Thread: 'Mr Toad on the Road'

David, that is just outstanding talent! It's one thing to be able to draw something like that, but quite another to use a burning tool to create it.

Marvellous work.

You know we'd all like to see that in the flesh up here on the 5th don't you? Except Sundays are difficult/impossible?

Cheers
Brett

That's fantastic. Quite a lot of work behind this one.

Yup, that's sensational.

I didn't know you could DO that with pyrography!
All I've ever seen are vague, distorted, disproportionally coloured.... obviously child's play.


Wow.
Will you have to put it behind glass to protect the fine detail like in the rabbit's coat?
I imagine you couldn't really cover it in finish given the coloured pencil's wax.
How big is it length/width?

I'm lost for words!! ( For once )

Like always David your work is outstanding. It gives me something to strive towards and one day I might get close to your work standard.

You have talked about wood quality and preparation What timber do you use and how do you prepare it? I have been using radiata pine and ply from the hardware store. I have sanded it down to 1500 then dampened the surface to swell the grain and then sanded down to 1500 again. It seems to be working for me. Can suggest any thing else?

John

David,
Absolutely brilliant. Excellent drawing and poker work. Drillit.

Thank you for the kind comments everyone. '

You know we'd all like to see that in the flesh up here on the 5th don't you? Except Sundays are difficult/impossible?' Bret.

Sorry Bret, Sundays are out for the mornings, just difficult in the afternoons, but I'll try to make it sometime.

'Will you have to put it behind glass to protect the fine detail like in the rabbit's coat?
I imagine you couldn't really cover it in finish given the coloured pencil's wax.
How big is it length/width?' 'Skew's Girl'

No glass is necessary as physical damage isn't much of a problem. The lines are pretty much engraved into the timber by the pyrography process. Fading is a problem, and not just from UV light. This fading is not very predictable however and probably has to do with the 'too-complex-for-me' chemistry of tars and other carbon compounds that make up the sepia colours of the pyrography.

The whole panel is finished with 'Traditional Wax'. The coloured pencil must have been well incorporated into the surface as it wasn't effected.
Size of the panel is 465mm X 380mm.

'You have talked about wood quality and preparation What timber do you use and how do you prepare it? I have been using radiata pine and ply from the hardware store. I have sanded it down to 1500 then dampened the surface to swell the grain and then sanded down to 1500 again. It seems to be working for me. Can suggest any thing else?'

I just had another look at the old house you did (congratulations on that, once again) and I see that you successfully used radiata on that one. I have never used radiata and have kept away from it because of the alternating hard-soft growth. Choose the right board as you have done however and I can see that it is worth a try, although natural darkening of the timber over time will change the apparent tonal range (a different issue from fading).

Though radiata has troublesome grain for pyrography it doesn't have open grain and your fastidious sanding regime would provide a very sympathetic surface except for the possible hard-soft regions. It was relatively open grain that I had problems with this time.

I usually use hoop pine plywood or kauri plywood and find that they both have a very good surface to work on. Like you I usually prepare the surface by sanding to a fine grit, however on this piece of kauri pine it was either a very open grain piece, wrongly named or I had forgotten to sand it fine enough.

Anyway as I worked shaded portions on it, fine white lines interrupted the continuous tones I wanted, and it was hard to draw across the grain of the timber with fine pyrographed lines. The micro fissures in the timber surface were inaccessible to the pyrography pen and also became little crevices into which the pen wanted to travel.

Concentration and struggling with the problem largely overcame these issues, but at the expense of much extra time spent on, what you know is already a time consuming craft.

I always work on plywood because I am mainly a carver and I would always be wanting to use solid pieces for that. I will probably experiment with radiate now though, I keep thinking 'It's cheap, If only it was good for something' (from a wood crafts point of view).

In Awe as usuall David, great work to enjoy for us all!

Thanks David for your information on wood types. I have tried to get onto hoop pine ply but haven't been successfully. Would you tell me were I can get onto it please as well as Karrie ply. I have used Karri pine for scroll sawing and find it very pleasing to work with.

Thanks

John

Originally Posted by Red Gum

Thanks David for your information on wood types. I have tried to get onto hoop pine ply but haven't been successfully. Would you tell me were I can get onto it please as well as Karrie ply. I have used Karri pine for scroll sawing and find it very pleasing to work with.

Thanks

John

I just googled "hoop pine plywood" and got a heap of hits (in Oz). Tricky I know

Sorry I didn't see you at Trend David hope it was just a case of not able to make it there and not ill health.

Those are works of a master I'd love a set of the grandkids

Thanks again everyone, for the positive comments.

'I have tried to get onto hoop pine ply but haven't been successfully. Would you tell me were I can get onto it please as well as Karrie ply. I have used Karri pine for scroll sawing and find it very pleasing to work with.'

The hoop pine and Kauri pine ply comes from Mr Ply and Wood, these timbers just happen to be readily available, pale, close grain plywoods. Though Kauri sounds like karrie (Eucalyptus diversicolour) a very hard Western Australian timber, Kauri pine (Agathis australis) is actually a relatively soft timber. Don't be tricked into thinking I have this kind of information at my finger tips... Well I do sort of, via Google.

'Sorry I didn't see you at Trend David hope it was just a case of not able to make it there and not ill health.'

Just a couple of days of couldn't make it 'wheelinround', I'm flattered you noticed.

That is an outstanding piece of art you have created there David.
I particularly like the bonnet cap.
The details and consistency in things like the rabbit fur are very good.

Stewie