Category Archives: Burning Wood

Let The Sun Shine

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Good Night Sweet Prince

Last week our beloved kitty Raven passed away.  We had no warning really.  When Mr. Furnace rescued him a year and a half ago, Raven looked like a black personal watermelon (I won’t go into my thoughts on “personal watermelon” terminology in this post) with legs.  Seriously. Raven had lived with a companion who was wheelchair bound Raven’s entire life.  The poor guy never held Raven, never even named him.  But he fed him, boy did he feed him. When he died Raven came to live with Mr. F., who, it turns out, is a most excellent kitty daddy.

Raven loved his new home. He discovered love, his name, his favorite wall where he would flop with his legs straight up against the wall.  He loved going on walkabout with Mr. F. He lost a lot of weight.  And then suddenly he lost too much.  Like overnight.

We have stories of Raven.  The best is the time they fumigated Mr. F’s entire building and we brought R to my place for the day.  He pooped all over Mr. F.  Twice. On the way there and on the way back.  We just love that story.  Poor guy had been housebound his whole life and he just wasn’t ready for the big wide world.  But man, trying to keep the poop from rolling around and getting squished and pulling the car over and realizing that no matter how many napkins were saved in the glove box, there simply weren’t enough…  We all survived and we laugh now. The other stories aren’t nearly so adventurous but there is much love and humor in them.

We were going to take him to the vet next weekend for a full checkup but Mr. F. discovered a lump under Raven’s armpit and two days later his weight fell off by half. Swear to god half.  There is something so uncanny about cats.  They are so able to hide their illnesses but once they are found out, suddenly they are enormously ill.  In my experience terminally ill. This is how my Spike and Bubba left this world and it was the same for Raven.

I happened to be working on this new box the night that I called Mr. F. and he told me that Raven needed to go to emergency NOW.  I rushed over in the car to get them and could not believe my eyes. Raven was much changed. In a matter of days he went from an active cat to a clearly dying cat.  I said Hi to Raven and he lifted his head and chirped and then flopped back down, eyes closed. That was really his last intentional act.

The vets agreed with us and with reverence and love we escorted our little guy on to his next adventure.We blessed him. We said our stories. We miss him very much and soldier on as Raven always did but there are moments that are very emotionally intense.

I came home from the vet and immediately added Raven into the landscape of my newest project. This box is special. It is lovely. It has a way to go because I keep adding things.  Like birds and hearts. There is a lot of love in this box, my small tribute to a little fella with a big heart who was here for the exact amount of time he was supposed to be, making us happy and loving us right back.

To Thine Own Self…

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Be True.  The words from Polonius’ monologue will go around the sides…  Still considering font styles…

I’m working on a new box and using this particular project to also create the long awaited wood burning tutorial.

Sketch

Sketch - The kitty cat was added Thursday night when our beloved Raven left us in this world for the next.

Burn

Reality - pentagram switched out, background updated, the moon and stars are going to be reminiscent of the Giant of Cerne Abbas and the White Horst of Uffington. The upper corners are now square and that is actually a boo-boo. I was a bit verklempt I guess. I'm still considering the border edges but couldn't resist the burn...

To Thine Own Self...

Drip Drip Drip

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Man, we got snowed in.  Hard to believe but it’s true. We got a whopping 8″ here and then .33″ of freezing rain, a sheet of solid, and I do mean solid, ice on everything.  Which might not be a big deal if you are a flatlander but Seattle is nothing but hills. And I do mean HILLS.  Treacherous.

Snow Fort

Bad phone photo before daylight, snow fort on the trudge to the bus. Had to turn around, the bus never came. I know, the street looks clear but this is on the level. To get to it the bus must navigate a very steep hill.

When the buses in downtown Seattle are stacked up and slipping and sliding and bending in two (they are, after all, articulated) because there is too much snow, you know we had a good one.

I’ve been working from home all but Tuesday this week which was between snow storms. Can you say Cabin Fever boys n’ girls? gah!  Finally got out to the store today plus a meeting. I’m sober and not at any imminent risk of relapse but I can sure get cranky pants when I get too much time between meetings.  Torture. For me and others I’m sure.

Now the grand thaw begins.  This can be worse than the snow as we get large areas of flooding in those valleys.  The side streets are tracks to bare pavement with humps, very tall humps, that scrape the undercarriage of your car as you navigate. The chains have completely torn up good streets with occassional series of severe potholes.

I got my meeting and the steady rain combined with the thaw, the drip drip drip will accompany me to sleep tonight.  Tomorrow I see my guy, Mr. Furnace, for gourmet tacos (we are taco afficianados) and then a roaring fire and some much needed cuddles since the snow has kept us apart.  Which isn’t the worst thing.  Absense DOES make the heart grow fonder when you’re kind of mooney over someone. Yeah, we are drips drips drips and I love every minute of it.

Fires – A work in progress

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The burn is done.

I love the smell of burning wood, always have, always will.  It’s the smell of cozy on a cold day when you have a fire in the hearth. It’s the smell of your hair after a long weekend camping and telling stories around the campfire at night.  It snowed last night and more is coming and the house is cozy and warm and welcoming with soup and tea and yes, fire.  But burning wood is also the smell of pyrography!

I’ve really come to love combining pyrography and drawing.  I love embroidery but boy is it labor intensive and it can take a while before you see an end result (ask me about my never ending projects!).  With pyrography I get the same love of the creative process, the sketching and designing, the color planning, the execution but it takes so much less time for me to complete. And I love the results as much as I do those of stitch work.  They both feel great in the hands, during and after creation.

The Process

I loved it so much I bought a Dagger III Detail Master.  Oooh, tools boys ‘n girls, tools.  This is a professional wood burning tool with interchangeable points that can create a large variety of burn marks.  You can also adjust the heat settings.  The more I use it, the more comfortable I become with burn levels, different woods, and different techniques.

After much trial and error I use mostly Prismacolor colored pencils. I’ve tried other brands and, for paper, I think the Crayola pencils are surprising good for a fab price but they just aren’t so great on the wood.  I’ve tried dies (paper crafting) and paints (watercolor, acrylic) and stains (woodworking).  Nothing beats the colored pencils for achieving shading and color combinations that I can’t achieve with paints. The soft, waxy pencils allow the integrity of the wood to shine through in a way that paint just doesn’t. I like the natural non-toxic stains second best as they also allow the wood grain to show through but when I’m sitting on the couch watching re-runs of Firefly it can get a bit messy don’t you know.  And I simply I can’t layer them and create anything like the sunsets and depth of color that I get with pencils.  For me they are only good for color blocking.

Lastly I will varnish with a couple layers of non-toxic Modge Podge matte varnish. I love how it gives the final project a very low glow, it feels good to the hands, and doesn’t have a powerful odor, and cleans up with soap and water. I sand in between coats.  Again, I tried a few different varnishes before settling on this, even a soy based varnish that was basically useless.  I do have some nice beeswax rubs and know these work well on plain wood but have yet to test them on wood that has been colored with pencil. I worry about bleeding and should really do some testing soon.

The Project

I was commissioned over the holidays to make a box for the boss of a friend who is moving on to a new job. She gave me a price marker and some hints on things he likes.  Lucky Boss! and lucky me!  Since he loves the environment and nature, this made it very easy for me to come up with something.

This box is divided inside for playing cards but will also do quite nicely for office supplies like paper clips or personal bits and bobs and things.  And look grand on a desk or the like.

Mt. Rainier - You can see the sunrise that is the middle section of the vignette from Night to Day to Night around the sides of the box

Night to Day - The Brothers

Day to Night

Room for Sentiment

Stay tuned for the final reveal!