Working on the Welsh Dragon Section

Work has now commenced on the Welsh Dragon relief on the front of the spoon. This has to be taken very carefully and slowly as any tear-out would be difficult to remedy because there is not much depth available to work into. When this section is complete the rest should be more straight forward.

I have planned to darken the background behind the dragon with a pyrographed texture. This should add an interesting contrast to the fairly white Timber of the spoon while the very white holly on the back will do the same.

There will not be a lot of extra carving on the back in a layered fashion just the reverse of the knot work and a few details on the spoon's stem.

When all the carving is complete and has been refined in parts then the sanding and finishing can be commenced. Until then there is still a fair bit of carving to do which should proceed a bit quicker after the dragon is complete.

Working on 'Southern Cross - Welsh Lovespoon'

I have now commenced work on the commissioned spoon which I'm calling the 'Southern Cross Spoon' because it includes the Southern Cross from the Queensland flag. This spoon is being carved in Queensland white beech, a bit on the soft side for my liking, but it seems strong and holds detail well. I used this timber before for the 'dragon Lovespoon' last year but this time the timber is a bit less waxy and therefore might be a bit easier to finish.

The spoon has been roughed out on the scroll saw and I have begun to lay in some of the motifs on the upper surface above the ball and cage section. Normally I would do the tricky and riskier parts first, like the swivel and ball in cage, but I needed to discover where I could get access to the cage.

After the plan view is designed the depth of the carving requires designing on the fly as work proceeds, that is, it's a more intuitive way of working that's needed. So only careful progress will reveal each new step to be taken.

It is from behind the butterfly and stars and trail that best access can be had. So it is now apparent that the ball in cage will not be a straight forward matter, but rather a problem to be solved as we go.

Another design consideration will be the thickness of the stars and the butterfly. They will need to be thick enough, especially in short grain areas to be strong, but still appear thin and delicate.

The two balls in the cage have been completed now and they were particularly difficult to round off, due to lack of access. This lack of easy access meant that the balls, or irregular cubes as they were, had to be separated from the cage sides earlier than it would be wise to do so. This in turn meant that the shaping of these uncooperative lumps into spheres, with little means of holding them, was a bit of a task.

The 'path' or strip on which the butterfly is attached winds its way around the back of the spoon and again, due to the depth of the piece, there needed to be a way of incorporating it into a pleasing design around the back. I am endeavouring to keep the design as simple as possible through the depth of the spoon, unlike the heavily layered designs of some of my previous spoons. However I still want the back to be interesting, pleasing and relate to the front design. This means utilising the stars and path on the reverse side and reducing the apparent thickness of these elements without compromising their integrity when viewed from any angle.

To achieve this I have separated the path at the back into two overlapping star trails with particular care to follow fair curves that properly relate to one another viewed from any angle. I have likewise separated the front and back of the stars into pairs flared back into the path to avoid a blockish thickness in them.

In a similar way I have begun to separate both faces of the open heart at the top of the spoon containing the swivel with a shallow rebate on the broad side of the heart. This very slight addition will create interest and relieve the heaviness of the top heart as it will be read as two thin and elegant hearts instead of one big chunk of heart.

The challenge with the butterfly is to keep it as thick as possible but yet have it appear delicate, I will be working on this illusion as the work progresses but now that the riskiest parts are in place, the areas where breakage is a danger, I can turn to the task of rendering the welsh Dragon in very low relief on the medallion like background. This should also greatly simplify the design of the back of the spoon from here on in, as there will be no need to carve both sides of the dragon nor will it mean incorporating a difficult set of shapes on the back of the spoon. Instead I will have a clear area on the back to accept a shallow inlayed heart of holly on which an inscription can be engraved.

The 'Birds' lovespoon is on hold at the moment but I am hoping to complete it for an up-comming show. In the meantime I am pressing ahead with my illustration work most of each day and thinking about getting back to the botanical art course I'd begun, plus the doll's houses.

Many 'Works in Progress' – Nothing Finished

Apart from finishing one version of the 'Young Dragon Hiding' Pyrography and seeing the article lay-out for the 2012 annual 'Pyrography Issue' of 'Scroll Saw' magazine. I seem to have been progressing slowly with a number of projects and acquiring new ones but not completing anything.

Most of my time is required to continue the picture book I am illustrating at the moment and schools have also now resumed after the holidays with scripture classes recommencing soon. Sometimes, ironically, regular routines can help you work more efficiently and so I hope to be able to post some completed items here before too long.

So here is the Lovespoon I am presently carving for a show in a couple of months. It is a little different in style from my previous lovespoons and has no Celtic elements in the design. I have a number of very different styles I want to try with lovespoons including some simpler ones to try and build up a bit of a stock.

This spoon is being carved from New South Wales Rosewood, a native Australian timber that is excellent for carving, a little like mahogany but a bit crumbly and dry in texture and not too strong in the short grain. It requires a great deal of care when carving the more delicate sections especially when they are essential to the design and need to have a presence without any discontinuance, like the ribbon threaded through the heart.

There is still a long way to go with this carving before I even get to the sanding and finishing.

In the meantime I have another commission that has to be started on soon, so that by working on it intermittently but consistently I will be able to complete it on time around Easter. It sounds like plenty of time doesn't it? But the problem is, the bulk of my current projects all need to be completed around this time and the others need to be well underway by then as well.

The other projects include some pyrography works and carving for the shows I regularly enter. One important project, on hold at the moment, is the pair of dolls houses I began before Christmas intended as part of the Christmas present for our two grand daughters to go with their 'Sylvannia Families' Dolls.

This pair of houses is designed to be fitted to a sloping base that will be the front yards of the houses. It will be like a small section of street with neighbouring houses meant for 'neighbouring play' to take place. I had thought, that as the deign was simple and deliberately toy like, then it would be a straight forward and easy build. This might be the case when I get around to drawing up the design again and constructing a second version that incorporates lessons learned along the way, but for now I will have to press on, designing as I go and realising, this is how it is with a prototype.

I have always intended to present many of my woodcrafts designs as step by step tutorial projects including patterns and plans. There is much involved in this however, much more than just making and documenting the process. The making just sets you up to commence the first set of credible working drawings, before making and documenting a final 'step by step' tutorial that is tried and tested.

I have also commenced ( last year ), a course on botanical art with Leonie Norton . Fortunately the course is open ended as far as time is concerned, as I have only finished the graphite pencil section of the course.

I am looking forward to getting into the watercolour painting part of the course. My illustration work, at least as far as colour is concerned has been only digital for more than a decade and a half and I am keen to use real materials again. The combination of art and science really appeals to me and also links to my distant past as a biological

( untrained, there were no courses then ) illustrator. This kind of work is also different in nature from the more whimsical and fanciful genres that I like so much but I feel that the two different strands of expression can only work well together.

Getting Back on Track Soon

Various circumstances, mostly not bad ones, have prevented me from keeping up to date with this tutorial and I do apologise for that to all who are following along. The main content of this blog and the pattern for 'young Dragon hiding' is to be published as a step by step magazine article by Fox Publishing in their next 'Pyrography Special Issue', under the banner of 'Scroll Saw Magazine'.  

This pyrography magazine had its inaugural issue published earlier this year. Consequent to this project being published I need to have the project completed, the article written and the accompanying photos prepared and annotated by the end of this month. This has meant that I had to start the project again in order to have photos of the process that are suitable for magazine production.

As explained earlier, this project has been experimental from the beginning and I have been feeling my way with it.  In my first attempt at re-starting the project I changed some aspects of it. The changes did not work out and I have had to start yet again with a return to the paint materials I'd suggested at the beginning. 

I have also now set up a more purpose made mini photo studio for taking the step by step photos and this should help with things in the future.    

Along with the need to prepare the  pyrography project for the magazine, I had a welsh lovespoon carving due for completion and this had to take priority over other projects. I'm happy to say the spoon has been completed and is on its way to its new owner.


The spoon is carved from an extremely hard timber called saffron heart. Hard to carve but a beautiful amber colour and it takes a good finish. The spoon is nine inches long and features a celtic style dragon between the chain link and the bowl.

Before getting properly back on track with this blog I will need to complete the material for the magazine article.  In the meantime I will post some of the photos I have of current progress with this project.  I will have to do this with little or no instructional text at this point but just hope you can make some sense of the photos as they stand.  I will a bit later re-jig this whole tutorial into a more logical form.

I have also made some changes to the original pattern in that I have included scales on the dragon body.  If anyone wants to have the new pattern with scales right away, then you can email me and I will gladly send you an updated pattern. Otherwise I will be placing the new pattern on my web site sometime next month. 

My manner of working on this project has been more intuitive than methodical in nature.  That is, I have tended to work on one section through to near completion, then move on to another area of the picture altogether and then perhaps to re-visit another area that has been already almost finished. 

Just briefly for those following, After the water colour paint has been applied and it's thoroughly dry, I have then used the pyrography tip with the flat portion downwards to firstly burnish or polish the area I'm going to work on.  This is done with a very low heat, low enough so that little or no tone is imparted to the work, just a 'glazed' polish leaving a surface so smooth that the pyrography tool slips smoothly over the surface. 

Keep the tip of the tool polished and polish the area you'll be working on. With the heat turned up just a little, just enough to gently tone the timber, start shading your work in a combination of short gliding strokes and sometimes little circles.  You will have to acquire a feel for this as you go and as you practice.  Think of it as painting the tone on in a layering process achieving darker tones by repeated passes and by lingering slightly in some areas.  Practice the technique on your scrap piece often and you will gradually gain confidence.  I will explain the technique I have used more fully when I write this Blog up properly later. 

The other technique is the use of coloured pencils to add the main colour to your work.  Experiment with different colours some will work better than others and I don't just mean the hue involved but their handling characteristics on the pyrographed timber surface.  the trick is, like using a very low heat on the pyrography tool, use very little pressure and lay down the pencil pigment without impressing the timber at all. Then after applying the coloured pencil polish the area with a tissue until the colour appears blended with the timber.  You can lay colour over colour this way and finally polish the whole area with the very low heated tip of the pyrography tool.

This is a brief run down of the technique I have used.  I will deal with the finer points later and in the meantime will add progress photos of the project as I go.

Adding Colour to the Pyrography

The whole image is now outlined and the colouring process can begin. This whole process of using colour in a pyrography work is new and experimental to me, so those following along may want to use their own judgement as they follow, perhaps taking some of the steps further or perhaps not as far as I have. It might also be a useful idea for some to do as I have done and render two versions of the work simultaneously – a second chance – a bit of insurance against ending up with nothing but a learning experience.

In my case, I have been working on two examples to give you an idea of the different effects produced by the differing characteristics of the two timbers I have used. This won't of course, provide you with any exact information but will serve to show how much effect the timber type can have on the final result.

To colour the timber I have used a non acrylic designer's gouache. I could have used watercolour paint but the gouache is less expensive for you to buy unless you have something already and acrylic could be toxic or otherwise problematic if pyrography is attempted over it. The colours that I have chosen, are those that I thought would be most compatible to use on timber.

We want to preserve the natural grain and appearance of the timber and so we will be using the paint as a thin wash. These chosen colours have also been mostly selected from the more transparent versions of the colour pigments. It just happens that the selected colours are also from the 'series one' group of colours which are the least expensive. Information about the various characteristics of the paint,such as transparency etc, can be found in brochures in the art store where you buy the paint.

The actual colours that I have used are: Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Any fairly transparent Orange ( I didn't have orange in gouache and so I used watercolour mixed from red and yellow ), Ivory Black and Permanent white, any white will do and white is of course not in any sense transparent but we will be using very little.

The other colours that will be used (later) are good quality coloured pencils like 'Lakeland' mainly reds yellows and browns, include a good dark red perhaps.

To begin start with the Burnt Sienna, with a very small dob of paint in a small white dish, Like a finger bowl Make a thin wash just pigmented enough to make a pale coloration on a scrap of your timber after drying. You will notice that the wet paint will be considerably darker before it dries and depending on the timber and can appear alarmingly blotchy.

The blotchy effect should disappear though, when the timber dries. Some pigments on some timbers, however can come up badly. Most pines have this problem, including the timbers that are not really pine but are called some kind of pine, like the kauri pine I am using. You will also most likely be using a timber that has this problem as many of the light coloured timbers fall into this category. This is one reason to be using a very thin wash and moving up to darker passages of colour by repeated applications. The other reason is to creep up on the effect we want and not overwhelm the timber grain.

The colours we are using will all be very altered by the underlying timber colour and that's what we want to do, just subtly shift the original timber colour and then add tone afterwards with the continued use of the pyrography tool. Blues and even greens would be even more drastically altered by the timber's native colour than those we've chosen and it would be wisest to leave experiment with these, more 'dis-similar-to-wood-colours' to another time.

You will need a suitable brush to apply your paint and I would suggest a number 6 pointed round brush. A synthetic 'sable', rather than the real thing, would do and is much cheaper.

When you have a suitable Burnt Sienna wash prepared, lay in a wash within bounded regions of the dragon. Try to have enough of the watery paint on your brush to fill as much of the area you are painting as possible. As you come near the end of the brushes capacity in a passage of paint you are laying down, try to leave a wet-ish edge to add to, with a re-loaded brush. Stir and re-mix the water and paint every now and then as the pigments might settle and give you inconsistent densities of colour. You will notice this more with some pigments than others.

Think ahead, about how you will lay in the paint in the region you are working on and turn your work to get the best approach to it. This is a basic watercolour painting technique and you can get a better handle on the process, if you are not familiar with it, by googling 'watercolour wash technique'.

Putting down a watercolour wash on timber will differ somewhat from watercolour on paper however and that's another reason to use a very thin wash of paint to begin with. It's also another reason for you to use your own judgement in how dark you want to go with any of the colour applications to your work before continuing with the pyrography. You may decide, if you are having trouble with this part of the process to do less of the colour wash and rely more on the pyrography effects later.

As this is an experiment for me as well – who knows? – any decisions that you make that deviate from the path that I show, could just bring you to a better result. I only partially know what I am doing with this project and working with timber in general often precludes a predictable and methodical approach as the material imposes it's own variable nature on the task. I find design is almost always like this and it requires groping your way intuitively toward a solution, with only a few guiding principles.

Having mentioned 'principles' in the midst of a fairly relativistic account of 'what's a true way of working for me but might not be so for you', way of crafting, I will take the liberty, (I've often been accused of arrogance for this) of asserting briefly; That in real life, basic certainties (principles) can be known and be known certainly.

When I say basic, I mean really basic. We like to make things and we make those things, not according to time, chance and necessity, but we make them often for the love of someone else. We ourselves have been made and we've been made by a person who really knows things. How we've been made might be a matter of experiment- guided pondering but 'that we've been made', is an absolute certainty. When someone who REALLY knows (Our Creator that is) tells you a thing, then and only then, do you know that thing with an absolute certainty. Not believing that Person, robs you of knowing, but what he has spoken remains, the certain truth, nevertheless. The person who made us has told us things, in a word; Bible. In another word, The Word, Jesus Christ, cf. John Ch1. These certainties stand in contrast to the uncertainties of all that we do and say.

I did say that I would divulge my inmost thoughts as I went along with this project, the whys and the hows. So let's plunge again into the uncertainty of my leading and attend to the hows of this project partly based on past experience and on a lot of experiment, in order to finish the colouring on our outlined dragon. If you feel confident you can try adding some shading to the perceived shadow areas on the dragon, refer to the tonal pattern for this. Or you could just leave the painted areas as flat tones.

I painted in shading on most of the picture as I went along but only time will tell as the pyrography is completed, if the image becomes a bit heavy looking as a result. Again you use your own judgement and hang back if you think I've taken any part of the process too far.

When the dragon is completed then paint in the leaves and part of their stems with the yellow ochre in the same manner. Paint the branches with the burnt Umber and wash in orange over all the sky areas except the clouds. Nearing the end mix a very thin wash of Ivory Black and wash this over the whole sky area, after the orange is thoroughly dry of course ( a hair dryer can help here ).

Now this part is tricky if you want to attempt it. Keep adding more layers of black wash over the top portion of the sky and the left portion to try and get a graded effect across and down the sky. You will find that this is a matter of guesswork all the way, because the wet paint passages look so dark to begin with and you have to wait until it is dry before you can see the true result. The black paint brought out the grain in the european beech quite markedly in my piece and it remains to be seen if this will be a good or bad effect.

Last of all we can now add some touches of white to the clouds and the castle areas but keep it very dilute as the opaque white paint will have an overpowering chalky look if it is overdone. Now that all the underpainting areas are laid in we can commence the continued pyrography work to bring out the modelling in the elements of the picture.

I hope that along the way you have come across other possibilities for decorative effects that could be undertaken using pyrography lines with watercolour paint on wood. Try to keep an eye out for other directions you might take with the techniques you discover as you go and carry out your own experiments on your scrap pieces.