They're un-finished, which gave me a world of options for how to personalize them. Do I paint and lacquer them? Do I make vinyl decals? Ultimately I knew I wanted these boxes to be heirlooms; treasures for these kids to have forever to remind them of their awesome grandma. After all, I'm a huge sucker for sentimentality. My grandparents supported my artistic side when I was a child, so this really struck the right chord.
I did a little bit of brainstorming and my assistant Hayley (she's the best), suggested I get the wood burning tools out! Of course! It's permanent, doesn't need to be lacquered and relatively quick to do. I love when I get a win like that. Here's what I used:
Watch the video above to see the process from beginning to end for both of them, but let me walk you through it here, too.
I lightly sketched out my design using the white charcoal pencil (erased any stray lines as needed) and allowed my wood burning tool to warm up. I put it on just shy of the hottest setting. I originally started it out at a low setting, but it just wasn't getting uniform lines. The uniformity in the lines was an issue throughout this project, and I think it's a limitation of the burning tool in general. It's a very entry-level tool, so it's bound to have it's drawbacks.
From the videos I've watched on pyrography (they're quite dry, wow) and my own personal experience; I found that the screw-on "nibs" don't heat up as uniformly as the nibs that are built in to the pyrography tool. FYI: pyrography is a fancy word for wood-burning. ;) That said, this tool is priced in the mid $30s. Whereas the next level in pyrography tools jumps up to the $170s+. It's a pretty big financial commitment to get the next level up, so there's that. I won't likely be upgrading my set up any time soon as I'm only ever getting it out every 6 months or so.
I followed along my drawn lines, but the nib kept cooling down considerably because of the debris it would pick up in the burning process. I ended up getting a scratch piece of wood to help clean it off every once in a while. That helped me achieve cleaner lines once I figured that one out.
As far as style inspiration goes, Ella is quite a girly-girl. I added girly flourishes and embellishments to the already traditional style for an elegant "princess" look. Liam is a fun-loving boy, so I made his more of a whimsical foundational style.
I feel like I do some of the same things day in day out, so this was a nice little challenge and switch up from the norm! Have you ever tried pyrography before?
Affiliate links are used, your support by purchasing through these links allows for more great content. Thank you!!Art Supply Organizers + Process Video
July 16, 2018A few weeks ago, a neighbor of mine dropped these art supply boxes off and asked me to personalize them with her grandchildren's names on them. Easy, right?
They're un-finished, which gave me a world of options for how to personalize them. Do I paint and lacquer them? Do I make vinyl decals? Ultimately I knew I wanted these boxes to be heirlooms; treasures for these kids to have forever to remind them of their awesome grandma. After all, I'm a huge sucker for sentimentality. My grandparents supported my artistic side when I was a child, so this really struck the right chord.
I did a little bit of brainstorming and my assistant Hayley (she's the best), suggested I get the wood burning tools out! Of course! It's permanent, doesn't need to be lacquered and relatively quick to do. I love when I get a win like that. Here's what I used:
Watch the video above to see the process from beginning to end for both of them, but let me walk you through it here, too.
I lightly sketched out my design using the white charcoal pencil (erased any stray lines as needed) and allowed my wood burning tool to warm up. I put it on just shy of the hottest setting. I originally started it out at a low setting, but it just wasn't getting uniform lines. The uniformity in the lines was an issue throughout this project, and I think it's a limitation of the burning tool in general. It's a very entry-level tool, so it's bound to have it's drawbacks.
From the videos I've watched on pyrography (they're quite dry, wow) and my own personal experience; I found that the screw-on "nibs" don't heat up as uniformly as the nibs that are built in to the pyrography tool. FYI: pyrography is a fancy word for wood-burning. ;) That said, this tool is priced in the mid $30s. Whereas the next level in pyrography tools jumps up to the $170s+. It's a pretty big financial commitment to get the next level up, so there's that. I won't likely be upgrading my set up any time soon as I'm only ever getting it out every 6 months or so.
I followed along my drawn lines, but the nib kept cooling down considerably because of the debris it would pick up in the burning process. I ended up getting a scratch piece of wood to help clean it off every once in a while. That helped me achieve cleaner lines once I figured that one out.
As far as style inspiration goes, Ella is quite a girly-girl. I added girly flourishes and embellishments to the already traditional style for an elegant "princess" look. Liam is a fun-loving boy, so I made his more of a whimsical foundational style.
I feel like I do some of the same things day in day out, so this was a nice little challenge and switch up from the norm! Have you ever tried pyrography before?
Affiliate links are used, your support by purchasing through these links allows for more great content. Thank you!!
They're un-finished, which gave me a world of options for how to personalize them. Do I paint and lacquer them? Do I make vinyl decals? Ultimately I knew I wanted these boxes to be heirlooms; treasures for these kids to have forever to remind them of their awesome grandma. After all, I'm a huge sucker for sentimentality. My grandparents supported my artistic side when I was a child, so this really struck the right chord.
I did a little bit of brainstorming and my assistant Hayley (she's the best), suggested I get the wood burning tools out! Of course! It's permanent, doesn't need to be lacquered and relatively quick to do. I love when I get a win like that. Here's what I used:
Watch the video above to see the process from beginning to end for both of them, but let me walk you through it here, too.
I lightly sketched out my design using the white charcoal pencil (erased any stray lines as needed) and allowed my wood burning tool to warm up. I put it on just shy of the hottest setting. I originally started it out at a low setting, but it just wasn't getting uniform lines. The uniformity in the lines was an issue throughout this project, and I think it's a limitation of the burning tool in general. It's a very entry-level tool, so it's bound to have it's drawbacks.
From the videos I've watched on pyrography (they're quite dry, wow) and my own personal experience; I found that the screw-on "nibs" don't heat up as uniformly as the nibs that are built in to the pyrography tool. FYI: pyrography is a fancy word for wood-burning. ;) That said, this tool is priced in the mid $30s. Whereas the next level in pyrography tools jumps up to the $170s+. It's a pretty big financial commitment to get the next level up, so there's that. I won't likely be upgrading my set up any time soon as I'm only ever getting it out every 6 months or so.
I followed along my drawn lines, but the nib kept cooling down considerably because of the debris it would pick up in the burning process. I ended up getting a scratch piece of wood to help clean it off every once in a while. That helped me achieve cleaner lines once I figured that one out.
As far as style inspiration goes, Ella is quite a girly-girl. I added girly flourishes and embellishments to the already traditional style for an elegant "princess" look. Liam is a fun-loving boy, so I made his more of a whimsical foundational style.
I feel like I do some of the same things day in day out, so this was a nice little challenge and switch up from the norm! Have you ever tried pyrography before?
Affiliate links are used, your support by purchasing through these links allows for more great content. Thank you!!