It was my birthday last month and one of my gifts was a pyrography woodburner, what a great gift and what a fun craft! I'm such a beginner but even when you are just starting out it's not too difficult to pyrograph some half decent things. Any pyrography expert will see all the mistakes here and that's fine, but it doesn't take long to be able to make something that's not embarrassing!

Wood burning practice ideas

When I first got my pyrography tool I was searching the house looking for wooden things I could practice on. First I decorated a load of clothes pegs. Brilliant because we have hundreds of them!

Then I tried a little writing on some old wooden spatulas.

I just wrote in pencil then went over it with the pyrography tool.

The spatulas were not totally smooth so the lettering is a little more lumpy than I would have liked but still good for practicing. I’d recommend maybe giving them a quick smooth over with some sandpaper before starting your wood burning.

UPDATE 2024: I used these wooden spatulas as normal after decorating them, including putting them in the dishwasher. I can report that the pyrography has all worn off now. So you’ll either have to keep wooden spoons and spatulas you’ve decorated with wood burning purely as a decorative thing, re do them every few years or just accept the decoration is temporary.

Sometimes simple is best, I love the little heart on the end of a wooden spoon. I think maybe all wooden spoons should have a little heart on them.

After all this practice i felt ready to dive into a real project. I saw these lovely bridal party hangers over on KJH Creative and thought I'd give it a whirl. Kelsey has made a little video of her process and shared her hints and tips too.

How to make a Personalised Dress Hanger with a Woodburning Tool

My cousin is getting married later in the year so it's a perfect opportunity to make a personalised hanger for the bride's dress.

For the hanger I decided not to freestyle it with the font and so I printed out the words I wanted in a font I knew they had used for the wedding invitations (I knew this as I made them, I'm not a font expert!) I printed a couple of sizes I thought might work.

Transferring the design to the wood

Turn the paper over to the back and trace over the words with a soft pencil. Then lay the paper on top of the hanger in the right place (just hold it up to the window to see through and position it correctly) and then scribble over the words so the pencil marks transfer to the wood.

Now you are ready to burn the words into the wood using your pyrography tool. Just take your time, and don't worry too much if it's not perfect. Made with love is better than perfect any day!

I added a few little hearts too because ... well ... you know .... hearts!

It turned out my wooden hanger had a varnish of some sort on it, the hot tool melted the varnish and gave this sort of outline effect. I didn't fight it, I've just decided I like it. If you don't then just make sure your hanger is not varnished.

Do you have a pyrography tool that need to come out of the cupboard and get fired up again? Or do you have a birthday coming up and need ideas for your list? Who wouldn’t want a personalised hanger for a special garment, it doesn’t just have to be for a wedding. A set of personalised child sized wooden hangers would be lovely for a new baby wouldn’t it?

Julie

I'll be sharing this project at these link ups.

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