I was gifted a professional wood burner setup last December, and it has been waiting for me to clean up my craft space and find a project to burn. The wait has ended. I liked the pencil drawing on my wooden rolling pin so much I thought wood burning would be the best next step. I read through my instructions and flipped through a detailed book, then practiced on one of the rolling pin’s cut off ends.

I am in love. The wire writing tip for the wood burner is absolutely fantastic. There is a bit of learning curve with temperature settings and speed of burn, but I am loving the results.

The writing tip burns the line I want without making deep marks that would transfer to dough. The burn is deep enough, though, to hold up to light sanding to remove stray pencil marks. But not so deep that I can’t use a blade to lightly scrape away mistakes.

So exciting! This opens up a whole new world for my wood work.

(Part 6 of 8 in this blog series)

I love morning glories and Celtic knots. Years ago I started on a Celtic knot style morning glory vine drawing. For my refurbished rolling pin, I wanted to add art, so pulled out the sketch and transferred it to the wood with tracing paper.

Even though I’ve had success with acrylics on wood in the past, I was leery of trying to paint such small precise lines with even a small paintbrush. So I used Primacolor colored pencils instead. The color was gorgeous and the pencils were so nice!

I was so excited to have my rolling pin done and back in use that, as soon as the drawing was done, I rushed off to start the tung oil sealing process. Tung oil is a food safe sealant and even though it takes some time and many applications, it is my first choice for wood sealant. The first coat of tung oil is diluted 50/50 with mineral spirits to help the tung oil soak deep into the surface of the wood. Mineral spirits dissolve wax. Colored pencils are made with wax. My intricate drawing turned into a heartbreaking smear across the wood. Sigh. I took the rolling pin to the sink and scrubbed off the color with soap and water, then when it was dry, sanded it down again. Though this was a rookie mistake, I did learn (as you do) if I want to seal with tung oil, I can’t use colored pencils. Also, looking at the finished design, I was not happy with the knot orientation. Since I have to redo the art anyway, I will use the opportunity to improve the design. But not today.

(Part 4 of 8 in this blog series)