I don’t know about you but I love to see how things are made. It’s fascinating when an artisan I follow show how they product the items they make. So I thought it’s about time I do the same.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Video is not my strong point.
I need to invest both in money and time to improve my limited video skills starting with a decent camera phone stand. If anyone has any suggested these would be gratefully received. Come to think of it, any tips would be welcome.
Back to the topic in hand or should I say, by hand!
Firstly I check the board, or which ever product i have chosen, and choose my favourite side. By this I mean the grain of the wood, the colour and natural markings and imperfections to see which side would be most complimentary.
The next stage is to draw up the outline of my design, no shading required as this I add using my pyrography pen.
The third stage is the burn.
I use this funky little piece of kit called Peter Child’s which is small unit charging electricity into your chosen pen to cause it to heat up. For each burn/design I do create, I use between two and three different pen tips depending on the desired effect required.
Hopefully my short time lapse video give you a good insight into my artistic process.
I would like to say it’s a very artistic and romantic environment but in reality it’s very different. The main reason being the safety element due to the smoke produced during the process. I have a portable electric smoke absorber placed right next to my artwork. This is quite noisy and has to be close to ensure the smoke is captured to enable it to be filtrated.
The second piece of vital equipment is my F3 mask, a high grade facial mask which is essential unless you are in a very well ventilated area such as outdoors. To top it all off I need to wear glasses for fine work now, but that’s just an age thing rather than safety. Oh and have the extractor fan on. So you probably have a mental image of how I look whilst working now, not pretty, huh!
Not quite Hannibal Lector more Bain from Batman!.
Once my piece is finished i give it a very light sanding as required and a dust off. Then finish it with a high grade food safe oil for the boards plus beeswax or a wood wax for none food items.
