Multi-Surface Wood Burning with Walnut Hollow

written by Nik Vandeventer
0 Comments

In case you missed it…. last week Walnut Hollow hosted a free online workshop with us to show you how fun their Creative Versa Tool is! I only ever thought burning was for wood but was so amazed to see how many surfaces you can actually burn on! I know it says it right there in the title but what I love most about it is the versatility! I’m not a professional pyrographer (yes that’s what people who do this are called!) but because of the versatility and ease of this tool, I can kind of act like one. Click here to watch the replay of the workshop!

Here are a few takeaways from the workshop that I thought were helpful.

  • Best woods to burn on: Basswood, Birch, Oak 
  • Tape down your wood burn tool stand to the desk you’re working on to avoid slippage or it falling.
  • Treat your tool like a plane taking off and landing. This will help achieve an overall smoother look 
  • If you don’t have graphite paper, you can pick some up HERE but you can also use a pencil and rub it all across the back of your stencil and then trace over it onto your surface like normal. 
  • If you are using any kind of color: paint, colored pencil, marker etc. Do that only AFTER you burn. Burning over color can cause toxic fumes. 
  • If you want to seal your pieces you can use a Polycrylic Spray like this.
  • Remember practice makes progress!

SUPPLIES AND SURFACES USED:

NOW LET'S GET TO MAKING!

Just a warning, some of the materials you burn onto can cause toxic fumes.
Please burn in a well ventilated area using a mask as a precaution.

WOODEN PENCIL HOLDER

Different woods burn differently, so there is a learning curve for this one. I went with the simple dash design from the downloadable freebie. I transferred it using the graphite paper and a stylus and burned using the Flow Point. I left this natural, but you could easily add paint, stain or seal it.

Veg-Tan Tooling Leather:

With this I made this super cute bookmark. Burning onto leather was probably my favorite. It was definitely the easiest and smoothest and I really love the look of it. I started by cutting a 2×7 strip out of the leather. I created my own stencil with a mix of my lettering and one of the freebie designs. I used the graphite paper and a stylus to transfer the design onto the leather and then burned over it with the Cone Point. I was able to use an eraser to erase away any of the graphite left, so cool! 

wooden earring blanks:

FYI, you’ll need some jewelry pliers for the earring set to make them into actual earrings. These were definitely the easiest to decorate! For 1 pair of these I freehanded a simple flower design using the Cone Point and then used a shimmer acrylic paint over it to ‘seal’ them. On the second pair I used the stamp point repeatedly and left them natural. And the 3rd pair I created a little moon phase design and transferred it the same way as the 1st and burned it with the Mini Flow Point & sealed it with another shimmer acrylic paint.

wooden bead set:

This was so fun! I could probably just burn beads forever and make these adorable necklaces. Since the beads are so small, I stuck with super simple designs. I played around with the different points for the polka dots and the stripes and really love the outcome. I just strung the beads onto a cut of vegan suede string, but this kit also comes with twine to use too. 

ROUND CORK TRIVETS

The cork was pretty easy to burn onto, it flowed pretty easily. I went with a simple rainbow design on this one but I really love how it came out. I freehanded this with the Flow point , but the graphite paper works on this surface too! 

COTTON DRAWSTRING BAGS:

I really had no idea you could burn onto cotton, this was such a cool experiment! I will say that this one has more of a learning curve. You need to go slower on this to help it look smoother. I was still super happy with the outcome even as a beginner. Since the cotton was pretty see thru, I was able to put the design underneath the bag and trace over it with a heat erasable pen. The pen marks disappear with the heat from the burner tool! 

WOODEN COOKING UTENSILS:

Since I’m still so new to this, I didn’t want to do anything complicated with these utensils. I used a variety of points to create these abstract geometric designs. 
THE FINAL PROJECTS

If you would like to pick up any of these items and get started on your wood burning journey, Use the code DHL2022 to get 30% OFF anything and everything at Walnut Hollow through 9/30/22.

I hope you decide to give this a try! We would love to see your burn experiments! Please tag us on Instagram @dearhandmadelife & @walnuthollow 

ABOUT NIK

Nik is a maker, day dreamer & potty mouth who loves cats, coffee and craft beer. She is a self taught hand embroiderer and will DIY pretty much anything she can get her hands on. You can see her work on Instagram  @wastingthyme & @nikvphotography. She lives in Long Beach with her husband and her three awesome cats (that she can’t shut up about).

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.