I've been playing on and off again with pyrography (wood burning) lately. I've never really stained wood before though, so that step intimidated me. Having just completed a blasted Dr. Fate helmet has given me courage to try new media and techniques, though, so I've burned then stained these two boxes.There would be more boxes stained, but unfortunately, I don't have the equipment to stain multiple boxes at once. I have to do them on at a time, because I don't have enough little goofy pyramids that I use to prop them up. I have no idea what the pyramids are called, but they come from hardware stores, and they are used to do things like prop boxes up while you stain them.
I'm a bit disappointed with how both of these came out. Staining the wood obscures a lot of detail, apparently. I need to try to either work with less detail, or with dark darker detail.
The secret I told you about a few posts ago? It's coming along just fine. I'll be talking it up, soon.
Without yet seeing the boxes first-hand; regarding the approach to detail, I vote for the option to retain detail and darken it. Losing detail that has purpose removes the dignity from complexity.
ReplyDeleteKind of like the following:
Pickled punks are cool. [original]
Pickles are cool. [details removed + lame]
Pickled punks are the crown jewels at a sideshow, and that's cool to the core. [details retained and darkened a little]