How to Burn a Relief Into Wood
A relief burnt into wood is done with a special wood burning tool. The wood burning tool looks similar to a soldering iron but has different tips to create different shapes on the wood. Wood burning is used on wood, boxes, shelves, plates, plaques, pendants and shoes. Anything that is made from wood is a good candidate to create a wood burnt relief. Practice making a burnt relief on a scrap piece of wood. The process seems simple but it takes time and practice to achieve a quality piece of work.
Instructions
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1
Count the wood burning tips. Draw one geometric design on a piece of wood for each tip. Geometric designs consists of shapes that have straight edges, such as squares, rectangles and triangles.
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2
Plug in the wood burning tool and allow the tip to heat three minutes. Draw along the line of the first geometric shape to learn how the tip burns and what it looks like. Unplug or turn off the wood burning tool and allow it to cool for five minutes. Remove the tip and replace it with another. Repeat the process until all tips are used.
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3
Select a wood burning design. Wood burning designs are outline drawings similar to color book designs. Complicated line drawing designs are possible after mastering the wood burning technique.
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Place the wood burning design on a flat surface so the front is facing down. Tip the pencil so the flat side of the graphite is on the paper surface. Cover the back of the wood burning design with graphite by moving the pencil back and forth over the design. The back of the design will be totally covered with graphite. This creates a graphite transfer paper.
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5
Turn the wood burning design over so the graphite is on back. Center the design on the piece of wood. Tape the design to the wood with painter's tape. Trace over the lines of the wood burning design with a ballpoint pen.
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6
Remove the paper pattern and tape from the wood. Select the desired wood burning tip and insert it into the wood burning tool. Plug in the wood burning tool and allow it to heat for three minutes.
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Draw along the traced lines with the wood burning tool. Replace the tip as needed to complete the relief wood-burned design.
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