How to Make Fish Carvings Using Wood Burning

Wood burning, also known as pyrography, is an interesting hobby to have. It is the art of decorating wood with controlled burning. This hobby is an excellent intermediate-level project, because the fish subject matter lends itself well to the rustic quality of a wood burning.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Choose a light-colored wood such as sycamore, beech or birch.

2. Find the right wood burning tools. Soldering irons are easiest to control and best for intricate details. You may also use anything metal heated in a flame, or even sunlight magnified though a lens.

3. Sketch the fish onto the wood. You may develop a 2-D fish on a flat piece of wood or create a 3-D fish. Carve out the rough shape of a 3-D fish before burning the details.

4. Burn the outline of the fish if it is 2-D, then the fins, scales and eyes. Burn in surrounding details such as bubbles. Create the lines with smooth and quick movements with little pressure. Keep each line you create consistent.

5. Create darker areas by burning over lines again and again, not by going slower or pressing harder. Deepen the color on fins and the eyes, and to add shadow.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a larger, stronger tool for details on a 3-D fish so the scales can be felt as well as seen
• You can wood burn on anything from paper and gourds to leather. Practice scrap before attempting to burn on a new material.