I use little bits and scraps of twine all the time in the studio. But after an hour of searching for my current twine ball I decided it was time to make something specific just to keep that bit of string easy to locate.
A few ovals as my guidelines, made with a #4 soft pencil, create my mouse’s face and ears. Working with my ball-tip pen and as hot a setting as the Walnut Hallow will take I began the burn. Paper, especially paper mache, needs a high setting to burn both the paper and the glue content of the mache.
White colored pencil highlights her eyes, nose, and a few of the long hairs inside her ears.
After the burn was complete I used my bench knife to cut a small 1/8″ diameter, hole just above her ear, through the heart box lid. Next, using my ball-tip pen on its highest setting I cleaned the sides of the hole by burning around the cut edge.
Now I grabbed a bamboo skewer that fits the hole I just created. I wrapped a 1/4″ ribbon into a bow around the skewer, added a little glue to just the ribbon, and drop the skewer into the box lid hole. The skewer holds the ribbon in place while the glue sets. While that is drying you can add a 1/2″ wide ribbon along the outside edge of the box lid to add a little more sparkle.
After the glue on your ribbon has dried, gently remove the skewer. Put your twine ball inside the box. Thread the edge of the twine through the box lid hole, leaving about a 6″ tail. Loosely tie the tail twine in a simple knot and move the knot against the box bow.
Your twine end will stay in place, and be ready to give you that next piece of twine scrap that you need.
What I have done is applied her great technique to our wood carving, wood burning, and gourd art paintings. Its so simple, but extremely effective. The smaller background fish has just the acrylic paints and the overlay larger fish has been enhanced with eye shadow make up.
After you have finished painting your wood project using acrylics or oil paints but before you have applied any finish or sealer, grab up some of your old eye shadow make up. You will also want several small clean, filbert-type brushes.
Pick up a little eye shadow color on your brush and gently rub the brush over the area that you want to shade or intensify the color. You can apply several coats and you can apply one color over another to create added color interest.
For my fish decoy I started with a dark purple eye shadow in the deep joint line between the fish’s body and his top fin. Dark blue eye shadow added depth to the v-gouge line that runs through the center of his body, and bright green was added under his eye to enhance that sparkle.
Deep purple and teal were worked along the joints of the fins with the body and along the bottom edge of his belly.
Because eye shadow is a powder it is easily blended with just a brush, adding gentle graduations of color. While I probably won’t paint an entire wood project just with eye shadows, they are perfect for brightening and strengthening your shadows and highlights without any brush strokes.
After you are done simple proceed onto your sealer and finishing steps!!!!
Tracing a Pattern There are several ways to transfer a pattern to a carving blank – carbon paper, graphite paper and pencil rubbing. All three products transfer a pattern to wood, but which you use is determines by the craft you are working.
Carbon paper Originally used to make multiple copies of a typed or written document, carbon paper comes in black or dark blue. Tracings made using this product have heavy, dark, bold lines. Carbon paper is perfect for transferring patterns for long-term projects, as the traced lines will not fade or rub off, even after many hours of carving work. However, carbon paper creates a traced line that can not be erased with an eraser, and often can not be removed with fine sandpaper. I use carbon paper with my wood carvings, but never with pyrography.
Graphite paper This paper is lightweight with a waxed graphite coating on one side, and comes in both pale gray and white. When tracing a pattern, the graphite side is placed against the wood, resulting in a tracing with medium-gray colored lines. Graphite paper is available in sheets as small 8 1/2″ x 11” (216 x 279mm) and as large as 48” x 96” (1219 x 2438mm), and also comes in rolls several yards long. Graphite paper can be used several times, so keep previously used pieces for later tracings. This product works well for both carving and wood burning.
Pencil Rubbing To use the pencil rubbing method for transferring a pattern, rub a soft #2 to #6 pencil over the back of your pattern paper. The higher the number of your pencil, the darker or blacker the rubbing will be. Then, place the pattern face up on your carving blank and begin tracing it. As you trace along the pattern lines, a thin, light gray coating of pencil will be left on the wood blank. Pencil rubbing lines can be erased using a white artist’s eraser, making it an excellent method for transferring patterns for carvings that will include some pyrography work. This is my favorite form of tracing as it is so easily removed after your pyrography or carving work is done.
Simple steps for tracing a pattern Tracing a pattern onto your carving blank is an important step; you want to make sure you center the pattern on the wood. Follow these steps to trace a pattern using graphite paper.
1 Gather your supplies. To transfer a pattern to your wood blank, you will need a copy of the pattern, carbon paper, an ink pen, a ruler, a T-square, and tape.
2 Mark the center of the blank. Using your ruler and T-square, mark the center of the carving blank using a horizontal center line and a vertical center line
3 Align the pattern with the center lines. Fold the copy of the pattern into quarters. Place the pattern on the blank, aligning the fold lines in the paper with the center lines drawn on the blank. Tape the pattern into place .
4 Adjust the pattern as needed to fit the shape of the wood. For our sample tracing the board has a curved top that affects the placement of the pattern. By sliding the design down along the vertical line the square pattern is now centered to the square area of the plaque.
5 Place the carbon paper, and trace. Mark any adjustments necessary on your pattern. Slide the carbon paper in place under the pattern paper, and trace along the outside lines of your grouped elements. Check your tracing before you remove the pattern and carbon paper to ensure you have transferred all the necessary pattern lines .
6 Create a border if desired. If you like, you can use a compass to create an outside border or margin line around the pattern .
7 Add in the details as you carve. As you progress through the carving stages, cut small pieces of your original pattern paper, secure them to your wood blank, and trace the fine line details to that roughly cut areas.
8 Print several copies of your pattern. As you work you will often find that your carving will cut away some areas of the traced pattern or that your burned shading will obscure some areas of your traced line. You can cut small sections of your extra pattern out from the larger design and spot trace as needed.
Altered Art is the fun of taking an item as an old book and re-purposing it as the base for your craft arts. The sample to the right is a pen and ink, pencil, and colored pencil drawing worked on the page of an old law dictionary.
A second interruption of altered art is when we cross-craft by combining multiple crafting skills to create a unique work. In this sample a relief carving becomes the base for decoupage, pen and ink designs, and even gold and copper gilding.
