Wood Burning Palm Tree Silhouettes On A Wood Box: Part 1

Wood burning palm tree silhouettes on a wood box is an artistic and crafty way to create imagery on such an item Some people prefer using wood burning image transfers, but I always draw my own pictures directly on a piece of wood I am going to decorate with pyrography ( the official term for wood burning). Yes, over the years I have come to enjoy using the silhouette effect. Honestly, I love drawing tropical scenes with palm tree silhouettes, so this technique also works well for wood burning. The creative thing about pyrography is you can take a boring box, a boring picture frame, or even a boring wood coat hanger, and transform these items into beautiful works of art. One of the trees on the box is not a palm tree but is a tree I spotted near where I live. However, I thought this extra tree would add a bit of diversity to the palm tree silhouettes, and break up the design a bit. Palm tree silhouettes are evocative of sunset imagery, and the shadows the trees caste near the end of the day.

The picture above shows what the box looks like when I began wood burning the palm tree silhouette. This is part one of a two part series, so for this first part I will illustrate how I creating the outline of the trees for the pyrography work.

The first step in creating the tree outlines was to draw the palm tree outline on the top of the box.

Here I am drawing a solitary palm tree frond on the back of the box. The simplicity will be striking once I use the pyrography tool to etch the image on the wood.

On the front side of the box I am drawing a tree with small leaves to break up the palm tree design. I wish I knew the name of the tree with the small leaves, but I all I do know is I enjoyed its outline, and thought it would make a nice pyrographic design on wood.

I finished adding detail to the palm tree frond on the back of the box. Drawing the thin tapering leaves of a palm tree frond on paper, or wood can be quite relaxing.

Now that all my outline drawings are completed, I begin to cautiously wood burn on the solitary palm frond that I drew on the back of the box. I use an old ceramic spoon rest to place the pyrography tool on as it warms ups and cools down. It is important to have a clutter free comfortable space to do pyrography work on, and this hobby is recommended for older kids that are responsible or adults. You might not want to leave your teen home alone using a pyrography kit if you would not let them use the oven by themselves. Supervision is suggested with the pyrography tool until you teens become more responsible to use it on their own. Once you begin to do pyrography work, open the windows as the smoke the pyrography tool creates can be quite strong. Have a fun time working on your wood burning project, and come back for part two.