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CELTIC BIRDS POSTAGE STAMP

PYROGRAPHY PROJECT

LORA S. IRISHLSIRISH.COM

ARTDESIGNSSTUDIO.COM

Copyright, L S Irish, LSIrish.com, 1997-2015

All Rights Reserved, 1997 - 2015

Create perfect graduated shading

using the art style of

pointillism.

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SUPPLIES NEEDED

9 X 12 x 1/4 birch, basswood, or poplar plywood

220- to 320-grit sandpaperBrown paper bag#4 soft pencil for tracingMasking tape to secure the paper patternRulerVariable temperature pyrography unitBall tip or loop tip burning penArtist white eraserPolyurethane or acrylic spray sealer

Ball-tip Pen

Loop-tip Pen

Stamp collecting is one of the favorite past times

in the U.S. Many of us began as small childrenwho waited impatiently for the days mail to arriveto discover if one of the envelopes sported a newstamp for our album.

As adults our interests expanded into the history,geography, and political movements of foreigncountries or into the elusive chase of a particularstamp that would complete a year set or seriesrelease.

A philatelist, stamp collector, might focus theircollection of a specific time period - as stamps is-sued during World War II - or on a specific groupof countries - as stamps issued from the CaribbeanIsland nations - or on a particular topic - as steamengines, butterflies, or dog breeds.

You can bring your favorite stamp topic into yourlove of wood burning with this beginners levelpointillism-styled project. Pointillism is the artstyle of creating designs, with graduated shading,through the use of a simple dot pattern.

So lets begin our free ArtDesignsStudio.comproject by getting our supplies together.

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PEN TIP SAMPLE BURNING

Each wood burning unit manufacturer has a wide variety

of pen tip profiles that you can use in your pyrographywork. The shape of the tip determines the shape of thesmall dot pattern that pen will burn.

Where a ball-tip pen creates a perfectly round dot, theloop-tip pen makes a small oval burn pattern. Any pen tipcan be used for pointillism, so have some fun practicingwith each burning pen you have in your kit to determinewhich pen tip will work best for you.

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PRACTICE BOARD

Creating a practice board before you begin yourproject allows you test you tip points, experiment

with your temperature settings, and explore thetextures that you can use on any pyrography project.

If you are starting a new project work, practice on thesame media on which you will burn your design. For thisproject you would burn your practice board on birch,basswood, or poplar plywood.Simple Realistic Flowers Pattern Pack

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POINTILLISM

The simple shape of the dot is used to create the pointillism style

of pyrography. Fine, small dots widely spaced give a light tonalvalue to the area of work while tightly packed, medium-sized dotstake the area into a darker tonal value.

The size and tonal value of each individual dot is controlled by thetemperature setting of your wood burning unit. A mediumtemperature settings, between 4 and 5, makes mid-tone,medium-sized dots. Hotter temperature settings between 6 and 7will give you a dark toned dot slightly wider in size than themid-tone settings.

Of all of the art styles available to the pyrographer, pointillism is

the easiest way to create seamless, graduated shading.

Giraffe Practice board: Working left to right

First square: medium temperature setting, lightly packedSecond square: medium temperature setting, graduated packingThird square: medium-hot temperature setting, graduated to whiteFourth square: medium-hot temperature setting, solid fill corner

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1 PREPARING THE WOOD

Begin this project by lightly sanding the board surface with220- or 320-grit sandpaper to remove any wood fibers or ridgelines left from the manufacturing process.

Work the sandpaper with the wood grain to avoid adding finescratches that may show in your burning later. Remove thesanding dust with a lightly damp cloth.

Brown craft paper or brown bag paper can be used as a fine-gritsanding media and leaves your wood surface with an extremely

smooth finish. For this project we are using it as our finalsanding media. You can also use heavy brown paper to cleanyour burning tips without damaging the polish of the tip wire.

Crumple a piece of brown paper bag paper. Use the crumbledpaper exactly as you did the sandpaper to give your surface anextra fine sanding. Remove any dust with a clean area of yourdamp cloth.

BROWN PAPER SANDING2

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3 TRACING THE PATTERN

Print two copies of the Postage Stamp pattern with your

computer printer - one for reference during the burningsteps and one to use for your tracing pattern.

Fold one copy of the pattern into quarters, folding oncealong the vertical center and then a second time along thehorizontal center line.

Using a #4 to #8 artists soft pencil, rub the pencil graph-ite onto the back side of the pattern paper. Completelyfill the area with a solid rubbing.

With a ruler, lightly pencil mark the center vertical and

horizontal lines of your wood surface. Place the patternonto the wood surface, printed side up. Match the foldlines of the pattern with the pencil guidelines on yourwood.

Tape the top edge of the pattern paper to the board usingmasking tape or painters low-tack tape.

With an ink pen trace the pattern lines. Remove the pa-per pattern.

Pencil tracing lines are easily removed after you havecompleted the wood burning using an artists whiteeraser.

Avoid colored erasers that can leave dye streaks on yourfinished wood burning.

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PENCIL TRACED PATTERN

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4 OUTER FRAME BURNING

Using a medium-high temperature setting, and your ball-tip or

loop-tip pen, begin your project by filling in the the outer framearea of the design with a tightly packed dot pattern.

The medium-high temperature will give you dark tonal valuedots without haloing or scorching the background area of thework.

The top banner, U. S. Parcel Postage, uses this dark, solidpointillism pattern to make the lettering appear as if it werewhite colored. This technique is called a negative burn, and iswhere the background of the element is worked in a dark burnand the primary element is left in the unburned lightest tonal

value.

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OUTER FRAME BURNING

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SHADING THE OUTER FRAME5

Work the graduated shading in the outer frame using the sametemperature setting as in step 4 with a loosely packed dot

pattern.

The loosely packed dot pattern allows some unburned areas ofthe wood to show through the burning. This mix of lightbackground and dark dots blends to create a mid-tone valuerange.

The darkest areas of the shading are worked at the outer side ofthe area or where the area comes into contact with another areaof the stamp pattern. In the sample, below, you can see thedarkest area of the corner triangle is worked along the left -outer - side of the pattern area.

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SHADING THE OUTER FRAME

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6 SHADING THE CELTIC KNOTS

Using a medium temperature setting, burn a loosely packedpattern of dots for the Celtic knots that originate from the birds

head feathers.

Visually break your Celtic lines into small units that begin andend where the line tucks under another portion of the knot.

Work each section of Celtic line as one complete unit by darklyshading the two outer edges, where the line tucks under anotherline, in a dark, tightly packed dot pattern.

Gradually loosen the packing pattern as you near the center pointof the line unit. Allow a thin center slice of the line unit toremain unburned.

This will give you a graduation of dark, medium, light,unburned, light, medium, dark in each area of the knot pattern.

Use this temperature setting and a medium-packed dot pattern tooutline the Celtic knot lines.

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SHADING THE CELTIC KNOTS

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7 SHADING THE BIRDS BODY

The birds face and the triangular accent in the wings show thedarkest area of the burning on the side of each area that is closestto the center point of the pattern. Note in the close-up below thatthe lower bird mirrors the shading of the upper bird.

To create a few extremely dark tonal value areas in this project,tightly pack two layers of dot patterns to the eyes, nostril, andbeak opening. Work the dots of second layer of these area to fillany unburned, white areas left from the first layer burning.

The solid-packed dot pattern is also used in the wing lines - seephoto below.

A solid-packed dot pattern is used to outline the front area of thebirds face, the eye rings, and around the outer edge of the wing.

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SHADING THE BIRDS BODY

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SHADING THE TAIL & FEET8

A medium temperature setting and loosely packed dot pattern isused to create the pale tonal values of the birds leg, foot, and

the three tail feathers.

The base of the tail, where the tail tucks under the back wing,uses a medium-hot temperature and a graduated tightly-packeddot pattern.

The inner crescent-shapes of the tail are left unburned, and theouter crescents are worked as a solid-packed, dark tonal value.

Work the pattern outlines in a medium to medium-hottemperature setting with a tightly-packed dot pattern.

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SHADING THE TAIL & FEET

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PERSONALIZING YOUR STAMP9

Part of the fun of creating your own postage stamp design is

that you can add a personal touch to the work. In our sample Ihave added, in a vertical line, along the left edge of the designarea my name and Made in the USA. Just above the 1 centbanner I have added the name and state for my home town.

This same pattern could easily become a wedding plaque byexchanging the newly married couples last name where thepattern has U S Parcel Post.

The brides first name could go into the left-side number ovalwith the grooms name in the right-side oval.

Replace the word cents with the marriage date, and the hometown personalization with the name, address, or location of thechurch, temple, or synagogue.

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10 FINISHING

When your project burning is complete, unplugyour wood burning tool and allow it to coolbefore storing it away. As a habit I clean mypen tips at the end of every burning session witheither a leather strop and rouging compound orwith heavy brown bag paper.

Using a white artists eraser clean the surface ofyour burning to remove any remaining patternlines and dirt that has built-up. Wipe the woodwith a clean, dry cloth to remove the eraserparticles.

Using the brown bag paper, lightly rub thesurface of your burning to remove any remainingrough fibers left from the hot temperature burns.Wipe the surface with a clean cloth.

At this point in the project you can add coloringto your postage stamp using watercolors, artistquality colored pencils, watercolor pencils, orwater-based fabric dyes.

Seal your burning using several light coats ofpolyurethane or acrylic spray sealer, following

the directions on the can.

BONUS PRACTICE PATTERNS

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Postage Stamp Pyrography Pattern

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Practice Board Pyrography Pattern

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Join Lora S. Irish, internationally known woodcarving, pyrography, and pattern book author, as sheteaches the basic steps, techniques, and practices toPyrography.

Explore the different styles of wood burning units,the burned strokes made with each pen tip profile,and how tonal values are used in your wood burning.Learn how the tool profiles, line density, and stroke

textures of pyrography can be used to create specificburning styles.

Lora will show you how to work a basic texture strokepractice board with over 50 different fill patterns.Because of Lora Irishs teaching style, this book isperfect for the brand new beginner that wants astrong foundation in this craft and has many specific,advanced techniques for the long-time pyrographerto bring their wood burning to a new level.

You can contact Lora S. Irish directly through her freeprojects blog at LSIrish.com and visit her line artpattern website at ArtDesignsStudio.com.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

ArtDesignsStudio.com

Digital PatternsReady for Download

Pattern Package Discount Codes

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CP138Postage Stamps Pattern Package

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Bears Pattern Package features full facial portraits, full bodies, and complete landscape scenes with GrizzlyBears, Brown Bears, and Black Bears. You will discover bear cubs in trees, a salmon fishing Grizzly, a paperwasp bee hive Grizzly, and waterfalls Grizzly sow and cubs.

With the high interest in wildlife themes today, this Lora S. Irish package is great for those looking to carvejewelry boxes, gun chests, or just a present for your nature lover. Carving patterns for wood carving, woodburning, and painting. Great for Wood Burning!

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CP137Sampler Pattern Package

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Sampler Pattern Package By Lora S. Irish

126 line art patterns, plus 72 complimentary shaded drawings, for easy tracing and easy wood carving, pyrogra-phy wood burning, and craft work. Patterns include Wood Spirits, Wizards, Dragons, Greenmen, Celtic, Wild-life, Landscapes, and much, much more.

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Copyright, 1997 - 2015 by Lora S. Irish, 2015

Celtic Birds Postage Stamp Pyrography Projectis an original work, first published in 2015 by Lora S. Irish,LSIrish.com, and Art Designs Studio and fully copyrighted, AlInternational Rights Reserved and may not be distributed in anymanner. The patterns contained herein are copyrighted by theauthor.

Readers may make copies of these patterns for personal useThe patterns themselves, however, are not to be duplicated forresale or distribution under any circumstances Any such copying