pyrography

Toxicity in Pyrography

Toxicity of Wood Burning and Wood Carving Media

Pyrography, Woodcarving / By

Sara emailed me yesterday with a great question about wood and finish toxicity in pyrography.  So I am postponing the next posting for Shadows and Light until tomorrow as I think her question needs to be answered for all of us.

Before we begin please know that I am not a chemist, nor an expert in toxicity of any particular product.  What I can offer is general, common sense ideas that will help you avoid some of the possible health hazards that are possible in our crafts.

If you are having problems breathing, have developed a rash, or have a burning sensation on your skin or around your nose, mouth, or eyes – call your doctor immediately!

Our two favorite crafts – wood carving and wood burning – bring with them some safety and toxicity concerns.  Every aspect of our crafts also can have hazards that can affect our hands, eyes, and lungs.  Below is a listing of links that will get you specific information about wood species, finishes, and chemicals, plus the link to two Poison Control centers.  Please take time to browse through these links and bookmark them in your browser for future reference.

Which surfaces are safer than other surfaces to burn is just the first consideration of many when it comes to health hazards with any hobby.  Let’s look a few safety precautions that you can take to reduce or avoid the problems of toxicity and irritants that can come with wood burning.  Safety falls into four general categories – media, ventilation, handling, and chemical finishes.

Birch, Basswood, and Poplar Pyrography Surfaces

The three most common woods for pyrography are basswood, birch, and poplar.  All three have low toxicity levels but can cause some hand or eye irritation when handled.  Birch and poplar plywood are also common burning surfaces. These three woods are tight grained and carry minimal sap content, and so create a minor amounts of fumes during the pyrography.  Pine is a common pyrography wood, but is a high sap content wood.  As you work pine you will notice that it does create a large amount of fumes.

Extremely hot, intense burnings can burn through the veneer layer of the plywood into the glue layer below, releasing the fumes from glue.  All three of our favorite woods do require some sanding before you begin your project, and therefore release dust into your work area and can cause some lung irritation.

1.  Chose clean, dry known species woods for your wood burning projects.

2.  Check the wood species toxicity lists shown in the links below before you begin your project.

3.  Even low toxicity woods can cause health issues for some people.  Watch for runny or stuffy noses, a burning sensation around the nose or mouth, extra dry or scratchy hands, and any problems breathing. If you develop any of these symptoms while working with any wood burning surface stop immediately and contact your doctor.

Unknown, Reclaimed, or Found Wood Pyrography Surfaces

As you browse through the links below you will discover that many woods, fresh and clean from the sawmill, have medium to high toxicity levels.  If you do not know the exact species of the wood you want to burn you have no way to check in advance whether you will be working a low-level or high level wood.  Unknown woods carry with them unknown hazards.

Reclaimed wood carries other hazards beyond the known toxicity levels of the wood, often carrying fungus, molds, and accumulated dust that develops from long-term or outdoor storage.  Further, wood taken from unknown sources as old barn siding or from older furniture can have chemical coatings or paint left from it original form.  Insect infestations is also common with reclaimed wood.

Pallet wood has become popular as a reclaimed wood for woodworking projects – unknown species, mold and fungus, and the possibility of chemical content.  Pallets are created from subprime quality wood scraps or from ‘trash’ wood that is not high enough quality to become building or furniture lumber.  In the US pallets are marked or stamped to note any chemical treatment or processes – please see the link below before you begin any pallet wood project.

1.  Avoid burning any wood that you can not positively identify.

2. Avoid burning any wood that may have had chemical, oil, or paint finishes.  When you burn something that once had a layer of varnish on the surface you will be releasing fumes from the accumulated dust and dirt, the varnish, and the wood.

3.  Avoid burning any wood that has been water damaged, or has developed mold, fungus, or dust accumulation.

3.  Save those wonderful free reclaimed pallets for your woodworking projects, and even then be sure to follow basic safety precautions.

Gourds as a Pyrography Surface

Gourds are just stunning surfaces for our wood burning and create minimal fumes during the pyrography process.  But preparing the gourds for work does carry health hazards.  If you purchase uncleaned, dried gourds they will have an outer layer of dried skin that is often covered with mold and fungus that must be removed.  Cleaned, dried gourds have this outer layer removed, revealing the wood-like surface of the gourd.

The inside of the gourd also has mold, mildew, fungus, and heavy concentrations of dust for the dried fibers that can cause lung, eye, and hand irritation.

1.  Wear a dust mask during the preparation steps when working with gourds – cleaning, cutting, and sanding steps.

2. Wash the outside of your gourd in hot water and dish washing soap before you begin any project steps to remove all dust or potential mold and fungus spores.

3. Do any cutting and sanding outside if possible or in a well ventilated area.  Wear your dust mask, and you make wish to wear latex gloves.

4.  Once the gourd is cut you can fill the inside of the gourd with a solution of water and Clorox before you begin cleaning out the seeds and fibers.  The clorox will kill any spores from the mold or fungus as well as wet the fibers to reduce the dust potential.  Let the Clorox solution sit inside the gourd for about ten minutes, drain, rinse, then begin your cleaning steps.  You can re-wet the inside of the gourd as needed.

5. Wash your hands often while preparing your gourd to remove any dust from your fingers.

Leather, Watercolor Paper, and Paper Mache Surfaces for Pyrography

All three of the above medias are chemically treated.  Leather can be chemically tanned, dyed, or waterproofed.  Use vegetable-tanned, undyed leather only for wood burning.  Purchase your vegetable-tanned leather from a craft or leather working source.  Avoid using reclaimed leather products as old purses, coats, or overnight bags.  There are many new materials used in hand bag and coat manufacturing that look exactly like leather but are synthetic plastics that should not be burned.

Watercolor paper and paper mache have chemical binders that hold the wood pulp in a sheet or in a shape.  These seldom cause health problems or skin irritation, but know that they are there in case you have a reaction.

Common Sense Safety in the Pyrography Art Studio and the Wood Carving Shop

1. Work in a well ventilated area.  Crack a window at least a few inches to allow air movement.

2.  Place a small work area fan behind you on a stool or small table.  Set the fan on low and point the fan to move from behind you into your work area to move the fumes away from your face.

3.  Work in an upright posture.  Avoid leaning over the pyrography project where you will directly inhale fumes.

4.  Wash your hands often to avoid dust or dirt build-up from your pyro project.

5.  Wear a dust mask when sanding any surface.  You can also wear latex gloves while sanding.

6.  Place an old terry-cloth towel on your work surface while sanding.  The dust will collect in the fibers of the towel.  When you are finished sanding, roll the towel up and throw it in the washing machine to remove that dust from your work area.

7.  Don’t dust with a brush.  Wipe with a lightly damp cloth.  Dusting with a brush only move the dust from your burning surface into the air where you will breathe it into your lungs.

8.  Don’t burn anything – no matter how wonderful a shape or surface it is – that may have been chemically treated, painted, varnished, or paint remover striped.  Those chemicals are still there in the wood grain and will become toxic fumes as you burn.

9.  Don’t burn any unknown, reclaimed, or long stored woods that may have chemicals, paints, or dust accumulation.

10.  Avoid extreme hot temperature burnings on any surface that may contain binders, glue, or chemicals as paper mache or plywood.

11. If you think you might be having a toxic reaction at any point in your work – Stop! Call your doctor!

12.  Read the directions and safety precautions that are listed on your finishes, sealers, polyurethane, paints, and any other chemicals that your may be using.

Follow these simple, common sense precautions in your shop and you will enjoy years and years of safe, fun pyrography!

American Association of Poison Control Centers
U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources

Wood Species Toxicity Links:

The Wood Database
Toxic Woods – HSC Information Sheet
American Wood Turner posting by Bruce Taylor

Chemically Treated Wood Toxicity:

Wood Preservatives and Treated Wood – Hazards and Alternatives
How to determine if a wood pallet is safe for use
How to Know If A Pallet Is Safe to Use

Common Toxic Chemicals and Finishes:

Environmentally Sound Finishes
Wood Toxicity and How to Protect Yourself
Paint, lacquer, and varnish remover poisoning
Choose Environmentally Safe Varnish: Consider an Oil-Based Varnish

Toxicity in Craft Gourds:

Gourd Safety

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Color, shadow, and light in pyrography projects

Color, Shadow and Light in Pyrography

Pyrography Basics / By

Lora Irish Pyrography, Derringer PatternLet’s take a close look at how your photographs can be used for your next pyrography project, and how the color, shadow, and light of  those photos affect the tonal values of your wood burning.  Today we will start by defining the important terms that are used in describing light, shadows, colors, arrangements, and designs that we use in wood burning.

Shadow and Light in Pyrography Photos – Day 1
Shadow and Light in Pyrography Photos – Day 2
Shadow and Light in Pyrography Photos – Day 3
Shadow and Light in Pyrography Photos – Day 4

INTRODUCTION
As pyrographers we often use photographs as the base for our wood burning projects. Home photos of family and friends, a landscape photo of an old hip roof barn, and pets playing with their favorite toy are all possibilities for a realistic, finely shaded pyro burn.

Today’s digital cameras makes using photographs even easier as your image can quickly be uploaded to your home computer for instant printing.

Although a photograph accurately captures the scene or still life our eye does not necessary see what that photo truly caught.

During this tutorial we will look at how the human eye sees, how the brain interrupts the information from the eye, how color and gray-scale effect visual impact, and how you can learn to use this knowledge to create strong, bold, realistic pyrography images.

shadow_002FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The brightly colored silk daisies grab the attention in the photo and are complimented by the ruby-red base to the antique oil lamp. Shades of golden-yellow are found in the dried leaves, left, the golden orange background daisy, and in the oak basket. Mossy green flows through the central elements of the dried leaves, upper oil lamp base, and in the silk leaves in the basket. Overall this still life has a nice triangular layout with bold dark shadows along the floor of the elements.

 

 

 

Color, shadow, and light in pyrography projectsIt seems a perfect photo for the base of a pyro project until you gray-scale the image. Suddenly those bright orange and yellow flowers disappear into the background area. What appeared to be a bright highlighted area on the oak basket is now a dull mid-tone value. There are very few white highlights.

The flowers on the floor of the still life have little definition between one flower and another as all have taken one the same tonal value. This is also occurs in the basket flowers.  The gray-scale of the flowers nearly matches the gray-scale tones of the background behind the flowers.

Having gray scaled the photo we discover that it was the hue – the pure colors – of the photo that carried the visual impact.  Without the color hues the flower tonal values disappear into the background tonal values.

As we work through this tutorial we will take an in-depth look at why this bright, colorful still life is not suitable as a sepia toned pyrography painting.

 

Using photographs for your pyrography projectsA VERY SIMPLE DRAWING
As you look at the photo and colored pencil drawing to the left you may see a common tomato, unremarkable, and not something that you might choose as the base for your next pyro project. Yet, this simple tomato holds a fast amount of information on how your eye sees an object, how light effects the tonal value of that object, and how color and shadow interact to create an image.

In this tutorial you will explore the differences between color and tonal value; direct and reflected light, cast and reflected shadows; and how to put those aspects to use in your wood burning. This tutorial will focus on the colors, gray-scale tones, and sepia tones found in photographs and colors.

TERMINOLOGY

color wheelCast shadow – a shadow created because an object blocks the area from the light source
Contour – the curvature of a shape
Gray scale – a tonal value scale worked from white to black
Highlight – an area of direct sunlight
Hue – pure color, as red or blue, without white, gray, or black tones
Primary color – red, blue, and yellow; colors that can not be created by mixing other colors
Profile – the outline of a shape
Reflected light – a highlight created from light that has bounced off another surface
Reflected shadow – a shadow that has bounced off one surface onto the main object
Secondary colors – colors created by mixing two equal parts of two primary colors
Sepia scale – a tonal value scale worked in shades of brown
Tertiary colors – colors created by mixing two parts of one primary with one part of another
Tonal value – the amount of white, black, or gray contained in a color tone
Tones – a color with white, black, or gray added

EXPLORING THE BASICS OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPH

Foreground, mid-ground, and background boundary linesAny pyrography pattern, design, or photo will hold eight basic ingredients – form, arrangement, depth, texture, color, light, shadows, and focal points.

Form – the basic shape of each element within the design.  For this photo we have the shape of the flowers, the shape of the flower centers, the shape of the lamp, the shape of the basket, and the shape of the dark shadows on the floor of the layout.

 

 

 

Basic arrangement boundary lines in a photograph for pyrographyArrangement – this describes the boundary lines that hold the main elements of the design.  For our photo the elements can be captured in a triangle, making this a triangular arrangement.  The elements in this photo can be contained in a large triangle that starts on the left at the tip of the most extended leaf, to the top edge of the glass globe, and then to the blackest shadow point behind the basket.

Texture – the physical characteristics of the surface of each element – the weave of the basket reeds, the ribbing in the flower petals, and the smoothness of the glass globe.

 

 

 

Foreground, mid-ground, and background boundary linesDepth – includes the air space behind the elements, the elements that are deepest in the layout – background elements shown in the deep gray boundary lines, the elements that fall in the middle of the designs – the mid-range elements shown in the light gray boundary lines, and the elements that are in the front area of the design – the foreground shown in the white boundary lines.

 

 

 

 

Color arrangements in photos for pyrographyColor – the hues of each element – red, blue, or yellow primary colors.  Colors can create their own boundary or arrangement lines within your photo as shown in the rectangular arrangement of the red tones of this photo.

 

 

 

 

 

highlights and light reflection in pyrographyLight – those areas that are directly hit by your light source – the bright and mid-tone whites of your wood burning.  Highlights can fall at any depth in your designs.  In the photo the brightest highlight falls on the glass globe which is in the background depth area of the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

Shadows in a pyrography wood burningShadows – this describes the darkest tonal values of the wood burning that are created because those areas are blocked from direct light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

focal points in a pyrography designFocal Points – a focal point is the area of the design that first catches your attention.  There can be multiple focal points in any design, with one dominate point and other minor points.    The focal point of our practice photo is the bright white highlight that falls on the chimney of the lamp. It becomes the focal point because it is the brightest, purest color in the photo, because it falls in the center of the arrangement boundary triangle, and because it falls on top line of the color boundary.

 

Tomorrow we will work through the color wheel, color groups, highlights, reflected highlights, cast shadows, reflected shadows, and contour tonal values … see you then!

 

 

Great Book of Woodburning by Lora S IrishLora is the author of the Great Book of Wood Burning,
available at Amazon.com. For more great craft books by
Lora Irish, please visit our Book Gallery.

 

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Mule Deer Wood Carving Relief Project

Uncategorized, Woodcarving / By

The complete Mule Deer Wood Carving Relief Project, with the step by step instructions, free patterns, and painting steps is now posted here on LSIrish.com.  Please drop me an email if you have any questions, or feedback on this in-depth free project by clicking of the Contact Us link in the top right ofthe nav bar.

How to dry brush paint a relief wood carving

 

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mallard duck wood burning

Fading Wood Burnings

Pyrography Basics / By

Country Church Wood BurningWith time and age your wood burning and pyrography designs appear to fade into the wood, losing those sharp, dramatic contrasts and very pale tonal values.  Recently, while cleaning our studio, I came across several of my very first wood burned projects, which are perfect examples of how as wood ages it develops a distinct patina which directly affects to look of our wood burning tonal values.

This Country Church, right, was burned in 2004 for the Great Book of Woodburning.  It is worked on birch plywood using a variable temperature burning unit and a looped tip pen.  The image that you see is from the original scan made for this book.

Notice how clean and white the background wood appears.  The burning shows as a neutral dark brown to pale beige hue, and there is a wide range of tonal values throughout the burning.

Country Church Pyrography ProjectHere is a scan, made this morning, of the same wood burning, ten years later.    The birch has taken on a rich pale red hue and a darker tonal value in the grain lines.   With age and time, wood naturally darkens in tonal value, and the results of that darkening process is called patina.

When the wood grain is exposed to air the wood literally begins to rust through oxidation.  The minerals in the natural oils and sap begin to darken into deep orange, red, and rust tones, changing the coloring of both your wood and your wood burning.

In the 2014 scan of this Country Church pyrography you can see the red tones of the oxidized patina.  Because that patina is behind the burned lines and shading of the pyrography work, the burned  design has also taken on a reddish tone.

Since all of us wish for our pyrography projects to last the test of time, at the very start of your next project you need to consider and adjust for the patina that your wood will develop in the years to come.  Sugar pine will darken to a deep, rich orange coloring.  Your fresh white basswood will move into the yellow-beige tones, and the neutral beige of your birch will become a medium rusty-red with time.  Poplar can move into golden-yellow hues and a freshly cut piece of pink-beige mahogany can become almost black-red within a decade or two.

By knowing what patina color your wood will finally develop, you can plan ahead to work your tonal values in the darker ranges to adjust for aging.  You may also need to adjust your pale tonal values.  Notice in the two images, right, that the fine grass in the foreground, just below the church door is beginning to disappear.  The original temperature setting for this grass created a pale burn line that now is close to the patina tonal values of the wood.

Country Church wood burning projectWhile the two burned images, above, may not seem that dramatic, when I do a side-by-side comparison of the ten-year old Country Church burning against a new, fresh piece of birch plywood you can see it’s not the burning that has faded but the wood that has darkened.

You can not avoid a wood developing a darker patina with time, but you can delay it.  Which wood finish you use can change the coloring of the wood.  Oil finishes and some varnishes create a pale yellow cast, polyurethane and acrylic sealers then to be very clear.  Use a sealer that has UV light protection.

Do not hang or display your finished projects in direct sunlight, nor directly near a heat source as the furnace vent or under a high wattage lamp.

Normal accumulation of dirt and oil can added to the effects of aging.  Lightly wash the surface of your projects with a damp, slightly soapy cloth, then rinse with a lightly dampened cloth.  For heavy dirt use Murphy’s Oil Soap.  It’s excellent for both wood burnings and wood carvings.

 

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Color Chart for LSIrish.com

Drawing and Painting / By

Mike A.,  Hooker green is equal to the phthalo green shown in the left column, second grouping.  A medium red-brown earthtone is equal to the venetian red, right column, third section!

Mike A. and his wood carving club are currently working as a group through our Canada Goose Relief Wood Carving Project – a great step-by-step project for any beginning wood carver.  He sent an email yesterday asking several questions on the paint colors used in this tutorial.  So, I am posting my favorite color chart guide here on our blog for Mike.

The chart is grouped into several areas for easy reference.

Left hand column, top shows the basic gray tones for neutral shading.  French gray tends towards a beige-gray or brown-gray coloring, and Paynes gray tends towards a glue-gray or gunmetal tone.  The second group shows the dark color tones used in colored pencil work for complimentary shading, where the compliment of the final color of an area is used to create the shadow tones.  The third section is my favorite graduated colorings for yellow.  The bottom group in the left hand column shows my skin tone colors.

In the right hand column, the top section shows my muted tone shading colors.  The remaining sections show my chosen graduated tones for pink, red, purple, blue, and green.

Every paint, pencil, and pastel company has their own unique names for their colors. I would recommend that you keep a copy of this painting guide on your computer.  You can print a copy, then write the manufacturer’s names of the paints you already own beside the matching color swatch.

To learn more about working with colors – hues, compliments, tones, and values – please visit our tutorial Who is R.G. Biv?  For working with watercolors for your pyrography projects, please see Watercolors and Wood Burning.  For more information on how to paint your wood carvings, you will want to take time reading our Painting Your Wood Carving tutorial.

Click on the color reference chart for a full-sized image.  Right hand click to save to your Desktop.

Lora Irish color chart

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