Dark Ivy - Pyrography on Mahogany Plate - for "Wood Works: A Regional Exhibition"

[Jim Underwood]

Recently made this plate for "Wood Works: A Regional Exhibition". I've titled it "Dark Ivy". It's a 10" x 3/4" turned and burned mahogany plate. Finished with matte spray laquer. Took me approximately 40 hours including design time and finishing. I'm including trial sketches made two weeks ago. (You may remember a couple previous pieces similar to this.)
If you'd like to see other work in this show, go here: http://ocaf.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140&Itemid=194

[Miranda Hessel]

Beautiful work! It's a very apt name.

[daryl moses]

Very nice, I can certainly see why it too 40 hours to complete.

[John Keeton]

Great job, Jim! I like your final version much better than the others - good choice. Nice balance, and clean work.

[David Delo]

Sweet looking work Jim. Congrats on a job well done.

[Thom Sturgill]

V-e-r-y nice!

[Brian Brown]

Gol Durn That's Purdy!

[Jim Underwood]

Thank you all for the compliments. I've been enjoying this piece now that it's finished. And it's even more of a relief now it's officially submitted to the exhibition. I was half afraid that after all this work, I'd forget to turn it in on the last day.... :p

I was quite excited when I learned about the exhibition. I was planning to enter it and was getting photos of representative work together when I was informed all slots had been filled... Wow, was I ever disappointed. So it was a surprise when I got a call from our club president a couple weeks later asking if I wanted to be in this show. OF COURSE! But it did mean I had to spend the last few weeks scrambling to get this piece created. Took some of the fun out of it.... but I'm planning the next one now.

[Justin Stephen]

Absolutely beautiful job.

[Adam Petersen]

That's just gorgeous work! Timely too, I have been wondering recently about how to transfer designs to turned items. I work in a lot of plain looking woods up north here. I was looking at carbon paper as an option. How do you transfer your designs to your work? Platters make such great canvasses for these types of embellishments and I have some large blanks that I'd like to try my hand at pyrography and carving. Any tips would be appreciated.

[Frederick Skelly]

That's just gorgeous work! Timely too, I have been wondering recently about how to transfer designs to turned items. I work in a lot of plain looking woods up north here. I was looking at carbon paper as an option. How do you transfer your designs to your work? Platters make such great canvasses for these types of embellishments and I have some large blanks that I'd like to try my hand at pyrography and carving. Any tips would be appreciated.

Jim, your work is beautiful! Best of luck at the show!

In addition to Adam's question, I was wondering how you actually carved the design? Did you carve it by hand and then "burn" the background, or do your pyrography tools let you do both at once? (Sorry Sir, I'm a newbie to turning and really don't know.)

Thank you!
Fred

[Jim Underwood]

That's just gorgeous work! Timely too, I have been wondering recently about how to transfer designs to turned items. I work in a lot of plain looking woods up north here. I was looking at carbon paper as an option. How do you transfer your designs to your work? Platters make such great canvasses for these types of embellishments and I have some large blanks that I'd like to try my hand at pyrography and carving. Any tips would be appreciated.
On my first one, I drew it on plain 8.5" x 11" printer paper, cut out the 1/3 part of the design, scribbled graphite all over the back, then traced over it for each third. That's how I did the second one also.

On this one, I just marked out the one third marks, and hand drew it on the plate directly. It didn't matter to me that each third was a little different. I didn't want them to be exact photographic copies...

[Jim Underwood]

Jim, your work is beautiful! Best of luck at the show!

In addition to Adam's question, I was wondering how you actually carved the design? Did you carve it by hand and then "burn" the background, or do your pyrography tools let you do both at once? (Sorry Sir, I'm a newbie to turning and really don't know.)

Thank you!
Fred

There are several different styles of pyrography. Some use extremely fine lines and power settings to define and shade to get a photographic-like rendering. Another is simply just destructive BRANDING using an extremely high power setting. Mine falls somewhere in the middle, although the background on mine is made using the high settings. It's probably most like the carving type of pyrography...
My process went like this:
I first just ran my knife point pen around the penciled design with a low setting and a fine sensitive hand to get flowing lines. Then I came back and burned around the outline again on a higher setting to prevent the ball tip from encroaching on the design. I then used the ball tip on a high setting to brand the background in. There's inevitably some back and forth between the outline and the background in order to get things touched up. And finally I come back with a shader and knife tip to create the shadows and intersections. Sandpaper, alcohol, and razor knives are used liberally in this process...

[John Keeton]

Graphite paper is available at craft stores and works well for transferring designs.

[Jim Underwood]

So basically it's like carbon paper only with graphite? And you just trace the design?

[Dennis Peacock]

Stunning work for sure!!!

[Aaron Craven]

This is beautiful!

[Chuck Sager]

I am in awe

[John Keeton]

Correct....
So basically it's like carbon paper only with graphite? And you just trace the design?

[Ken Glass]

Beautiful work Jim. The art work is wonderful. Well Done.

[Jim Underwood]

Thanks again guys. And thanks for taking the time to post.