Pyrography, or wood-burning, as it is most often called these days, is the use of a hot metal-tipped tool to create marks on wood. Similar to a soldering iron and available at craft stores, you can get one of these nifty devices for as low as $10-$15. I have this one, which I purchased at Michaels. It was $29.99 regular price but of course I used a 40% off coupon!

It was a little awkward for me at first, and curved lines still elude me sometimes, but I’m finally getting the hang of it. I’m not sure what it is; the smokey campfire smell, the satisfaction of easily cutting through such a solid substance, or the natural beauty of the finished product, but I am in love!

So far I’ve mostly used birch, I like the way the raw bark looks on the edges. A friend of mine harvested some fallen branches from his property and another friend cut them up into slices for me.

Here’s a small project I made for a friend’s in-Home yoga studio:

Nothing incredible but still pretty darn cool. I simply found an image that I liked on line and sketched it out with pencil right on the wood before burning. On YouTube videos I’ve seen people make transfers but I haven’t tried this yet. I also made a bunch of Christmas ornaments this year for friends by drilling a small hole in the top and stringing through some twine.

There are a lot of helpful resources online, along with some truly incredible works of art that artists have created. Next I’m going to convince my 11-year-old to jump on my crafty bandwagon!