I am spending some time this morning working on my Holiday gifts which will include a few leather wrist bands, leather bracelets, and leather crafted hair barrettes. You can purchase pre-made leather items for your pyrography at most large craft stores at very reasonable prices.
Since I already had some leather scraps left over from a half-side hide I cut my own leather shapes. These are pieces of 8 ounce leather that are either irregular shapes or that have some imperfections, and therefore got regretted from another project. But for what I am doing this morning they are just perfect.
Cattle Brand Leather Burned Bracelet Please click on the image for a full-sized photo.
My first sample, the Cattle Brand Bracelet, measures 1 1/2″ wide by 8″ long. Through the middle left side of the scrap there is an obvious tear in the surface of the leather. There are many ways this tear could have happened. In examining the scrap to see if it was ‘save-able’ it appeared to look like a scar made by barbed wire, which is exactly what sparked my idea for how to decorate it.
I used a stylized barbed wire design to accent the scar appearance of the flaw in the leather. In the center of the lower barbed wire design I added my cattle brand and for my main design I used a classic long horn steer icon with stars. My finished burning now makes that scratch in the leather surface into part of the overall design and gives the finished bracelet a real Wild West look.
I finished off this piece by using a mid-sized hole punch along the bottom edge of the leather to create two holes, plus one hole at the outer edge of each side of the bracelet. An 8″ piece of braided leather cord was used to secure my buffalo skull charm and two 12″ pieces were added to the side holes for tying.
To learn more about Cattle Brands, and to snatch a few free Lora S. Irish patterns for branding please visit our blog page about Cattle Brand Layouts. This page also features the Long Horn Steer pattern. If you wish to explore more Wild West ideas, you might enjoy our Western and South West themed pattern packages at ArtDesignsStudio.com.
Lady Bug Hair Barrette Please click on the image for a full-sized photo.
Searching further in my leather scrap bag for my wood burning projects I came across several pieces that were perfect size for hair barrettes. My sample barrette uses a 4 1/2″ x 2″ wide piece of 8 ounce leather, a bamboo kitchen skewer, and an assortment of jewelry making supplies. The arch along the top edge of the barrette was cut by placing a salad plate, evenly centered, over the leather and then cut using my bench knife. The side arches were created using large medicine jar lids.
This particular piece of leather had one very odd, dark-colored spot – just were my ladybug now resides. That spot was not big enough to be a problem in burning the design, but obvious enough I could not ignore it. My solution was simple, any spot in leather can be hidden using acrylic paint or permanent marking pen. So I needed a design that would allow me to color over the spot once the pattern was burned.
My choice was to do a fun Henna Pattern project and add one little, brightly colored Lady Bug to hide that blemish. Once the burning was completed I used black and red permanent pens to color my Bug! She was so fun, and outstanding that I returned to my scrap bag to find more little scraps to add more little Lady Bugs to the beaded decoration of the piece.
Many of us sell our finished projects and a primary outlet are the arts and craft shows in our local area. How you mentally approach those shows can determine whether a show is a success or a flop for you as a business person. For many years I did the craft show circuit and I would like to share my experiences in this posting. Hopefully you will find a few ideas that you can use to make your business grow.
Any business strategy or marketing website will tell you that first and foremost you need to create a Business Plan, but what does that really mean for the art and craft show artisan who does wood carving or pyrography?
Who, What, Where, When, and Why! These are the five basic questions you need to answer for any business planning. Let’s take a few minutes today and look specifically at what a business plan for selling shows might include as we answer a few of those basic questions. I know that you have already gone through these questions with the standard business approach, but let’s look at them again with a little twist in your perspective. Let’s look at the Who, What, and Why from your customer’s point of view.
Who?
Who are you, who are your customers, and who do your customers think you are?
As a free lance artist I have worked in many different crafts over the years. One of my earliest was pin striping and lettering for commercial trucks. I saw myself as a sign crafter, and advertised myself that way on my business cards, letter head, and in my local newspaper. While I did have a small going business I was in direct competition with the larger sign crafting shops in my area. That is until I got a phone call one day from a new client. “Are you that lady that does the tricked-out painting on cars? I have an old pick-up that I want fancied up!”
This gentleman’s phone call woke me up to who my customers thought I was, not who I thought I was. “Are you that lady” told me he was not looking for a business, he wanted one real person for his job. “Tricked- out painting” told me he didn’t want something that everyone else had or that anyone could get through a catalog, he wanted something special made just for him. “Old pick-up truck” told me that he treasured his truck, it was important enough to him to not only keep in excellent condition, but worthy of investing the money for pin striping to make it outstanding. “Fancied up” told me that he wanted bragging rights when he showed off his newly pin striped truck to his family and friends!
His phone call clarified to me how the customers I already had saw me, were talking about me and the work I had done for them. It also gave me the clue as to how to encourage more business by not focusing my sale’s pitch on my own skills as a sign crafter, but on my client’s desire to have their special old truck fancied up and made special.
After that phone call I changed my business cards and advertising from Sign Crafting and Lettering to Have Brush, Will Travel – Trick Out Your Truck Today. Business boomed because I finally was presenting myself to my customers as the person they were looking for to do their job!
Are you an artist, pyrographer, or wood carver or are you that person who will make their desires become real?
What?
What are you selling and what are your customers really buying?
You may think that what you are selling is your pyrography art or your carved caricatures, but that is not what your customers buy. People do not pay $50 for some little 8″ x 12″ piece of scorched wood or $75 for some 40″ tall walnut sapling stick that you cut down in your wood lot. Would you? No! So what are your customers really buying, what do they really want to buy from you that gets them to open their wallet and put money on your hand?
They are buying things that re-enforce their emotions. For many years I worked in the fine arts focusing on pure bred dogs, doing both limited edition prints and commissioned pet portraits. Limited edition prints for the fine artist allows you to invest your time into one work then reproduce that work to create multiple sales. But those prints never became a ‘hot selling’ item – not because the fine art work was not high quality or not artistically rendered, but because people do not want artwork of someone else’s dog on their wall!
They want pictures of their dog, set in the scene of their backyard, or with the toy they gave their pet that shows their love for their dog. Their dog is not an investment or an object they own, their pet is a treasured, important member of their family. Pet owners seldom purchase limited edition art prints as financial investments that may increase in value over time … they buy pretty pictures of their beloved pet. They buy memories that re-enforce their emotion feelings! So while I did not sell out any of my print runs, those prints were promotional items that kept my bookings for original artwork pet portraits filled.
When my husband I ran our dog art website we had an artist submit his limited edition dog art print to us for inclusion on our site. The print featured a particular breed of dog that only had about 500 breeders in the US, with a specific color pattern in a dog breed that had six color variations, seated on a specific brand of motorcycle. With his submission he asked us how many prints we wanted to handle, as he was extremely concerned that his edition was only a 3000 print run. I had the sad task to telling him that while we very much wanted to promote his print we only wanted 3 prints in-house to cover potential sales.
His artwork was spectacular, his skills were superb, the printing and paper was the highest quality, his price range was very reasonable, but the image has four major marketing flaws. To sell that print we needed to find someone that owned that particular breed, in that particular color pattern, that also owned and drove a motorcycle, and a motorcycle that was made by that particular manufacturer … AH! Owners of black Labrador retrievers do not by art featuring yellow labs, and people who drive Harleys don’t put pictures of Yamaha cycles on their walls. We never were able to find the customer that had his specific combination of elements. In contrast one of our best selling dog prints was a small work featuring a non-describe mutt-type puppy chewing on a teddy bear. Why you ask? Because that puppy could have been anyone’s puppy, that teddy bear was a very common pet toy they most likely had purchased for their pup, and it was full of one loving memory moment.
What are your customers really buying at the craft shows?
They are most likely buying items that re-enforces some particular life choice or sparks an emotional feeling. Your customers are not clients that buy pyrography enhanced wooden kitchen spoons – they are nieces looking for a special gift of love for Aunt Minnie who taught them how to bake Christmas cookies. You are not selling a piece of wood, you are selling a special memory that will be shared between the buyer and his or her gift recipient.
The more you can get that ‘niece’ to share her story about making cookies with her aunt, instead of talking about how you use a specific wood burning technique, the more likely you are to land the sale.
As a wood carver I don’t think I ever really sold a ‘cane’, and never pitched a cane as an orthopedic support. If my customer needed that type of cane they bought them from the medical supply house. What I sold was a fancy stick that let a ‘gentlemen strut his stuff and make his next door neighbor just a bit jealous’ as he took his dog for a walk through the neighborhood. I did not present my walking/hiking sticks as part of their hiking equipment, but as a wood spirit or spiritual companion that went with them into the wilderness on their journey.
What is the most important item you ‘sell’ at the craft shows?
Its not some item, its not a tangible finished work, its not that special, extra-hard endeavor that you created … its you and your story!
It had been a long, hot day at our local community yard sale, one of my better selling shows. I was tired, I was ready to go home but I had one more customer waiting to talk with me. So I put on my ‘I am glad you are here’ smile and said “Hi” to the gentleman. Within one minute he was talking about his niece, who was 5 years old, and how his refrigerator was covered with her artwork because he knew one day she would be a great artist – implying that even at 5 she was a better artist than I. OK ?!? For twenty minutes he exclaimed her virtues as a budding Rembrandt, how she could already color inside the lines, and how she loved red. OK ?!? For twenty minutes I listened this man brag about some 5 year old, armed and dangerous, and already a greater artist than I would ever be because he had given her a box of crayolas.
I will honestly admit that his conversation, at first, irritated me just a little bit – maybe more than a little bit – maybe a whole, huge bunch of bits! But after I got home, quieted down, and really thought about what he was telling me I learned one of the most important marketing techniques that I needed to make the sale.
He taught me that every customer buys more than an item, they buy bragging rights. My customer with the 5 year old niece had bought himself bragging rights when he gave her that box of crayons and he was sharing those bragging right with me or anyone else who would listen to him.
Your customers want bragging rights too and they want a story to tell all of their friends about how they discovered this ‘new artist’ or what story you were creating with your burning or carving. Honestly, when you look at any customer through their eyes they really did ‘discover’ you and they are the ones that will carry that word-of-mouth advertising to their family, friends, and co-workers. You want them to have and use their bragging rights!
Your customer wants to talk with their friends about the item they purchased and your story is one way that they can. You can also give them a story about the item they are interested in buying, a story that can become theirs and that they can tell over and over again. After giving my sales pitch about Wood Spirits and how they fit into mythology over and over again at shows I finally wrote it down, printed it, and attached it to all of my walking sticks. Many browsers who came into my booth would stop and read that paper, then buy the stick. They bought two things – a stick and a story to tell.
Each time they tell their story they re-enforce that they are one of your special customers and are more likely to purchase more items from you.
My Experiences on the Whys and Whats
During my craft show years I always displayed several pet scenes, house portraits, and truck or old car scenes, either in wood carving, pyrography, or oils on canvas. But I considered those items as samples to promote commissioned projects, not as direct selling items. I created a photo album that included commissioned works that I had completed for other customers along with the photo of house, pet, and truck portraits – my biggest selling items. That album also had photos of the different styles of walking sticks that I carved and notes about the hiker, where they hiked, and which hiking clubs they held a membership. That photo album was displayed, opened, on the very center front of my selling table where it could catch everyone’s attention. It was my instant advertising that I was willing to do custom work and to get a one-on-one conversation started about what they would want to order if they were making a commissioned order with me.
Also on my table was a full page printed Artist’s Biography that any browser or potential customer could pick up and take home with them. While it did give information about myself as an artist and about my art, it really was a ‘cheat-sheet’ that gave my customers bragging rights information. I even had little pull-off tabs along the bottom edge that included my name, phone number, and art specialty that my customers could give to their friends and family.
If you are like me and have problems ‘bragging’ about yourself ask someone in your family or a close friend to write it for you. You can give them the information details, they will add the impact to those details. Include in the printed bio at least one photo of your best work to show off your specialty, your name, your business name, your website, your Facebook account, and, of course, your phone number.
And, please, remember in writing your bio that Grandma Moses was a farmer’s wife, a self-trained artist, and did not start her art career until she was 78.
Many of my art and craft show did not show a direct monetary return – meaning I did not make many sales of the pieces that I displayed. The chance that I created those specific pyrography burned images that would spark an emotional desire in the browsers of the show was really as low as my finding the customer that fit the dog on the motorcycle print. I might be showing Western scene burns featuring cattle ranching or Rodeo Show riding on the very day that everyone at the craft show happened to be a quilter, a truck driver, or hiking fanatic. Direct sales on larger items can be slim.
I went to craft shows because it put me in a one-on-one connection with potential customers and gave me a chance to engage them in the ‘conversation’ about what they really wanted to buy. I saw my display of finished items more as promotional work to secure commissioned work than direct sales items. And while I often spent more at a craft show than I took in, I always came away with my schedule booked with commissioned projects.
For me, these shows were never about what I could sell, but about how many show browsers that I might be able to turn into new customers!
Hope this gives you some new insight on who you are, who your potential customers are, and how you can turn their desires into sales.
Lenore, made a great post on the Pyrography Board at Facebook concerning copyright. Its a common question I get here in the studio and so I want to address your questions and concerns.
Before I begin I note that I am not a copyright specialist. If you need specific information concerning Copyright Law you should contact a Copyright Attorney!
I know this is one of those long, long, long posts but after reading through this information you can use our patterns and instructions worry free!
The short answer –
YES, you can sell your finished project that use my pattern art or instructions given here on LSIrish.com and ArtDesignsStudio.com. NO, you can not sell, distribute, or post my pattern art or instructions, or distribute them in any manner even if you give me and my sites credit. My copyright give you the USE of the patterns in your work, not for the DISTRIBUTION of the patterns and instructions in and of themselves.
The definition of a finished project is: the basswood board, the burned leather purse, the pen and ink t-shirt, the quilted fabric square, the stitched thread and cloth embroidered patch – a tangible, hard item.
The long answer –
Lenore in her post is so right about Copyright being a ‘sticky issue’ in pyrography, wood carving, and crafts – something we all need to address. If, as she used in her example, you work from someone’s photograph you are creating what is legally called a ‘translation’. Translations do not give the crafter copyright to the image, photo, or finished design. Just as if you translated a book from the German language into English the story line is not yours but belongs to the original author. It is the story line of a book that is copyrighted, not the language in which the book was written.
Translations of Original Work
Doing an exact copy of a photo into a sepia burning is simple changing the method – camera to hot pen tip, you are not changing the original image. The copyright of the image still remains with the original work, not with your translation and you can be in violation by claiming it as your own.
Just giving the original copyright owner credit does not mean that you have avoided copyright issues or protected you from violating their copyright to the work. As my beloved hubbie once noted … if you steal a hammer from Ace Hardware, telling everyone where you stole it from does not clear you of petty theft! So, yes, if you really, really, really have to use someone’s original photo please protect yourself by getting written permission first from the photographer or original artist.
One more thought on photography is that just because a photo is old or a common icon image – a photo you have seen over and over again – does not put that photo into public domain. A copyright is good for around 75 years, or for the life of the artist, and can be part of an artist’s will, passed onto the their inheritors. So, just because you see it everywhere does not mean it is free to take and use.
Now, saying that, the copyright for the patterns that you can find freely given with tutorials or purchased from pattern makers is different from that of photographs. Patterns are created specifically to be used – traced – in your craft.
In the case of patterns and written step-by-step instructions it is the line art/shaded patterns and text that are copyrighted. But both of those are specifically created for you to use in your art! The pattern and instructions become two parts of the whole that you use in your burning – just as you use a specific burning tool, a wood or leather blanks, and a painting media.
Not everyone wants to spend hours searching the net for images of a white tail deer, a fallen log, a thick forest background, and a split rail fence. Nor does everyone want to spend several more hours combining, adjusting, and refining those images to create one new, original composition. Most pyrographers and carvers have not studied composition, line flow, balance, perspective, or other art techniques for creating a design. What many of us just want to do is to sit down at our craft table and burn or carve!!!! That is where using patterns and instructions comes into our crafts.
OK … so what does that mean for my copyright to both LSIrish.com and ArtDesignsStudio.com. It means the patterns and instructions are for “Personal Use Only”. You get to use my patterns and instructions in your craft. You get to burn them, carve them, paint them, and even cut them out for your scrap booking! The key word here is USE.
Distribution of Patterns and Instructions
You do not have ownership of the pattern images or of the written instructions. You can’t post my patterns to your blog, print them and put them in a kit you sell, or copy and paste my instructions to your selling website. You can not ‘snatch’ these and create an e-book that you sell on Amazon. Changing the digital format – say from a .jpeg to a vector art format – is simply a copyright translation and does not give you copyright over the Work. The patterns and instructions belong to me under copyright law.
Your finished project belongs to you! You get to share your burning or carving anywhere you want. You get to sell as many as you can at art shows, craft fairs, and even on the net – up to 25 works from one pattern!!!! This is your work and it belongs to you. You do not get to make up a kit that includes a board, a printed copy of my step-by-step instructions, and a printed copy of my pattern art and either sell it or give it away.
Educational Institutions
There is a clause in Copyright Law that allows educational institutions to use Works that are copyrighted for teaching. Posting someone’s Copyrighted patterns or instructions to your own blog does not fall under this clause. If you think that your site might qualify as a teaching or educational institution, please contact your Copyright Attorney before you post to insure that you are within your legal rights.
Mass Production and Licensing Agreements
Our copyright covers personal use, it is not meant for mass production usage. If you intend to create multiple units of any LSIrish.com or ArtDesignsStudio.com pattern, over 25 units, then you need to contact us to discuss a licensing agreement. Example, if you want to trace and paint 25 glazed coffee cups for sale at the craft shows using one of our patterns you are covered under our ‘for personal use’ copyright. If you want to create a fired decal that can easily be applied to a thousand or more coffee cups through mass production, you need a licensing agreement. Please write us through our Contact the Studio link in the nav bar.
Pattern Catalogs for Finished Project Sales
Many of our craftsmen that sell finished projects purchase the Complete Pattern Collection, either by download or on thumb drive. This is the best price value for our customers and gives you all of our original Lora S. Irish patterns and designs at the time of your purchase. Currently we have 140 pattern packages, sorted by theme or topic, and are approaching the 3000 mark for individual patterns.
To increase your sales and stay within Copyright law, you can link directly to my pattern website, ArtDesignsStudio.com, and advertise to your customers that you can create any project for the patterns shown and offered there. This saves your tons of printed paper, and tons of bandwidth, while increasing the chances of making the sale. Your customers are just a click away from finding that specific pattern they want you to create!
Copyright conclusion
So … have fun sharing your finished projects on Facebook if they were created using one of my patterns. If you are selling finished items work using my patterns I truly hope you sell everyone and make a mint of money!
And if you really want to share my work, please share the link to my websites – LSIrish.com and ArtDesignsStudio.com – or share the posts from my Facebook page. You get the “Ohs and Ahhhs” for sharing the link and I get the “Ohhs and Ahhs” for creating the work.
Please remember the finished work is yours, the pattern art and instructions are mine – an easy line of ownership, use, and copyright … 🙂 Thanks everyone !
Craftsmen and Hobbyists: Reaffirmation of Our Policy With Respect to Use of Our Designs
Dear Friends, Craftsmen, Hobbyists and Users of our Patterns.
Those of you who are familiar with our products know that for many years we have been creating and supplying patterns for use by hobbyists and craftsmen . We have from time to time received offers to license our designs to commercial distributors.
All of our designs have been registered with the United States Copyright Office and the unauthorized copying, distribution or sale of our patterns to third parties is a violation of the copyright laws of the United States.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
When you purchase a pattern from ArtDesignsStudio.com and LSIrish.com, or receive one of our “Freebies”, the pattern is subject to certain restrictions reserved under our copyright. You have the right to use the pattern for your own personal use to make finished products for sale or personal use. A “finished product” is an article of manufacture on which the pattern is embodied. For example, it may be a laser engraved wall plaque, computer routed door panel, wood carved bread board, a stitched out cloth quilt, or any other tangible hard goods project enhanced by our pattern design. A “finished product” is NOT a copy of the original pattern made for further distribution. You may display and sell your finished products on your web site to show how they have been enhanced. You may personally digitize or alter the computer file format of the pattern to assist you in personally making multiple copies of finished products.
WHAT YOU CANNOT DO
You cannot copy, reproduce, publish, distribute, redistribute, sell, barter, transfer or otherwise make available the pattern which you received from us or duplicates thereof to third parties. You cannot publish our patterns on your website (other than as embodied in a finished product) and represent them as your own. You cannot distribute or include copies of the patterns as part of a kit or instruction package, whether as computer files or as paper copies, to be distributed and used by a Third Party. You cannot offer the patterns which you received from us for sale to third parties. You cannot sell or distribute digitized versions or altered computer file format versions of our patterns to third parties, nor can you request third parties to digitize or alter the computer file format of the patterns for you.
SUMMARY
All patterns distributed by ArtDesignsStudio.com and LSIrish.com have been copyrighted under the copyright laws of the United States and are published with a copyright notice. These patterns are for the personal use of hobbyists and craftsman. When you receive a pattern from either ArtDesignsStudio.com or LSIrish.com and open the package, you receive a limited license to use it personally to make one or more finished products enhanced by the design which you may sell. You may not copy, publish, sell, distribute, redistribute or otherwise make the pattern you received from ArtDesignsStudio.com to any third party and you may not publish or advertise the pattern on your web site as your own.
Let’s finish up the step by step instructions for this Henna Moon Pyrography Project and the test drive review of Walnut Hollow’s Woodburner Detailer.
Please click on any image in this post for a full-sized photo.
Finishing the Main Design Step 14: I have complete the detailing by working the bottom floral scrolls.
If you are just coming into this project, please see the previous post pages for the free pyrography pattern, the free guide pattern, and the early steps to this Henna Moon Pyrography design.
Guidelines for the Border Pattern Step 15: Border and trim patterns for Henna Tattoo designs can be either organic or geometric. I chose a small triangle pattern with an arched bottom line for my plaque.
Using a pencil and ruler mark a line 1/4″ from the outer edge of the plaque. This area will become the outer, un-burned margin along the plaques edge. Measure and mark a second line 1/2″ from the first margin line. This will be the burned border area. Measure and mark this area into 1/4″ segments.
In the first border segment pencil a line from the upper right corner to the lower left corner, cutting the segment along the diagonal. In the next segment make the diagonal line from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. This creates two of the three sides of your first triangle shape. Continue working across the border area until all of the triangle shapes are established.
Lay a small coin or bottle cap at the inner base of your triangle shape. Adjust the coin until it touches both legs of the triangle, then trace along the coin with your pencil. This creates quick, easy, and accurate arcs. Pencil mark a small circle on the inner border guideline, centered in the arc.
Burning the Border Step 16: I worked the upper triangle shapes with a lattice-work pattern. Begin by burning a fine line about 1/16″ from one side of the penciled guideline. Stop the line 1/16″ from the guideline at the bottom intersection point of the triangles. Repeat until you have worked four thin lines in the inner triangle.
Next, repeat the above step working from the opposite side of the inner triangle. This creates a crossed-line lattice. Use a touch-and-lift dot stroke at the intersection of each line in your lattice-work.
The outer or lower triangle has been shaded from a medium to pale tonal value, starting at the outer point of the triangle using a tightly packed scrubbie stroke. Outline the three sides of the triangle.
Using a touch-and-lift dot pattern make a medium-sized dot at the intersection of each triangle along the inner edge. Burn the circle that lies on the guideline to a medium tonal value. Touch-and-lift a small dot evenly spaced between these two dots.
Close-up of the Border Work Step 17: Here are the close-up photos for the border pencil lines and the burned triangle border work.
Finishing Step Step 18: Using a white artist eraser, work the eraser across the entire surface of your finished burning to remove any remaining tracing lines, pencil guides, and the normal dirt and oil accumulation that occurs during the burning process. A white eraser contains no dye that can permanently mark and mar your pyrography. Remove the eraser dust using a soft, clean cloth.
Pyrography can and does raise small wood fibers from the surface of your plaque as you work. Using a crumbled paper bag lightly sand over your plaque to remove these little fibers.
Sign and date your work. As a habit I sign my projects of the back of the plaque. Your work is ready for the finishing spray, sealer, or oil finish of your choice.
I started this project to answer the question “Why would I want a Walnut Hollow Detailer that has less power, reaches a lower temperature, and that is not temperature adjustable when I already have a Versa-Tool and several higher-end burning units?”
Many of us discovered pyrography when the only electric burning tool was a soldering iron. That one temperature tool had a permanently installed wedge shaped pen tip and when plugged into the wall socket reached a very high temperature just below 1000 degrees. The only control we had over our tonal values and burn lines was determined by how lightly we touched the tip to the wood, and how long we allowed the tip to stay in contact with the wood. For very pale tonal values you had to unplug the soldering iron, let it totally cool down, then you plugged it back into the electric strip and did your pale tones before the tip reached full temperature. Scorching and halos were simply part of any burn.
The Versa-Tool is a fantastic wood burner which I highly recommend. The inline rheostat allows you to control the temperature of your tool tip and gives you so much more control over your tonal values. It is a perfect entry-level wood burner at an extremely reasonable price that you will use throughout your pyrography hobby.
But, yes there is a but, the Versa-Tool is temperature set for multiple hobbies which include soldering, stencil cutting, hot-knife cutting. Because it is a cross-craft tool it has a high temperature range, near the 1000 degree mark, and you can experience both scorching and haloing even with careful attention to the rheostat setting.
My high-end burners – RazorTip, Colwood, and Optima – are also cross-craft temperature set with even a hotter capacity than the Versa-Tool. This type of burner uses a great deal of electric power, and I have watched as my high-end units tend to drop in temperature when the air conditioner or electric heat kicks on. My Optima has such a high range that I don’t think I have ever had mine set above a ‘6’ on a ’10’ dial. All of the above cross-craft styled tools can need a recovery time after you burn a long line or work to fill an area with a texture pattern.
When Walnut Hollow created the Detailer they had only one craftsman in mind – the pyrographer! This tool was made for us, and us alone! That 750 degree permanent temperature setting is just high enough to create clean, crisp black tones without scorching our wood, gourds, leather, or paper burnings.
It quickly hits its set temperature and holds that temperature throughout long burning sessions. Because of the lower temperature setting, I never had to pause to let the ball tip recover from a long line stroke or from fill stroke work. In fact, I never noticed any variation in the tip heat or in the tonal value of a burned line throughout this 6 hour pyro session.
Since Walnut Hollow really thought ahead, all of the interchangeable tips that you have for your Versa-Tool or even an older Walnut Hollow one-temperature soldering iron tool will fit and work wonderfully with your Detailer. So they are giving us the full range of burning pen tips that we love and use all the time.
“So why would I want a Walnut Hollow Detailer that has less power, reaches a lower temperature, and that is not temperature adjustable when I already have a Versa-Tool and several higher-end burning units?” Because it lives up to its advertising – “A perfect temperature for precision and detail” pyrography burnings.
Treat yourself today to a tool made to fit anyone’s budget and created with you, the pyrographer, in mind by visiting WalnutHollow.com. Oh, and while you are there get yourself a Versa-Tool! The Walnut Hollow Detailer and Versa-Tool are so reasonably price you can easily afford both.
Thanks for joining me in this Henna Moon Pyrography Project.
Disclaimer: I am not associated nor work for Walnut Hollow and have received no financial compensation for this review. All opinion expressed here are mine and based on my experience using this tool.
We are continuing the step by step instructions for this Henna Moon Pyrography Project and the test drive review of Walnut Hollow’s Woodburner Detailer.
Please click on any image in this post for a full-sized photo.
Our tracing pattern is the line art for just the outlines of each element in this Henna Moon design. During these steps we will work to fill each element and areas inside each element with Henna-styled details and patterns. You can re-burn the same line art outline time and time again, and create new projects by changing which pattern elements you fill with shading and which fill patterns or textures you use in each element.
Simple Shading in the Henna Flowers
Step 9: Henna tattoos often feature stylized flowers, detailed leaves, and repeat patterns of circles, arcs, or triangles. After the outline for each element is complete that element – flower, leaf, scroll – is detailed with small repeat patterns as spiral curls, wavy lines, lattice lines, and stems with bud dots.
I began the inner detailing of my henna tattoo elements by working the four large flowers that surround the Sun and Moon faces. Using a light pressure touch with the pen tip of my Walnut Hollow Detailer and a tightly packed scrubbie stroke I created a pale tonal value shading in the flower petals. That shading is placed at the bottom of each petal where it tucks under another petal. The outer edge area of each petal was left unshaded – unburned. This gives a white area to the upper petal and a dark area to the lower petal.
Note: Even when using simple shading I still want some areas left un-burned to become my white tonal value, some pale sepia tones, some medium tones, and some dark tonal values. In Henna Tattoos that pale and medium tones come from light pressure, fine line strokes. Deep mid-tones and blacks come from touch-and-lift dot stokes. The blackest tones are tightly packed touch-and-lift dots.
Line Detailing in the Sun Rays
Step 10: The outer ring of sun rays was worked in a simple long wavy line that followed the outline shape of one side of the ray. The sun rays that lie behind the upper curve of the moon are accented with small dots, worked along a diagonal line. This is just a touch-and-lift stroke with the ball tip of the Detailer.
Note: You can use just about any geometric pattern, line pattern, or texture fill stroke to create the detailing inside of your flowers, leaves, and scrolls in Henna Tattoos. So for each flower chose or create a new fill pattern, and use that pattern for each of the petals in the fill. Leaves, paisley-shapes, and scrolls can be either pattern filled or area where you wood burn a small flower and leaf motif.
Detailing the Sun Circles
Step 11: A stem-and-bud dot pattern was used in the inner row of Sun rays and a triangular pattern fills the circle that encompasses the Sun face.
Note: As I worked the Sun rays from the outside towards the inner ring near the face I packed my strokes tighter. I have not changed my temperature setting or how much pressure I am using on the pen. Adding more lines into an area darkens the tonal value appearance of that area.
Creating the Leaf Details
Step 12: The leaves of a Henna Tattoo are just as decorative as the flower petals or scrolls. One set of leaves uses a line stroke with a circular spot in the center. Another group of leaves has an inner outline with the outer border worked in parallel lines and the inner area in a small flower pattern.
Working the Lower Scroll Element
Step 13: I have added the shading and detailing to the lower scroll element by using a leaf and scallop design inside of the scroll.
Detailer Review: At this point in the burning I have worked for about three hours. The Detailer, throughout this entire time, has never skipped a beat. It has held a consist, constant, even temperature with each and every stroke. As you look at the close-up, below, you can see I still have no hot spots where one line intersects or turns and angle, I have no scorch marks, and my line work is the exact same tonal value throughout the stroke’s pull.
I will be posting the final steps to this project tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 30th. We will work the bottom accent elements, then create the pencil guidelines and burn the border trim. Plus tomorrow I will give you my final decision on how the Walnut Hollow Woodburner Detailer has preformed … but, I expect you already know I am totally delighted with its performance throughout this project.
PS – At this point, three hours in, I still have no carbon build-up on the ball tip of the Detailer and not one gray-black carbon smudge because of a dirty tip … big grin!!!!
