My eldest’s favorite shirt is a Medusa print t-shirt her Aunt gave her around four years ago. We recently bought her a second one, since the first image was wearing away, but she still wears the first one, and it has become creepy cool the way the print has worn off.
We bought the new shirt here (so I have a reference when I need to rebuy it in another four years.)
Sourdough baking presents me with a different kind of blank canvas: the smooth surface of dough, with the lame blade as my brush.
Sourdough is scored to give the bread room to rise in the oven, and there are some amazing bakers doing intricate and beautiful cut designs that utilize different depths of cut to achieve their vision. I’m still learning control, so I am emulating the cuts of others to learn technique.
I have much to learn, but the process is enjoyable, and the results, no matter how wonky, are edible.
My second work in pyrography is also a beloved pet. I’m quite pleased with how this one came out. Working with the wood burning kit is much like pointillism, nearly all the shapes are made with small burn dots layered upon one another. I have several more pieces of this particular paper to experiment with before I have to source more and hope the light and dark effect still works.
I used my professional wood burner setup on hand made paper. Using different tips and heat settings I was able to lighten and darken parts of the image. I’m calling this done while I still like it and before I take it too far. (It happens to me. Often.)
The paper was not hand made by me, but ordered through Etsy. It was darker than I expected, but it worked out just fine.
I wanted to try my new professional wood burner setup on some paper. I ordered some handmade paper that looked vintage and setup my wood burner with a small writing tip. Since this was new, I started on a low setting on the control box. I had an unexpected result. The lines on the paper where lighter, not burned. I turned up the dial and then achieved the brown color I was expecting from hot metal applied to paper. I made little circles and wrote down my dial settings.
The light color was intriguing. Was it a fluke? Could I reproduce the effect? Being able to add dark and light to a drawing certainly opens up interesting possibilities. I turned the dial back down and was able to get light lines again. Maybe the fibers are being ironed down. Maybe the gentle heat is reacting with what ever was used to age the paper. What if I use a different tip?
Different tips do carry the heat differently. I was almost able to achieve the lightened effect with a slightly larger tip, but only at the lowest setting. Still, so many possibilities.
And Happy Father’s Day to all those that fill the Father’s role!
Critters and Craft 