefore, you can rub them down with the use of a sandpaper or rag towel.

Draw reindeer with an erasable pencil on the wooden slices and burn this design away. You can take print out of reindeer and use a graphite paper to trace this design on wooden pieces.

After burning reindeer, make a hole in the wooden piece with the help of a drill to insert ribbon.

Finally, add a twig or ribbon to the hole to hang. They are ready to send as a gift.

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Project 8: Wood-Burning Dragon You can draw a beautiful dragon on a wooden piece with the help of these instructions.

Supplies: • Wooden board: 1 (or more as you like) • Wood burning pen with numerous nibs • Graphite transfer paper: 1 • Pencil and eraser • Cutting board template design (you can choose your favorite design) • Painter’s tape Procedure: You can choose this template to make this design.

Use above image or take your favorite template, and print a dragon on a regular paper sheet. Trim this paper as per the size of your wooden board.

Tape the printed paper sheet to wooden board with the help of a tape. Carefully slide the graphite paper under printed paper sheet between the design and wood. Keep the darker graphite side downward and carefully tape down its edges.

Use a giant color pencil to press down the design and leave a clear trail of marks to transfer design (you have to erase the marks so choose a pencil that leaves erasable marks). Carefully trace with a 26

pencil and press down over every letter and line to draw the whole paper. After completion, remove the printed pattern and graphite paper.

It is time to use wood burning tool to trace the design. You can use a tool with multi-nib and a flat-angled nib for straight lines in the design. If you are using a Spirit Stream pen, preheat it for almost 4 to 5 minutes and test this pen. Use a scrap wooden piece to try numerous burning strokes.

When you are ready, carefully guide your pen over wood and trace over the lines of graphite on cutting board. If you need bolder and darker line, hold the pen longer over each place. The whole board will take almost 20 to 30 minutes.

Once you are done, erase all blue lines and wash this wooden board before sending as a gift.

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Project 9: Wood Burning Alphabets If you want to craft alphabets on a wooden sheet, you can use this template and follow these instructions.

Supplies: • Woodburning tool set • Brushes of artist • Sandpaper: 120-grit • Basswood rectangle: 10-inch or bigger • Water-base stain: color of your choice • Polycrylic spray semigloss finish Directions: For this pyrography, you can print the following design. If you find it difficult, you can choose a simple template.

Carefully read the instructions of the manufacturer on burning pen.

Firmly secure its universal point with the use of pliers on a hot tool.

Tape this tool stand to your work surface. Put tool on a stand and plug in an electric outlet. Switch the burner on and heat for almost 4 to 5 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare your basswood rectangle plaque and use a fine sandpaper to generously sand the whole plaque. Use a paper towel to remove dust.

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Tape flower pattern on a wood surface to tape pattern on the corners to secure. Carefully slip a graphite paper between wood and pattern. Use a stylus or pattern to transfer pattern on the wood.

Use a universal point of wood burner to burn all branch lines and fill in thick areas of the alphabets. Remove point with the help of pliers and drop in a ceramic dish.

Attach a cone point with the use of pliers to the tool and burn thinner lines of the alphabets, scroll lines and carefully outline dense parts with the veins. Remove point with pliers and drop in a ceramic dish.

Now, attach flow point with pliers to burn all dots in the design. For large dots, put a point on wood and for small dots, barely touch your wood surface with a flow point. With the use of pliers, remove this point and put in a ceramic dish.

Attach a shading point with the use of plier to slightly add shading on every alphabet and shade all edges of plaque.

Switch off the tool and use the eraser to remove uncovered transfer lines.

Use one brush to apply a coat of wood sealer to the whole surface.

Let it dry and sand lightly.

Brush on 3 coats of the satin varnish for a protecting finish. Let it dry.

Note: This design take more time because it is more complicated than others. You have to be very careful while tracing designs of alphabets and carefully follow this tracing with your woodburning tools.

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Project 10: Wood Burned Bracelets You can make beautiful wood burned bracelets with the help of Popsicle sticks.

Supplies: • Popsicle Sticks • Pencil • Rubber bands • Wood burner • Round object (may be a soft drink can or any other round can) • Pot Procedure: Draw a design on Popsicle sticks with a pencil and go over these designs with wood burner.

Fill your pot with some water and boil it. Drop in all popsicle sticks in boiling water and let them boil for almost 15 minutes.

Remove sticks one by one and lightly bend each stick to create a curve. Wrap curved sticks around the round can and secure it with the use of a rubber band. Let them dry overnight.

Unwrap rubber bands and get your wood burned bracelets.

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