Burning that wood, and no... it's not a forest fire!

For years now I have been affectionated with pyrography. Love the fact that you can burn into wood, creating deep burned lines and getting a wonderful smell all at the same time. After the burning you can paint it as I am not to keen to keeping it all "woodsy" in all shades of brown. You are creating your own coloring book so to speak. And I love what Sticks does, first sketch  a drawing, then burn the wood and then color it in with bright colored acrylics.  I did try some stuff myself with a borrowed pyrography machine and that worked out great.

Then I went into a long hiatus of art making, but I kept on looking at wonderful samples on the internet. And unblocking also because of reading The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. And the urge returned. The urge to make stuff. Stuff that would be just as pretty as the ones on internet – more precisely … Pinterest. Just like every one else I have become addicted.

So after a long looooooooong time, I purchased a cheap pyrography machine. And these 2 ravens is what I first came up with.

And the cheap pyrography machine was just that. Cheap. It worked. It did what it was supposed to do... burn the wood. But it also burned my fingers. And then Christmas came. And I got a money present. I knew right away what I was going to do with that. I bought my self a "professional" machine. Well, the best I could afford anyway.

And while cruising the Pinterest boards, I saw this wonderful picture of a tiger. 

LOVE LOVE LOVE the eyes. Totally fell in love with this guy (or girl, who knows)

So I thought I give it a try and first sketched on paper till I was happy with the result. Then I traced it onto a piece of wood and this is how far it has gotten today:

Still have a long way to go before I can call this one finished but I am having fun with it. As far as the professional machine goes, I was hoping it would be the end of burned fingers.... sigh. Nope. But I am loving the process so I will continue. When the tiger is done I have a few more ideas I want to do. I think I'd better invest in some burn salve and plasters.

Raven Inn Collage

Last year I decided to redo our bedroom. It was a terracotta orange but that color was on the walls for 5 years and I was in the mood for something new. So I decided on a nice granny smith apple green. After a enthusiastic start, a doubtful moment in the middle (cursing myself because why the bleep did I start do do this again?) and finally a long awaited finish the room was done.

But even though the room was done and beautifully so if I say so myself, it lacked something.

It needed some umph. Ididn't want to bring out the paint brushes so I decided to make a collage to hang opposite the bed.

I found this wonderful image of this really nice old Victorian. In my mind it was infested with crows and bats hence the name Raven Inn. I found this great banner from an old Dover book, added some chipboard letters, stamped a spider and some bats and last but no least printed an image of a raven, added it at the bottom and voilla. Hung it opposite the bed and yes, I'm liking it. Although.... It's a bit on the small side though so maybe I'll do a bigger one. First have to find a larger frame.

So this is the result of two happy afternoons:

I love this house. Such a shame the house has been demolished decades ago. I would have loved to wander around in it.