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pyroglyph β Goddess Guitar
Published: 2007-04-19 15:25:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 5135; Favourites: 56; Downloads: 52
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Description
So I was poking through my old pictures, and I came across this one. It is a twelve string guitar I woodburned a few years ago. Picked it up used and stripped the finish off the face of it, then burned the designs in. The largest image is a picture of the goddess Isis, thus the name of the piece. The images of the women came out of various gaming books, the knotwork is historical, and the connecting flames that fill everything else in are original. Once I finished burning (weeks of work, as you can imagine...) I refinished it so it was nice and shiny again, and then promptly sold it at an SCA event. Which is why I don't have great photos of it, 'cause I only had a crappy camera at the time.Anyway, it was fun. Something I ought to try again sometime.
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Comments: 24
This is awesome! I especially like the knotwork. That stuff is difficult to draw, let alone burn into wood!
Also, thanks for the fav
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Well thankee kindly! I loves me some wood burning fun times...
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This is beautiful. I love the details of the knotwork.
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Why thankee! It was more fun than one would think fire and wood and solvent would be...
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I'd love to have designs like that one on my acoustic, very nice.
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Thanks! All you have to do is A) sand off the finish, B) draw out the designs, C) transfer them to the guitar, D) wood burn them, and E) re-finish the guitar. (That last one is kinda a doozy, though. Can be difficult.) Of course since I had no idea how the project would work out, I bought a crappy guitar from a pawn shop to try out the idea on. Wouldn't recommend it on a nice guitar, you might not like the results.
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Thank you for the advice; you make the wood-burning part sound so easy (and since I have refinished before), I might try that.
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Hey, no problem. Actually, I have found wood burning to actually BE pretty easy. Not nearly as intimidating as people think. I did that entire project with one of the fourteen dollar hobby wood burners that you can pick up at any Michaels or other crafty type store. Though I did later pick up a more expensive system, it really isn't necessary to get started.
If you haven't done any burning before, I'd definitely suggest practicing on some smaller projects first. Maybe start with scrap wood. Not pine, though, that is horrible for burning on. It will convince you that you suck, and you'll never want to do it again. I'd suggest basswood, you can get various sticks of that at hobby stores too, or wooden boxes made out of it, or what have you. Then draw out your design using a soft pencil (too hard and you'll scratch/mar the wood,) directly on the surface. Or draw it out on paper and then flip it over and rub it onto the wood. The softer the pencil the better it transfers. You'll want to tape the paper down to keep it from sliding about.
Anyway, the hardest thing to master about woodburning is keeping a steady pressure and speed. And that's just about practice. I'm entirely self taught. No books, no lessons, nothing. It is just kind of like drawing, but slowly, and with a fairly heavy pressure compared to pencil work. 
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Thanks for the advice. Now that I now it only costs $14 I'm getting ecstatic.
So is woodburning like saudering, or is it like transferring images from paper?
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Essentially, you have something in your hand that looks like a soldering iron. But it gets much hotter, and you use it to draw directly onto the wood. The heat chars the wood itself, darkening the area. If you set the iron down on wood and walk away, it will probably eventually catch fire.
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Yeah, the general idea seems simple enough.
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awed.
how do you burn knotwork? 's'hard enough to draw the crazi stuff.
praise u. and yes, do it again; get good shots and put em up here so people can pay homage to your skills.
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How do you burn knotwork? Ok, I can't resist the old saw: "Very, very carefully." Silly, but true. It really did take, like, weeks and weeks of work.
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Ok, that..... is flippin awesome, I love it. Very nice job.
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Thanks.
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