Emergence of wood burning artists was largely observed from the 17th to 18th century in the US. Young adults and housewives then, were encouraged to engage themselves in crafts. Finding it a fun pastime, artists across the globe led the development in the field of wood burning to another level of artistry. So, let’s gather inspiration from some top wood burning artists by knowing them a little better, a little deeper.
Wood Burning Artists to Take Inspiration from
1. Lora S. Irish
Lora is a trained fine artist from the University of Trained. Twelve of her oil based paintings of purebred dogs have been issued as limited edition arts. Her art has earned recognition and could make its place as front covers on “Samoyed Quarterly”(all 4 issues) of 1991, “Doberman Quarterly” of 1991, and “Shetland Sheepdog Quarterly” of 1991 issued by Hoflin Press.
Lora has authored a number of books regarding wood burning art, woodcarving, and craft patterns Currently she has 32 publishers that issue her art prints.
Her woodcarving book contains in-depth knowledge regarding classic carve patterns, and this book was published in 1999 by Taunton Press (the publisher of Fine WoodWorking Magazine). The other hobby and crafting titles including Relief Carving Workshop, the Great Book of Dragon Patterns, the Art and Crafts of Pyrography, and Classic Chip Carving were published by Chipping Away, Incorporated. Her books are all available on Amazon.com; the best place on the internet to find all her books at the best price.
There are two websites of Lora where you can find her tutorials in art and craft:
- LSIrish.com: This website has free online projects and tutorials of hundreds of pages content
- ArtDesignsStudio.com: Here you can learn everything about her line art drawings and patterns that are exclusively created by her (Lora), typically for the artisans and craters
Note: ArtDesignsStudio.com has been offering over 2500+ patterns since 2013 in different categories that include Nautical and Sea Life, North American Wildlife, Dragons and Mythological Beasts, Celtic Knots, and many more! Lora’s tutorials have always been and still inspire many artists out there as she continues to teach new pattern ideas to the viewers.
Currently, Lora S. Irish is engaged in exploring new crafts and interests including metal sheet jewelry, wire bent link jewelry, gourd carving, piece patch and applique quilting, gourd pyrography, and leather crafting.
2. Simon Easton
Simon Easton completed her BA (Hons) from the Manchester Metropolitan University. There he studied silversmithing, woodturning, and pewterware. His work on pewter napkin ring set has been an MMU winner of the Pewter Live contest in 1999, and it was featured at Pewterers’ Hall in London.
Simon has been the winner of a Grant from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and Precious Metals Bursary for producing outstanding designing concepts developed by him. The theme that Simon commonly maintained in his work was textural, decorative feel which appeared often rich in pattern or embellishment.
Simon started with his woodturning, pewterware, and silversmithing career right after completing his graduation from Manchester Metro University. Simon’s crafting interest in wood eventually led him to the path of woodburning art.
He uses this art with a modern twist and touch to produce richly decorative gifts and items. As a result of which, he now runs a full-time business of Wood Tattoos. Simon has created numerous works and commissions of various sorts. So, he is not only a successful full-time entrepreneur but also the author of 3 pyrography books!
3. Sue Walters
Sue Walters is internationally popular Australian wood burning artist, who has won several international awards for his outstanding wood burning works, including Melbourne Working with Wood Woodworking Competition, Australian Society of Miniature Art International Competition, Ontario Woodcarvers Association Championships, Australian National Woodcarving Competition, Ottawa Woodcarving Championships, Canadian Woodcarving Championships, and Hawkwind Wood Carvers Competition. Her previous workbooks of pyrography have been the best-seller of Fox Chapel publishing house, with a total sales of 50,000+ copies.
4. Jannie
Jannie aka the professor cum artist of pyrography and wood burning like helping people of similar interests with different tools, information, and techniques used in wood burning art.
She mastered her art of pyrography by trying the overwhelming list of pyrography techniques, trials, and challenges. Now she is a successful pyrography artist, who is more focused on teaching the other beginners the lessons that she earned from her experience. Apart from that, she also sells her art works across the globe and has been doing this since 2016.
Jannie began her woodburning art teaching journey in 2019 at a local art studio. Then in 2020, she founded Burn Savvy & Burn Savvy Academy. She teaches courses of pyrography, conducts online workshops and tutorials. She also does live hosting of her demonstrations and workshop for other crafting websites.
5. Aney Carver
Aney is a creative pyro crafting artist with 10 years of experience in the same. She brings life to her inspired work pieces and does more than just smoking up her workplace.
Aney strengthened her interest in wood burning art by creating exceptional pyrography projects and founded Pyrocrafters in the year 2016.
She likes to encourage other pyrography artists to unleash their creative potential, the same spirit which stokes her artistics efforts into pyrography.
Aney’s passion for art and craft made her work getting featured on Art Insider and Lettering Daily. Her endeavor of sharing wood burning arts resulted in the publishing of her new book in early 2020: Drawing with Fire”.
6. Rachel Strauss
Rachel discovered her passion for wood burning art in 2011 and ultimately founded Wood Burn Corner in the year 2016. Her first book was “The Wood Burn Book”- the ultimate wood burning guide, released in August 2020 in collaboration with Quarto Publishing. The Wood Burn Community Book of Templates was her second book which was successfully released in August 2021. Rachel appeared at Altitude Summit two times, Creative Summer Retreat, Pinners Conference, and the Artist to Author Summit.
She has created a community “Burn Club” for the wood burning enthusiasts and artists of all skill levels who are looking forward to knowing and growing with her learnings from her Burn Club+ premium community.
Rachel loves teaching and sharing wood burning arts. She does that through online sessions which include 2 classes for Michaels Stores. She also likes teaching corporate team building for renowned private firms like Microsoft, Insight, Bloomberg, and many more.
Skillshare features her classes on Wood-Burning right from the scratch. She earned the opportunity to work in collaboration with The Crafters Box to come up with a curated box and video lessons to the world.
Her artwork is featured on the packaging of the Walnut Hollow Creative Woodburner. Also, her works were displayed on the Instagram feeds of the following channels: Etsy, Blick Art Materials, Pinners, Craftsposure, Joann, Walnut Hollow, Creatorslane, Do It Yourself Magazine and in Handmade Revolution.
Below are some of the names of the artists that Rachel loves working with for creating unique pieces of art:
- thepigeonletters
- hazelslettering
- lettersbyshells
- electriceunice
- thegreyrose
- itskateshandwriting
- rosaliegwenpaperie, and more
Lastly, Rachel got sponsored by several companies including Walnut Hollow, Tekchic, Tandy Leather, PJL Enterprises, Razertip, and ToTombow.
7. Deborah Pompano
Deborah discovered her passion for woodburning art in 2003, which was a major turning point in her life as it brought her back to her much loved shading and drawing. These all started at a local crafting show, where she saw a pyrography work on brasswood of a cragged Indian face. That unique medium of art on wood provided a natural and warm feel followed by an interesting background to the carved-looking, sepia-toned lines.
The wooden workpiece itself brings a natural beauty to it. The rustic and classic look, overall, greatly interested her towards pyrography. As a result of which, she worked with a Walnut Hollow one-temperature woodburner for one year. She even worked with the Janik woodburner for 3 years, which was recommended to her by Stephen Poole. She is in a constant process of trying and learning the ultimate ways of applying colors to her pyrography projects as she thinks she is yet to learn many new methods and dearly loves to follow her passion for woodburning.
Recently she is engaged in coloring her woodburning projects, that too, successfully, using Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils. These colored pencils contain a much lower proportion of wax compared to other brands. She studies and works together with other new teachers and artists, sharing materials and other requisites alongside their success stories and failures. It was fun for her attending classes at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, both located in Richmond, Va., and at the John C. Campbell Folk School, located in Brasstown, N.C., where she studied painting, pyrography, photography, and gardening.
8. Bee Locke
Bee Locke is a self-inspired and self-trained artist behind her outstanding woodburning works that she did so far. Her projects will give viewers the feel of nature’s unending beauty in the woods that she worked on. She always strives to make artworks that could be cherishing and could stoke inspiration to the viewers.
Bee’s Creative Woodburning book is now available for the woodburning enthusiasts to gather all the knowledge about pyrography art right from the scratch.
She was always inspired by the creative art work that she grew up with. Although it took her years to develop the discipline and confidence to become a full-time artist, now it has become her livelihood. More importantly, she finds happiness and peace in her work, which is the ultimate thing we all crave for.
She was introduced to the art of pyrography in the year 2009. Starting with a simple pyrography pen, she quickly caught interest in the diversity of wood burning art, the pleasant aroma of the wood burnt smoke, the rich sepia tint that the burning produced, and the exceptional quality of each canvas made of wood. After several years of practice and upgrading multiple tools, she discovered her signature style and cultivated her interest in the art of pyrography.
Now she works from her home studio, located in the lush peaks of North Carolina, where she lives and learns with Rob; her partner, their cheerful daughter followed by 2 sweet puppies, and not the least to mention; a rural beauty spread over 21 acres of land.
9. Minisa Robinson
Minisa Robinson is the daughter of a pro-grade artist and was born and brought up in the mountains of Colorado. She grew up seeing the work of art and hence, developed a feeling of love and respect towards the same as she aged. Minisa spent a major part of her life developing her skills in creative art, be it acrylic , graphite, oil painting, watercolor, ink, and many more.
She earned a total experience of 12 years working as a graphic artist cum publisher prior to becoming a self-trained woodburning artist. Now she burns realistic arts on unfinished wood pieces with a hot metal pyrography tool (wood burner) and steady hand. Her work of art reflects the feel of the Rocky Mountains and the wildlife that exists there.
Recently, Minisa has begun painting with alcohol-based inks as well. The vividly bright paintings of her lean towards the abstract, however, offering a vibrant vision which can be clearly interpreted.
10. Jo Schwartz
Jo started her art of pyrography as a mere hobby which ended up becoming her profession. Jo is globally known for her outstanding works of pyrography. She has sold her art pieces worldwide and has been reached out by individuals from several countries to provide private lessons to them. In fact, the first person ever to teach woodburning art at Antarctica’s McMurdo station was Jo Schwartz.
Jo likes working on different types of wood for her pyrography projects – recycling some pieces from a local cabinet store.
Since each wood piece that she works on has its own unique grain, hardness, and texture, you won’t find any two pieces of her artwork the same.
11. Julie Bender
Julie was born in St. Louis, Missouri and brought up in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up knowing the work of art and was greatly fascinated by the animal drawings. After completing her graduation with a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Art Education from the Missouri University, Columbia in 1981, she began her career as a computer artist. Later, she worked as a project manager in web and software development companies until the mid of 2012.
In 2002, after the demise of her beloved Vizsla, the only resort that could ease Julie’s pain was to pay a tender gesture of gratitude. However, little did she have any knowledge of pyrography. So, she purchased a hobby-shop wood-burner and started from scratch, starting with making her dog’s image on an urn made of cherry wood. That was a turning point in Bender’s life, where she diligently worked on wood burning with the ambition of pursuing this trade as her career.
Self-trained in the wood burning art, she continues to experiment and come up with new innovations to evolve her work of art and grab opportunities where she can add these techniques in the race of fine art. Julie’s career includes museum acquisitions, international sales,invitations to major juried international shows and exhibitions, teaching, top gallery representation, features in major publications, and exhibition awards.
12. Bisa Lisa
Bisa was with the mindset that she can’t pursue art as her career. So, she joined the architecture school using her art skill. She worked there full time, forgetting everything about art for sometime, which then started impacting her happiness creating a vacuum within. Later, she gathered enough courage to recollect her creativity and took a step ahead towards turning her hobby into her job. Since she had to meet her rental fulfillments, she continued her contract in her architecture job.
Bisa was the name given by her elder sister and Lisa is the short form for a Bulgarian fox. Much like an agile little fox, Bisa was an energetic girl full of life and joy.Now she has her own studio named as Bisa Lisa Studio; it is a gentle reminiscence to her tender childhood self that she runs now to create her crafts.
13. Kate
Kate is the head, heart, and hands behind Wild Pine.
Being inspired by the bumpy shorelines of Vancouver Island and West Coast forests, Kate fuses the two into her wood burning art. Talking about handmade, each piece is rustically burnt by hand, some of which even took more than 20 hours to get it done.
What started as a wedding place set-up in the year 2013, now expanded into hundreds of customized art pieces found in homes across the globe.
14. Cynthia Gibson
Cynthia does her pyrography work from her home studio located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Her elegant cum distinctive wood burning artworks combine colors in the most beautiful and unusual ways. Apart from working on her array of dolls, she also works in collaboration with certain Internationally recognized pyrography artisans.
Cynthia notably and affectionately acknowledges the support and help she got from her dear friends, including Dale Larson, Cindy Drozda, Binh Pho, and Madelyn Molina, throughout her entire drive of creating The Amazing Doll collection.
15. Roger W. Bishop
Roger started to revive his long-lost age-old passion for art several years prior to retiring from his sales/engineering career. He was much inclined towards wood burning as that work of art had its own natural uniqueness in 2-D works, warmth and beauty of the wood, and lastly, its historic antiquity (only next to pottery).
He received the local and global recognition only after spending a prolonged period of 4000+ hours in learning this artwork (by self-training).
Roger lives with his wife Nancy in Arkansas and are the parents of 2 and grandparents of 4. He still looks forward to accepting challenges while creating the unique workpieces for his followers.
16. Bob Neill
Bob works from his studio located in Aston on Trent, south of Derby. All his life, he has been into art and craft. His institutional records follow- normal college in Bangor, Birmingham University and Trent University – Nottingham, Cardiff College of Art.
He taught art in Derbyshire and London at secondary level for more than 20 years. In the early 60’s, he was a prominent leader in developing the basic design ideas in the education of art.
Bob exhibited his major abstract paintings, metal constructions , and mosaics in several renowned galleries across the country during the 60’s and 70’s. His experience of utilizing plastic, metal, and wood took his art to some other level in the 70’s, where he designed and made toys for differently abled children.
He got the Winston Churchill Traveling Scholarship in 1975 to exchange his ideas with toy creators from Canada and USA.
By late seventies, Bob became a member of the pyrographic revival – a conventional craft practiced for over years in Africa, South America, Poland and other Eastern parts of Europe.
In the year 2003, Bob achieved the Shackleton Trust Scholarship – teaching wood burning in the Falkland Islands.
17. Crystal
Crystal is yet another wood burning artist, who teaches pyrography and cultivates community, encouraging people of similar interests to be confident enough in stepping ahead and extending their limits of their own creativity. She resides in Monroe Washington, where she works from her wood burning workshop.
18. DJIBRIL N'DOYE
Djibril N’Doye’s personal style of art is inspired by ebony sculptures and he considers his artwork to be “universal”. He creates the transparent effect in his artwork by processing images of different prices of the ebony hardwood. His drawings reflect the daily life scenes of his native West Africa.
Earlier, while working with watercolor and oil paints, Djibril cultivated his signature technique of only utilizing ballpoint pen during his period of experimentation and research for about 6 years. After reaching a professional level of art with his ball pen art technique, he started with charcoal pencil working on broader surfaces to further develop a deeper and detailed style of drawing. His latest creations are directly etched on wood with a pyrography pen and/or oil pencil.
Djibril was born in Bargny, Senegal, in 1953. He is a self-trained artist, and a part of the National Association of Artists/Graphists of Senegal (A.N.A.P.S.). The public life of Djibril N’Doye started when he won the First Prize for exhibiting at the Popular Educational Center in Rufisque, Senegal, in 1981. Just the following year, he achieved the First Prize at the Blaise Senghor Cultural Center in Dakar, Senegal.
This recognition gave him the opportunity for a solo exhibition in 1984, at the Daniel Sorano National Theater in Dakar. A year later, Djibril founded Suunu Nit Artists Group in his hometown; Bargny, with the purpose of empowering and developing the local writers, painters, and artists, helping support the artistic community of Bargny.
Djibril exhibited his artworks regularly from 1992-1995 at the Hotel Savana in Saly de M’Bour. From there, almost 150 original artworks were sold out across the globe. Later, in 1995, when Djibril relocated to the U.S.A., he gave much time to producing his own well-received exhibition displaying 26 original art pieces. Since then, he has been an active participant in numerous exhibits, juried festivals, galleries, and museums in Georgia, Arizona, Utah, California, and Virginia, in South Korea, and in Senegal as well as giving speeches about his life, journey to the world of art to the students from grammar school through college, and to special art events.
Summary
Although wood burning art is mostly viewed as a fun activity, the technique is quite calculative and needs years of hands-on experience to attain the pro-level of artistry in this. Only a few skilled wood burning artists, as the ones mentioned above, can achieve the sense of depth, shading, texture creation, and realism in their work.
