wood burning workshop

On the last day of the Holiday Workshops, I presented a wood burning project. The age range was 7-9 years old. I am always a little nervous when I bring the woodburners out because they are so hot and it only takes a split second for a burn to happen. It is probably the only time I am absolutely stern and serious with the students when I give instructions. However to date, I have only had one minor accident and even that child has begged to do more wood burning.

To say kids love this medium is an understatement.

The workshop was three hours and each student created two works of art. It was interesting to see how their work changed by the end of the class as they learned more and more about how to manipulate the burners and their confidence grew in using the tool.

Again, my pictures are not the greatest as I am rushing at the very end to grab them as parents are picking up at the end of the day. Workshops are a whirlwind of activity and I find I never quite have enough time to capture the artworks properly.

We did look at the work of Horace Pippin prior to starting the project. He is an American Folk Artist who did some beautiful artwork using wood burning. The kids discussed what they noticed in how he handled the wood burning and then they sketched their own ideas on paper before lightly drawing them on the wood to burn.

When they finished, I had watercolors out for them to add to their pieces. The finished results are stunning and there was such a wide variety of compositions.

This artist was quite proud of the texture he created with the burner on the trees.

I was quite taken with the color choices made by this artist and the graphic nature of his handling of the burner. I think it made for a very interesting artwork in the end.

This artwork too utilizes the burner with the most interesting of results. It was fun to watch the kids just experiment with their woodworks.

Two very different approaches to Inuksuks.

And I loved the different ways these three students created animals with the burner. Three very unique and different ideas on the subject.

And finally this artist. He created this lovely tree landscape for his first project and then wanted to create a bear. He did the wood burning and added an amazing amount of color to the wood. So much color that the bear was pretty lost in the composition and he was very discouraged. I handed him some white and black paint but he was pretty defeated so I asked him if I could show him how the adding white or black over the color on the wood could again pull out his bear. He agreed because I think he felt the work was a lost cause. 

I quickly threw some white color right around the two front feet of the bear and some black around his head. Immediately the artist saw what I meant and his excitement grew again. He took over and finished this beautiful piece. I was thrilled that at the end of the project, he saw that nothing is ever lost, it might take a bit of problem solving, asking a lot of "what if I try" type questions but if you don't give up, willing to take a chance, in the end you can find success.

On top of that, it is really beautiful and I would never of thought to paint a rainbow of color and then begin to neutralize it with white or black if he hadn't gone down that path to begin with.

As parents picked up their children, the studio once again smelled like we had enjoyed a rather large bonfire. But on the upside, I was not sweeping up glitter!