2015 #19 Burned Lady {by Dana Christiansen}

   2015 Topic 19: Faces

Hi everyone Dana Christiansen here, joining you this evening with a post about Pyrography (if you want to get fancy) or plain old wood-burning as I call it. 

I remember back before the internet, and the only thing that led me to try new things was either magazines or seeing displays in my craft/ art store. I saw a “how to” book on Pyrography along with the tools used for it and I was hooked. I tend to bounce from one medium to another, and this felt like the perfect opportunity to try one of my faces in wood burning.

Step One: I knew I wanted to create flowers in her hair with the JOFY Collect 32 stamps but I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to accomplish it. By stamping on tracing paper I was able to move the different pieces around on the plaque without committing to anything.

JOFY Collect 32

Step Two: Once I played around with a few different placements of the flowers I found something I was comfortable with and then thought that butterfly would make perfect fairy wings!

Step Three: Next was to get the piece transferred to the plaque with some transfer paper.

Step Four: Go over all the lines with the wood burning tool. Be prepared for it to look fairly primitive. It’s not at all like using a paintbrush or pencil. The wood is never identical over the entire piece. For me that adds to the charm of the piece.

Step Five: If the tool gets too hot you may have to unplug it and let it rest for a bit. Once all the lines were burned in, I ended up with this:

Step Six: I used Beach Hut and Autumn Fire (slightly watered down) to add some accents to the flowers and the butterflies. I also used Autumn Fire (very watered down) to paint the shadows on her face.

Step Seven: When it was all said and done, I thought it needed a few more butterflies stamped in her hair. I also taped off the edges to add some Beach Hut paint to the outside portion of the plaque.

Step Eight: To finish her up, I added some collage to her dress and some highlights to her eyes and flowers with Snowflake. {I think I may still add some stain to the background to make her stand out more but for the meantime I am just going to live with her for a bit.}

I really enjoyed working in a totally different medium than I have for a very long time! I am a very tactile person; I enjoy the feel of the projects while I am working on them. This project engages all of your senses and even smells like a mini camp fire! I hope you will give it a try! These stamps were perfect for this and I can’t wait to give it another go. Have a pop over to my blog for more photographs and links to all other social media.

Dana

DanasInspirations.blogspot.com

Dana, this is gorgeous, and what a fun new technique to bring to our blog. The Jofy flowers and butterflies suit this style perfectly. I wonder will you add any more to it? As with all pieces we are tempted to add more and more, but here it is a pleasure to see parts of the 'naked' wood showing through. Thankyou ~Darcy

We would love you to join in with challenge # 19: Faces. If you are inspired by any of our guests who have blogged on this topic over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE.

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. This link will close 19:00 (London Time) Oct 25th 2015.