Whether you are a wood carver, a pyrographer, or a gourd artist eventually you will be using color. Color is part of everything we see and understanding how color works – the basics to color theory – insures that your project is vibrant, vivid, and bold each and every time.
Over the next few days we will focus on how the eye sees color v. how the eye sees shadows and light, primary colors v. complimentary colors, and color combinations that create intense skin tones.
So, grab your freebie now and have fun reading through the basics. Tomorrow we will start a fun, step-by-step Mystic Shaman portrait!
To often I am so serious about our pyrography work, carefully planning each layer of burning, examining every stroke for even thickness and tonal value, trying to create as perfect as possible a realistic reproduction.
But once in a while I just ‘wanna have fun’. And this is the perfect, just have fun project. Because this was created as a text run for my new book, The Art of Leather Burning, I wasn’t concerned about absolutely matching ever corner or seam, or carefully measuring the distance between every stitching awl hole, or even about how the fill patterns I chose matched the ones I had already burned. The entire idea behind this leather burned purse was to just see what I could do, and how I could do it.
I am a strong advocate of practice boards. Usually this is a small scrap of the same material from which you will work your main project upon which you can experiment with your temperature settings, pen tips, and fill patterns.
Well, this time, when I began my work with pyrography on leather, my practice board got a touch out of hand. I began my text project with a 10 lb. scrap bag of vegetable-dyed leather from Springfield Leather Co. which contained a variety of weights, textures, and species of leather pieces.
What came out of this practice session was a Greenman Slop Bag! This rough and rugged purse measures 7 1/2″ high, 9 1/2″ wide, and 2 3/4″ thick. The front of my purse has a double pocket and the back has one large pocket with a hidden pocket inside of it. Its constructed using an awl to create the stitching holes and the simple double-needle stitching pattern.
I’m not done with this purse yet. To date I have only gotten the front flap, top roll over, and front of the purse body burned. So I still have the entire back, the sides, and the should strap on which to play, and experiment with more fill textures, shading ideas, and even miniature patterns.
Play, practice, experiment, and create … that is our goal!
Legendary wood and leather crafter Lora Susan Irish focuses solely on leather pyrography techniques and projects for the first time in this book. She presents instructions for a dozen easy-to-make projects, including jewelry, wallets, journals, and belts, in a spectacular array of patterns ranging from American West and Celtic motifs to wildlife and tattoo-inspired imagery. The completed projects are perfect for gift-giving or personal use.
Moving from tools and supplies to pyrography and leather crafting basics; pattern techniques; leather selection; and the projects themselves, the book includes detailed, step-by-step directions with full-color photographs. Sidebars and tips offer helpful hints. This invaluable guide is ideal for experienced crafters as well as those who wish to acquire leather-crafting and leather-burning skills.
One of those wonderful boxes arrived in the studio this week containing my newest book – The Art of Leather Burning.
See me jumping up and down, screaming with delight!!! This year we, Michael and I, celebrate our 20th year on the web, our 20th year of sharing our love for the crafts with you, and my 20th year as a carving, pyrography, and craft book author! This new book, number 28, is just the icing on the cake for us. For the complete listing, please visit our Books page.
FREE PATTERN PACK ALERT!
Try it before you buy it! Enjoy this free pattern pack from our wood carving, pyrography, and craft patterns website, ArtDesignsStudio.com
Since Mike and I came to the web in 1997 I have posted a free, online, step-by-step seminar each year. Many of those seminars are posted right here on our blog at LSIrish.com, and some were posted to other wood carving, wood burning community forums. I thought you would enjoy a list with links to some of our favorite past projects.
Whittle Tiki Chess Set – Wood Carving This beginner’s wood carving project will guide you through the cutting strokes that create those wonderfully expressive Tiki faces. Includes the free patterns to make your own chess set.
Basics to Painting – Painting your Wood Carving and Wood Burning Have fun exploring the numerous techniques you can use to add coloring to your wood burnings, wood carvings, and scroll saw projects.
Postage Stamp Pyrography – Pyrography and wood burning Have a little fun tonight working through how easy it is to wood burning Celtic interlocking lines and knots.
Relief Canada Goose Carving Seminar – Relief wood carving, pyrography, and painting Explore the basic techniques used in relief wood carving, including working in layers and levels, undercutting, and smoothing the background. Then add fine detailing using your wood burning tool. Finish this step-by-step project by creating realistic coloring using the dry brushing technique.
Whittle Fish Seminar – Wood carving Ice fishing decoys are quick, easy, and extremely fun to carve. All you need is a bench knife, a few pieces of basswood, some scrap leather or copper sheeting, and some imagination. Since these are primitive art, anything goes when carving fish decoys.
Chip Carving Seminar – Chip Carving, wood carving Chip carving is a specialty area in wood carving. With the use of a short-bladed chip carving knife, small triangular cuts create intrigue motifs and designs. Includes a full-sized sampler pattern.
Celtic Dragon Plaque – Relief wood carving This is an entry-level carving project for both relief carving and for working the interlocking patterns of the Celtic Knot
Wood Spirit Carving – Wood carving, cane and walking stick carving Carving a human face into your next walking stick or cane is quite easy when you follow the step-by-step cuts shown in Carving the Planes of the Human Face.
Twistie Snake Carving – Wood carving, cane and walking stick carving Not all of us are blessed to have a backyard wood lot where we can cultivate sassafras trees and honeysuckle vines for twistie stick canes. So in this in-depth tutorial learn how to carve that twisted stick pattern using a bench knife, a few small gouges, and basswood.
Pyrography Doodles – Pyrography and wood burning If you have the burning desire to try your hand at the zen doodle craze or modern tribal tattoo look, you will want to read through this step-by-step wood burning project that uses textures, line designs, and fill patterns to create the finished mushroom design.
Pyrography Steps to Portrait Burning – Wood burning and pyrography Learn how to create realistic shadows and highlights in the human face in your next wood burning project.
Cougar Pyrography Project – Wood burning and pyrography Learn how to create the fine fur in an animal portrait that incorporates realistic shading and shape to the animal’s face.
Ceremonial Mask Pyrography – Pyrography and wood burning This step-by-step project uses lots and lots of photos to guide you through an in-depth design created for first-time wood burners.
Pyrography Leather Burning – Leather burning and leather pyrography Want to try your hand at leather burning? Then this tutorial is just what you are looking for. Includes not only the step-by-step photo instructions but also includes the binding steps for making your own leather artist journal.
Cross-Crafting Seminar Introduction – Step by Step Instructions for your first wooden spoon carving from scroll saw cutting to adding the oil finish
Please note that you will need to sign-up as a member of these forums to have access to the photos included in each of the tutorials.
If you have questions about these projects please contact me directly, here at LSIrish.com or on my Facebook account, as I can not reply to you on this forum. If you do reply of any of these free tutorial, it will bring these threads to the front of the message board where other members may answer you.
Relief Carving Wood Spirit Grape Man WIP – Over 250 detailed, close-up photos with step-by-step instructions of relief carving the wood spirit, green man face. This thread has had over 69,000 views!
Levels in Relief – Learn how to break you carving pattern into levels for easy carving. This project will teach you how to identify the sky, background, mid-ground, and foreground of any design.
Burning your carvings – Pyrography can be an important technique for your wood carving. So learn how to use your wood burner to clean-up fine wood fibers, add detailing, and even add fine shaping to your next wood carving project.
African Mask Low Relief Carving – The African Mask project focuses on how to establish the levels of a relief wood carving during the rough-out stage of work.
Irish Pyrography Seminar – This in-depth pyrography project shows over 250 detailed, close-up photos, step-by-step instructions, and in-depth explanations of texturing, shadings, and fine line work used to create the Advertising Barn landscape.
Walnut Hollow Versa-Tool – Looking for that first wood burning tool, then take a few moments and read through this tutorial for an in-depth review of the Walnut Hollow Versa-Tool used to wood burn a Toucan Family.
Winter Birdhouse Wood Burning Tutorial – This in-depth, step-by-step project focuses on a winter bird house wood burning scene. The project takes you from the initial tracing of the design to the final coloring steps.
