Techniques
After turning a piece, Joe often decides to decorate it with pyrography (burning), piercing, or dyeing or a combination thereof. If he plans to pierce a piece, it must be turned thin enough to almost see through.
A very brief description of each technique is found below.
Pyrography is the art of burning a design or pattern into different surfaces (such as wood, gourds, leather, or cotton rag water-colour paper) using special wood-burning tools.
Joe makes a faint pencil sketch of the pattern he wishes to burn. Then he begins slowly and methodically burning line by line or dot by dot to achieve the desired effect.
Once the burning is finished, he gently remove any remaining pencil lines with an eraser.
Once complete, he finishes the piece with several thin coats of lacquer.
The piercing is done using a special high-speed dental drill and precision dental drill bits.
Before piercing, Joe studies the object, its woodgrain and other characteristics and decides where he’d like to add some interest.
Then he begins slowly piercing, one tiny spot at a time to achieve the desired effect.
Once complete, he finishes the piece with several thin coats of lacquer.
The dyeing is done using various dyes and carefully mixed colours.
The dyes are brushed on to achieve the desired effect. Sometimes airbrushing is used to enhance the design further.
Once complete, Joe finishes the piece with several thin coats of lacquer.
Joe’s Galleries:
Bowls
Vases & Hollow Forms
Sculptures & Framed Work
Platters
