CELTIC BIRDS POSTAGE STAMP PYROGRAPHY PROJECT
LORA S. IRISH LSIRISH.COM ARTDESIGNSSTUDIO.COM ARTDESIGNSSTUDIO. COM
Create perfect graduated shading using the art style of pointillism.
Copyright, L S Irish, LSIrish.com, 1997-2015 All Rights Reserved, 1997 - 2015 1
SUPPLIES NEEDED Stamp collecting is one of the favorite past times in the U.S. Many of us began as small children who waited impatiently for the day’s mail to arrive to discover if one of the envelopes sported a new stamp for our album. As adults our interests expanded into the history, geography, and political movements of foreign countries or into the elusive chase of o f a particular stamp that would complete a year ye ar set or series release.
9” X 12” x 1/4” birch, basswood, or poplar plywood 220- to 320-grit sandpaper Brown paper bag #4 soft pencil for tracing Masking tape to secure the paper pattern Ruler Variable temperature pyrography unit Ball tip or loop tip burning pen Artist white eraser Polyurethane or acrylic spray sealer
A philatelist, stamp collector, might focus their collection of a specific time period - as stamps issued during World War II - or on a specific group of countries - as stamps issued from the Caribbean Island nations - or on a particular topic - as steam engines, butterflies, or dog breeds. You can bring your favorite stamp topic into your love of wood burning with this beginner’s level pointillism-styled project. Pointillism is the art style of creating designs, with graduated shading, through the use of a simple dot pattern. So let’s begin our free ArtDesignsStudio.com project by getting our supplies together.
Ball-tip Pen
Loop-tip Pen
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PEN TIP SAMPLE BURNING Each wood burning unit manufacturer has a wide variety of pen tip profiles that you can use in your pyrography work. The shape of the tip determines the shape of the small dot pattern that pen will burn.
Western Horses Pattern Pack
Where a ball-tip pen creates a perfectly round dot, the loop-tip pen makes a small oval burn pattern. Any pen tip can be used for pointillism, so have some fun practicing with each burning pen you have in your kit to determine which pen tip will work best for you.
Assorted Horses Pattern Pack
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PRACTICE BOARD Creating a practice board before you begin your project allows you test you tip points, experiment with your temperature settings, and explore the textures that you can use on any pyrography project.
Simple Realistic Flowers Pattern Pack
If you are starting a new project work, practice on the same media on which you will burn your design. For this project you would burn your practice board on birch, basswood, or poplar plywood.
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POINTILLISM The simple shape of the dot is used to create the pointillism style of pyrography. Fine, small dots widely spaced give a light tonal value to the area of work while tightly packed, medium-sized dots take the area into a darker tonal value. The size and tonal value of each individual dot is controlled by the temperature setting of your wood burning unit. A medium temperature settings, between 4 and 5, makes mid-tone, medium-sized dots. Hotter temperature settings between 6 and 7 will give you a dark toned dot slightly wider in size than the mid-tone settings. African Big Cats Package North American Big Cats Patterns White Tail Deer Patterns
Of all of the art styles available to the pyrographer, pointillism is the easiest way to create seamless, graduated shading. Giraffe Practice board: Working left to right First square: medium temperature setting, lightly packed Second square: medium temperature setting, graduated packing Third square: medium-hot temperature setting, graduated to white Fourth square: medium-hot temperature setting, solid fill corner
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PREPARING THE WOOD
Begin this project by lightly sanding the board surface with 220- or 320-grit sandpaper to remove any wood fibers or ridge lines left from the manufacturing process. Work the sandpaper with the wood grain to avoid adding fine scratches that may show in your burning later. Remove the sanding dust with a lightly damp cloth.
Lighthouses & Sailing Ship Patterns Sailing Ship Pattern Pack
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BROWN PAPER SANDING
Brown craft paper or brown bag paper can be used as a fine-grit sanding media and leaves your wood surface with an extremely smooth finish. For this project we are using it as our final sanding media. You can also use heavy brown paper to clean your burning tips without damaging the polish of the tip wire.
Relief Landscape Patterns Farm Scene Pattern Package
Crumple a piece of brown paper bag paper. Use the crumbled paper exactly as you did the sandpaper to give your surface an extra fine sanding. Remove any dust with a clean area of your damp cloth.
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TRACING THE PATTERN Print two copies of the Postage Stamp pattern with your computer printer - one for reference during the burning steps and one to use for your tracing pattern. Fold one copy of the pattern into quarters, folding once along the vertical center and then a second time along the horizontal center line. Using a #4 to #8 artist’s soft pencil, rub the pencil graphite onto the back side of the pattern paper. Completely fill the area with a solid rubbing. With a ruler, lightly pencil mark the center vertical and horizontal lines of your wood surface. Place the pattern onto the wood surface, printed side up. Match the fold lines of the pattern with the pencil guidelines on your wood. Tape the top edge of the pattern paper to the board using masking tape or painter’s low-tack tape. With an ink pen trace the pattern lines. Remove the pa per pattern.
Pencil tracing lines are easily removed after you have completed the wood burning using an artist’s white eraser. Avoid colored erasers that can leave dye streaks on your finished wood burning.
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PENCIL TRACED PATTERN 8
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OUTER FRAME BURNING
Using a medium-high temperature setting, and your ball-tip or loop-tip pen, begin your project by filling in the the outer frame area of the design with a tightly packed dot pattern. The medium-high temperature will give you dark tonal value dots without haloing or scorching the background area of the work.
Angels & Cherubs Pattern Package Christmas Calicos Patterns
The top banner, U. S. Parcel Postage, uses this dark, solid pointillism pattern to make the lettering appear as if it were white colored. This technique is called a negative burn, and is where the background of the element is worked in a dark burn and the primary element is left in the unburned lightest tonal value.
Christmas Classics Pattern Package
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OUTER FRAME BURNING 10
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SHADING THE OUTER FRAME
Work the graduated shading in the outer frame using the same temperature setting as in step 4 with a loosely packed dot pattern. The loosely packed dot pattern allows some unburned areas of the wood to show through the burning. This mix of light background and dark dots blends to create a mid-tone value range.
Grapes Pattern Pack Mixed Fruit Pattern Pack
The darkest areas of the shading are worked at the outer side of the area or where the area comes into contact with another area of the stamp pattern. In the sample, below, you can see the darkest area of the corner triangle is worked along the left outer - side of the pattern area.
Oak & Grape Pattern Pack
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SHADING THE OUTER FRAME 12
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SHADING THE CELTIC KNOTS
Using a medium temperature setting, burn a loosely packed pattern of dots for the Celtic knots that originate from the bird’s head feathers. Visually break your Celtic lines into small units that beg in and end where the line tucks under another portion of the knot. Work each section of Celtic line as one complete unit by darkly shading the two outer edges, where the line tucks under another line, in a dark, tightly packed dot pattern. Gradually loosen the packing pattern as you near the center point of the line unit. Allow a thin center slice of the line unit to remain unburned. This will give you a graduation of dark, medium, light, unburned, light, medium, dark in each area of the knot pattern. Use this temperature setting and a medium-packed dot pattern to outline the Celtic knot lines.
Western Ranch Pattern Pack Western Town Scene Mantel Patterns Westward Ho! Pattern Pack
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SHADING THE CELTIC KNOTS 14
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SHADING THE BIRD’S BODY
The bird’s face and the triangular accent in the wings show the darkest area of the burning on the side of each area that is closest to the center point of the pattern. Note in the close-up below that the lower bird mirrors the shading of the upper bird. To create a few extremely dark tonal value areas in this project, tightly pack two layers of dot patterns to the eyes, nostril, and beak opening. Work the dots of second layer of these area to fill any unburned, white areas left from the first layer burning. The solid-packed dot pattern is also used in the wing lines - see photo below. A solid-packed dot pattern is used to outline the front area of the bird’s face, the eye rings, and around the outer edge of the wing.
Flying Ducks Pattern Pack Waterfowl Pattern Pack Puddle Ducks Pattern Pack
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SHADING THE BIRD’S BODY 16
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SHADING THE TAIL & FEET
A medium temperature setting and loosely packed dot pattern is used to create the pale tonal values of the bird’s leg, foot, and the three tail feathers. The base of the tail, where the tail tucks under the back wing, uses a medium-hot temperature and a graduated tightly-packed dot pattern. American Eagle Patterns Proud to be American Patterns North American Wildlife Patterns
The inner crescent-shapes of the tail are left unburned, and the outer crescents are worked as a solid-packed, dark tonal value. Work the pattern outlines in a medium to medium-hot temperature setting with a tightly-packed dot pattern.
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SHADING THE TAIL & FEET 18
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PERSONALIZING YOUR STAMP
Part of the fun of creating your own postage stamp design is that you can add a personal touch to the work. In our sample I have added, in a vertical line, along the left edge of the design area my name and “Made in the USA”. Just above the 1 cent banner I have added the name and state for my home town. This same pattern could easily become a wedding plaque by exchanging the newly married couple’s last name where the pattern has U S Parcel Post. The bride’s first name could go into the left-side number oval with the groom’s name in the right-side oval. Replace the word “cents” with the marriage date, and the home town personalization with the name, address, or location of the church, temple, or synagogue.
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FINISHING When your project burning is complete, unplug your wood burning tool and allow it to cool before storing it away. As a habit I clean my pen tips at the end of every burning session with either a leather strop and rouging compound or with heavy brown bag paper. Using a white artist’s eraser clean the surface of your burning to remove any remaining pattern lines and dirt that has built-up. Wipe the wood with a clean, dry cloth to remove the eraser particles. Using the brown bag paper, lightly rub the surface of your burning to remove any remaining rough fibers left from the hot temperature burns. Wipe the surface with a clean cloth. At this point in the project you can add coloring to your postage stamp using watercolors, artist quality colored pencils, watercolor pencils, or water-based fabric dyes. Seal your burning using several light coats of polyurethane or acrylic spray sealer, following the directions on the can.
BONUS PRACTICE PATTERNS
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Postage Stamp Pyrography Pattern 21
Practice Board Pyrography Pattern
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Join Lora S. Irish, internationally known wood carving, pyrography, and pattern book author, as she teaches the basic steps, techniques, and practices to Pyrography.
ArtDesignsStudio.com Digital Patterns Ready for Download Pattern Package Discount Codes Any 3 Packages @ $25
3packs Any 6 Packages @ $45
Explore the different styles of wood burning units, the burned strokes made with each pen tip profile, and how tonal values are used in your wood burning. Learn how the tool profiles, line density, and stroke textures of pyrography can be used to create specific burning styles. Lora will show you how to work a basic texture stroke practice board with over 50 different fill patterns. Because of Lora Irish’s teaching style, this book is perfect for the brand new beginner that wants a strong foundation in this craft and has many specific, advanced techniques for the long-time pyrographer to bring their wood burning to a new level.
6packs Any 10 Packages @ $60
10packs
You can contact Lora S. Irish directly through her free projects blog at LSIrish.com and visit her line art pattern website at ArtDesignsStudio.com.
Lora Irish’s Complete Pattern Collection by Download 138 Pattern Packs/Over 2500 Designs On Sale thru 8/31/2015
$99.95 23
Art Designs Studio Digital Craft Patterns by Download CP138 Postage Stamps Pattern Package 90 Patterns, Ready for Download By Lora S. Irish
Do you want to create your own Postage Stamp carving, pyrography, or quilt panel? This pattern package gives you 21 stamp layouts in which you can add your own country, postage value, and inner stamp design. Mix and match the inner patterns with the stamp frames or use the stamp frames with any Art Designs Studio pattern package to make a topical stamp collection of your own. 21 stamp layouts with complimentary sample stamps and inner patterns, 17 accent banners 14 cancellations patterns 4 number banners 3 stamp frame borders 5 finished idea samples
Only $10.95
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Art Designs Studio Digital Craft Patterns by Download CP007 Just Grizzles! Pattern Package 17 Patterns & Drawings, Ready for Download By Lora S. Irish
Bears Pattern Package features full facial portraits, full bodies, and complete landscape scenes with Grizzly Bears, Brown Bears, and Black Bears. You will discover bear cubs in trees, a salmon fishing Grizzly, a paper wasp bee hive Grizzly, and waterfalls Grizzly sow and cubs. With the high interest in wildlife themes today, this Lora S. Irish package is great for those looking to carve jewelry boxes, gun chests, or just a present for your nature lover. Carving patterns for wood carving, wood burning, and painting. Great for Wood Burning!
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Art Designs Studio Digital Craft Patterns by Download CP137 Sampler Pattern Package 198 Patterns & Drawings, Ready for Download By Lora S. Irish
Sampler Pattern Package By Lora S. Irish 126 line art patterns, plus 72 complimentary shaded drawings, for easy tracing and easy wood carving, pyrogra phy wood burning, and craft work. Patterns include Wood Spirits, Wizards, Dragons, Greenmen, Celtic, Wildlife, Landscapes, and much, much more. Our biggest pattern pack yet! This pattern package contains a sampling from our most popular packages – a little bit of everything. Another Art Designs Studio, Lora Irish exclusive!
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Copyright, 1997 - 2015 by Lora S. Irish, 2015 Celtic Birds Postage Stamp Pyrography Project is an original work, first published in 2015 by Lora S. Irish, LSIrish.com, and Art Designs Studio and fully copyrighted, All International Rights Reserved and may not be distributed in any manner. The patterns contained herein are copyrighted by the author. Readers may make copies of these patterns for personal use. The patterns themselves, however, are not to be duplicated for resale or distribution under any circumstances. Any such copying is a violation of copyright law. 27
