My Newest Hobby of Pyrography
Pyrography, creating with fire! I ventured into this art form a year ago and immediately fell in love with it.
Pyrography or pyrogravure is the free-handed art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks resulting from the controlled application of a heated object such as a poker. It is also known as pokerwork or wood burning.[1]
The term means “writing with fire”, from the Greek pyr (fire) and graphos (writing).[2] It can be practiced using specialized modern pyrography tools, or using a metal implement heated in a fire, or even sunlight concentrated with a magnifying lens. “Pyrography dates from the 17th century and reached its highest standard in the 19th century. In its crude form it is pokerwork.”[3]
Pyrography is also popular among gourd crafters and artists, where designs are burned onto the exterior of a dried hard-shell gourd.
I started out with a solid point burner. Solid-point burners are similar in design to a soldering iron. They have a solid brass tip that is heated by an electrical element and operates at a fixed temperature. Some of these do come with a temperature control.
A picture of my first attempt at woodburning.
I then purchased a wire nib burner. Wire-nib burners have variable temperature controls. The writing nib is heated by an electric current passing directly through it. Some models have interchangeable nibs to allow for different effects.[9]
Some pictures of my first time working with the wire nib burner.
You can do so many things with Pyrography like adding color to your artwork after you burn the wood. You can do portraits of Pets and People.
There is so much to learn about the art of Pyrography. I did research upon research to learn the art and I am still learning. What wood works best and what not to use in woodburning. Believe it or not, you can use some paper to do your art on. I learned so much from watching these people on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/@PyrographyMadeEasy,
https://www.youtube.com/@WoodBurningUniversity,
https://www.youtube.com/@Pyrocrafters
A year later and this is where I am at with the art form.
Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at my venture into Pyrography.
Laura