This is a practice board burning using the same burn stroke patterns worked through each pen tip of my Creative Woodburner Tool.
The stroke styles are from left to right: fine lines, dot patterns, scrubbie patterns, and cross-hatching.
The tool tips used from top row to bottom row: loop tip, ball tip, spear shader, and spoon shader. My practice board is worked on 12” x 12” x 1/4” birch plywood and divided into 1” squares for each of the burned samples. I can refer to this board at any time during a burning session to determine which tool tip and which burning stroke will work best on my project.
Since my practice board is large in physical size I can experiment and explore new textures, burning strokes, and ways to treat my detailing before I actually do the work on the main project. I can practice and I can make mistakes as I learn without worry of damaging my primary work.
Tips comes in many shapes and bends from the tight bend used in the standard writing tips to half circles that can create fish scales and even square tubes that make a textured pattern on your board.
BASIC PEN
I use four basic tools throughout this book – the loop-tip, ball-tip, spear shader, and spoon shader. These are the four snap-in interchangeable tips that comes with the Walnut Hollow Creative Tool – shown below.
Each pen tip creates its own width and shape of line burn, and therefore is more suitable for specific textures. Thin edged spear or curved shader tip cut thin, deep lines. Loop and ball tip pens burn thick, shallow lines. A basic beginner’s set of tips may include a tightly bent loop writing tip , a ball point writing tip, a flat spoon-shaped shader, a curved-edge spear shader. These tips will burn any pattern or project in this e-book. Specialty tips can be added as you discover your style of burning.
INTERCHANGEABLE V. FIXED TIP PENS
Tip shapes and names vary, depending on the manufacturer of your burning unit and are often offered in several sizes. Please check the website for your unit for more specific tips that are available for your use. Variable temperature pens come in two varieties – fixed tip pens and interchangeable tip pens. A fixed tip pen has the burning wire permanently set in the pen. Some manufacturers create a interchangeable pen that allows different styles of tip to be inserted into the end of the pen.
All of my Optima 1 pens are fixed tip pens.
Interchangeable pens often allow you to purchase a wider variety of burning tips, a great advantage to the new pyrographer.
Each manufacturer creates their pens to specifically fit the electric voltage, wire, and connections used in their wood burning units. Although some manufacturers do sell conversion kits that allow you to use pens manufacturer by other companies on their units I do not recommend this practice.
Using another companies pens can void your warranty and can damage both your pens and your burning unit. When you purchase your variable temperature unit consider not only the power features of the unit but also the pen construction, how the pens connect to the unit, the guard grip construction, and the variety of tip profiles available for your unit.
The photo, above, shows five of my Colwood Detailer tips. The top three are permanent fixed tip pens while the bottom two are interchangeable tips.
We will take a closer look at the burn strokes each pen tip creates in just a few pages.
This free, online pyrography book will take you, step-by-step, through the basic techniques of pyrography, also called wood burning. Over the next few days it will be posted in the order of the Table of Contents below.
So, please bookmark LSIrish.com so that you can enjoy this free e-project and work along with me as we create a wood burning practice board, explore wood burning tools, pyrography tips, and do two complete Celtic Knot Pyrography burns.
Pyrography is the art of creating simple line designs, highly detailed renderings, and shaded drawings using a hot tipped pen on natural, wood or wood-like surfaces. As the hot tipped pen is pulled across the surface of the media the tip literally burns the media to create pale through dark tonal value lines. The pattern of lines and shading strokes that you use in your wood burning work determines the art style of the finished project. Any pattern can be worked in any art style or in a combination of styles.
SAFETY
Let’s take a moment and consider a few simple safety precautions. 1. Your project media should be an untreated, unpainted, and unfinished natural surface. Paints, polyurethane sealers, varnishes, and chemicals used in treating wood can release toxic fumes during the burning process. 2. Do an Internet search on the media that you will be burning to discover if it has any toxic properties, there are several excellent data bases available. 3. Work in a well ventilated area. A small fan, set on your table that points toward your work, will move the smoke and fume away from your face. Whenever possible work near an open window. 4. Avoid laying your project in your lap during the burning steps. This places your face directly above the fumes, which increases your chances of inhaling the smoke. 5. Unplug your burning unit from the wall socket whenever you are not working. An unattended hot pen tip can cause fires. 6. While working, set your pens either on the pen stand provided by the manufacturer or on a tile ceramic tile.
During this free, online pyrography project I will be using Walnut Hollow’s Creative Tool. Available on Amazon.com at under $100 USD. It is an excellent entry-level, variable temperature tool that comes with the four interchangeable tips – ball-tip, loop-tip, spear-shader, and spoon-shader.
COPYRIGHT Your First Pyrography Project, a free for personal use online publication, is an original work, first published in 2020 by Lora S. Irish and Art Designs Studio and fully copyrighted, All International Rights Reserved and may not be distributed in any manner. The patterns contained herein are copyrighted by the author. Readers may make copies of these patterns for personal use. The patterns themselves, however, are not to be duplicated for resale or distribution under any circumstances. Any such copying is a violation of copyright law.
To discover more line art patterns and detailed drawings to use with your next pyrography project visit us at Art Designs Studio, Lora S. Irish’s online original craft, carving, and pyrography pattern site. For free, online craft projects visit us at our blog, LSIrish.com.
Because making the artwork shown in this book using craft, woodworking, or other materials inherently includes the risk of injury and damage, this book can not guarantee that creating the projects in this book is safe for everyone. For this reason, this book is sold without warranties or guarantees, of any kind, expressed or implied, and the publisher and author disclaim any liability for any injuries, losses, or damages caused in any way by the content of this book or the reader’s use of the tools needed to complete the projects presented here. The publisher and the author urge all artist to thoroughly review each project and to understand the use of all tools before beginning any project.
This common question is very hard to answer because the tools and knives you may be using one year from now could well be very different than those that I suggest for a newbie carver.
Shown right is a set of spoon carving tools that include several sizes and profiles of round gouges.
If you are just starting wood carving I strongly suggest a simple set of carving tools. Sets are available in 6 to 12 tools, and often come with a storage box or cloth roll. Select a medium-sized tool profile set of 1/2″ wide or less that includes at least a straight chisel, skew chisel, large round gouge, small round gouge, and a v-gouge.
A mid-quality beginner’s tool set of five to six tools will cost between $40 to $75.
To this set add the best bench knife or large chip knife that you can afford. Your bench knife is your primary tool in carving and the better quality steel makes all the difference in how easy your carving flows through the cuts. A high-quality bench knife often runs around $35 to $60.
Interchangeable blade sets are also excellent for the new carve. As an example I use the FlexCut 11 piece Interchangeable set all the time for whittling, relief, and cane carving. This set has every tool profile that a new carver needs while keeps your initial costs low. I also have used the same Ramelson Beginner’s Set for nearly twenty years with great success.
You will also need a sharpening set to keep the edge of your new tools crisp. Sharpening tools can include ceramic stones, a leather strop, honing compound, and a slipstrop. Estimate another $50 to $75 for your sharpening set.
1. I don’t use any sets that are available from the large arts and crafts box stores. These sets are very inexpensive because they are not manufactured from high quality steel. Often they come un-sharpened or only partially sharpened, which means that you must conquer sharpening techniques before you ever put a knife into the wood.
2. I don’t recommend high-end, extra-high quality tools for a beginner. I know, those sets are just beyond beautiful and the very best you can buy. And I know that I just told you to buy the best bench knife you can afford … But … neither you nor I know whether you will love wood carving with the intensity that I do at this point in your new hobby. We also can not predict what style of carving you will finally chose.
These tools can be purchases after you discover that you are addicted to carving! You can purchase high-end tools individually which means you can add to you beginner’s set one tool at a time.
So, at this time, save that money to purchase wood.
3. While I do list utility knives as a possible starting tool kit I do not recommend them. Utility knives are made to be disposable and do not have the steel strength that true wood carving tools do. Utility knife blades can crack, split, and pop at any moment, and create a danger of injury.
Carving Styles
There are many different styles of wood carving and each has its own set of specialty tools. In the next year, as a new carver, I strongly recommend that you give all of these carving styles a try. Most long-time carvers work several different styles on a regular bases.
Whittling is often done with one medium-length bench knife or pocket knife. A few extra tools may be in your whittling kit and could include a small v-gouge, a small u-gouge, and perhaps a medium or large round gouge.
Chip Carving uses a set of three short blade knives, often set on a slight angle from the handle. I personally use a large chip carving knife as my primary bench knife.
Hardwood Old World style carving uses heavy handled, large bladed tools that are moved through the wood using a leather or wood mallet. The straight chisel, skew chisel, round gouge, and v-gouge are the main tools used.
3-D Carving uses a basic set of tools that include chisels, round gouges, v-gouges, and a pocket knife, bench knife, or utility knife.
Relief Carving uses a very similar set of tools to 3-D carving with the addition of bent-back gouges, dog-leg gouges, and the bull nose chisel.
Cane Carving, as relief and 3-D, uses a basic tool set with the inclusion of a draw knife, dowel sets, and clamps.
Power Carving is a style that uses rotary tools with diamond, steel, or ruby bits to do the basic work. A basic 3-D or Relief Carving set of tools is then used to dress out the carving.
This in-depth tutorial explores all the tools, knives, and carving aids that I have accumulated over twenty years of wood carving.
Some were inherited from my father, who was a gun stock carver. Some are sets that I have purchased and used over the years. Of course, some are just fun specialty tools that I have added to my kit.
While you may need to purchase your bench knife, chip knife, and carving tool set to begin your new hobby, many of the tools listed in this tutorial you may already own in your woodworking or craft supplies.
Browse through the tutorial, consider what you already have on hand, and then make your selection.
A selection of mix-and-match patterns offer suggestions for creating dozens of unique designs for spoons and other implements — forks, ladles, dippers, spatulas, knives, pie servers, and scoops. In addition to clear, detailed directions accompanied by helpful drawings, inspiring photographs illustrate decorative ideas for using the carved spoons in kitchen wreaths, centerpieces, and other ornaments
Doodle Days #13 – Blue Jean Painting, Wood Burn Spoons, Wood Carved Spoons, Leather Work, Free Lora S. Irish Patterns to Download, DIY Bookmaking, Bullet Journals, Scrap Booking, Card Making, Applique Quilting, Pyrography, Wood Carving
Painted Blue Jeans using our Free Doodle Patterns
Supplies:
1 pair of medium-blue blue jeans 1 cork-backed ruler 1-3 fine-point black fabric pens 1 set of 18 to 24 colors, medium-point fabric marking pens 1 set of assorted color fabric marking pens 1 piece of scrap cardboard, large enough to slide inside the pant’s leg steam iron
Step 1: Pre-wash your jeans to remove any starch or stabilizing chemicals. Dry the jeans thoroughly before you begin painting.
Step 2: Download your copies of our Free Doodle Patterns, here on LSIrish.com. Type doodles into the search box in the header. We are on numbers 043 to 045 today, which should give you a nice selection of designs to use.
Step 3: Cut the scrap cardboard to fit inside of the pant’s leg, so that one end of the cardboard comes out the pant’s leg at the bottom. You can move this cardboard as you work to protect the jeans from color blending through to the other side of the jeans.
Step 4: With a black fabric marking pen begin doodling … use a light pressure on the pen tip for the smoothest and fullest line coverage. Mix your main designs with long flowing line breaks and fill patterns.
Step 5: Use a cork-backed ruler, laid along the inner leg seam line for your measurements for the edge trim design. The cork will grab the fabric, keeping the ruler in place as you work. My inner leg trim was worked at 1/2″ measurements.
Step 6: Have fun adding colors to your design. Fill in some areas with a solid coloring, and in others just add a touch of line work. Let some areas remain unpainted to allow the blue jean color to become part of your design.
Step 7: Set your fabric pen colors according to your package directions. My set only required a hot, steam pressing to become permanent coloring.
Step 8: Flip your jeans over and do the back side of the leg.
Step 9: You can create doodle designs on the 6 1/2″ square white cotton fabric pieces using this same method and add them to your pants. Fill in some areas of your pattern with the bright colors from your set. After the patch has been hot, steam ironed it is ready to sew into place, anywhere on your doodle jeans.
What could be more perfect for our Free Doodle Patterns than a pair of blue jeans? How about the fact that I picked up these brand-new, never worn jeans at my local church thrift shop for $1 !
Doodle Days #13 – Blue Jean Painting, Wood Burn Spoons, Wood Carved Spoons, Leather Work, Free Lora S. Irish Patterns to Download, DIY Bookmaking, Bullet Journals, Scrap Booking, Card Making, Applique Quilting, Pyrography, Wood Carving
Why wear your slogan or favor designs on the sleeve of your t-shirt when you can paint them onto the legs of your favorite pair of blue jeans?
Supplies:
1 pair of pale-blue or medium-blue blue jeans 1 fine-point black fabric pen medium-point fabric marking pens – black, medium-blue, and pale-blue 1 set of assorted color fabric marking pens several 6 1/2″ squares of white cotton fabric needle and thread 1 piece of scrap cardboard, large enough to slide inside the pant’s leg steam iron
These are the specific sets of colors that I used to create my Painted Blue Jeans:
Step 1: Pre-wash your jeans to remove any starch or stabilizing chemicals. Dry the jeans thoroughly before you begin painting.
Step 2: Download your copies of our Free Doodle Patterns, here on LSIrish.com. Type doodles into the search box in the header. We are on numbers 040 to 042 today, which should give you a nice selection of designs to use.
Step 3: Cut the scrap cardboard to fit inside of the pant’s leg, so that one end of the cardboard comes out the pant’s leg at the bottom. You can move this cardboard as you work to protect the jeans from color blending through to the other side of the jeans.
Step 4: With a black fabric marking pen begin doodling … use a light pressure on the pen tip for the smoothest and fullest line coverage. Mix your main designs with long flowing line breaks and fill patterns.
Step 5: With the pale-blue fabric pen, fill the areas around your main designs with a tight dot pattern. Let the space between the dots increase as you move away from the central line of the design.
Step 6: With the medium-blue fabric pen, re-work the central area of the background with tightly packed dots.
Step 7: Using a fine-point black fabric pen, work a fill pattern over the pale-blue and medium-blue dot patterns. I used small, tightly packed circles.
Step 8: Set your fabric pen colors according to your package directions. My set only required a hot, steam pressing to become permanent coloring.
Step 9: Flip your jeans over and do the back side of the leg.
Step 10: You can create doodle designs on the 6 1/2″ square white cotton fabric pieces using this same method. Fill in some areas of your pattern with the bright colors from your set. After the patch has been hot, steam ironed it is ready to sew into place, anywhere on your doodle jeans.
For more great pattern ideas for your painted blue jeans, please visit ArtDesignsStudio.com
This wind chimes will add a touch of country delight to your back porch. Its quick, easy, and fun to make a large set using graduated sizes of clay pots.
Step 1: Download your free doodle patterns, here at LSIrish.com. To discover more free patterns type doodle into the search box in the header of this page.
Step 2: Using a fine-point permanent marking pen, doodle around the lower section of the outside of your clay pot. For contrast, leave the rim of the pot without decoration. Work over some of your pattern lines several times to create a thick-and-thin outline effect.
Step 3: Wrap the thin twin around the bottom edge of the rim three times. Tie the twine tightly. Use a few drops of acrylic glue to hold the knot and twine into place. Allow the glue to dry.
Step 4: Cut a 2 yard long piece of thin twine. Thread the three gold-colored bells onto the thread, and move them to the center point of the thread. Bring the two ends of the thread together, tie a knot with the two threads about 1 1/2″ above the bells.
Step 5: Slide one 3/4″ twine bead onto the two threads and position the bead above the knot made in step 4. Tie a knot in the threads that sits on top of the bead.
This wind chimes follows the same step-by-step instructions as our Doodle Wind Chimes. The free doodles where printed on card stock paper, cut, and double-stick taped into place. This is a quick wedding decoration.
Step 6: Tie the two twine threads into a third knot the height of your clay pot away from the top of the bead. If your clay pot is 3 1/2″ tall, this third knot is made 3 1/2″ away from the bead.
Step 7: Cut two 1 1/4″ long pieces from the bamboo kitchen skewer. Tie one piece with a knot tightly above the third knot. Slide the twine, from the inside to the outside, through the hole in the bottom of the clay pot. Lay the second bamboo piece between the two twine ends, on the bottom of the pot, and secure with a tight knot. These two bamboo sticks hold the bell clapper in place.
Step 8: Hold one end of the burlap ribbon between your thumb and the side of your palm. Open your fingers as wide as possible. Wrap the ribbon over your fingers four to five times, leaving at least a 4″ long end.
Step 9: Carefully remove the wrapped burlap ribbon from your hand and place it, centered, between the two twine threads. Tie a tight knot in the twine to secure the burlap ribbons.
Step 10: Tie a knot in the twine threads 4″ to 5″ from what is now the top of your wind chime. Clip the ends to about 1/2″ long.
Step 11: Working one burlap ribbon loop at a time, turn each loop inside-out. This gives your ribbon that lovely curl.
Step 12: Use gold glitter glue to add little dots of bright, sparkling accents to your doodle pattern. Allow the glue to dry thoroughly, and your wind chime is ready to hang.
Artist morgue files are more than just a pile of pattern ideas. Your morgue file is a great place to keep those project ideas that catch your interest.
DIY Gift Pin Cushion Project
Supplies:
a ball of scrap yarn a 3 /12″ clay flower-pot 2 yards of burlap twine acrylic glue 6 rubber bands assorted marking pens assorted glitter gel pens.
Instead of hot glue or white glue, we will be using the rubber bands around the yarn ball to hold the yarn in place against the inside wall of the clay pot. This secures the yarn tightly into the pot, yet allows you to remove and replace the yarn ball if necessary.
For more free LSIrish.com Doodle Patterns type ‘doodle’ into the search box in the header of this page.
Step 1: Using a fine point permanent marking pen, doodle assorted designs onto the lower section of your clay pot.
Step 2: Accent the doodle designs with colored marking pens and with glitter gel pens. Allow the gel pen work to dry for about 10 minutes before you move to the next step.
Step 3: Wrap the burlap twine around the underside of the clay pot rim three times. Tie the ends into a bow and clip the ends to about 2″ long. Use several drops of acrylic glue to secure the bow and to hold the twine to the pot. Allow to dry.
Step 4: Grab those little bits of scrap yarn that you have been saving. Wrap the yarn into a semi-tight ball … tighter than you would normally wrap for knitting or crochet, but not so tight that the ball becomes excessively hard. You want your yarn ball about 1/2″ wider in diameter than the opening of your clay pot. Tie off the end of the yarn.
Step 5: Place five to six rubber bands around the center of your yarn ball. Slid the yarn ball into the top of your clay pot so that the rubber bands are about 1/2″ below the pot rim. Tuck in any loose yarn loops with your scissors.
Step 6: Your loose straight pins, needles, and safety pins will sit nicely in the yarn ball, while your doodling will add a little sparkle and decoration to your sewing table.
Step 7: Make another one for your favorite sewing friend!