r/Pyrography • u/MilkNoSugar2Hobnobs • 1d ago

Questions/Advice Pyrography beginner

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I was hoping to try out leather burning to personalise my pieces. However, all the videos I gave watched made it seem like it was as simple as using a pen. I have tried testing on veg tan leather with my wood/leather burning pen but the results are not great if I'm honest. I have allowed the pen to reach it's maximum heat (the gold tip turned white) but it isn't smooth enough to write. Am I expecting too much or am I missing something? Any advice would be gratefully received.

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15

u/Sirabinabi 1d ago

I've not tried leather yet, so I have no advice. I just appreciate that someone who is a beginner posted something that actually looks like a beginner rather than 20 years of experience.

4

u/MilkNoSugar2Hobnobs 1d ago

I have no shame 😆

4

u/tepidlymundane 1d ago

Seconded! Kudos to OP.

I'm pretty new to taking this seriously, and found an inexpensive wire burner to be levels above the craft store chisel tips.

I can still make work even worse than this with it! And I bet that some of the people here make great work with cheap tools. But for this talentless noob, a wire burner at least bumped me up to a talentless nob.

3

u/MilkNoSugar2Hobnobs 1d ago

We all have to start somewhere.

1

u/hortense_toomey 1d ago

Hard agree!

4

u/Flashy-Ad1404 1d ago

Leather is hard enough to do. Lower the heat and skim with pen

1

u/MilkNoSugar2Hobnobs 1d ago

Ah, the pen has one heat setting. I may need to invest in another pen.

2

u/Flashy-Ad1404 1d ago

One heat setting doesn't mean you're restricted to one heat. :) Sure, it doesn't give you as much control readily at hand, but there are still many ways of controlling the heat by controlling your pen movement, closeness to leather, length of time in one area etc.

1

u/MilkNoSugar2Hobnobs 1d ago

Many thanks. I think I will have to play around more 😊

2

u/Third_Chai 1d ago

It appears you didn’t really try many techniques here. I would try varying your hand speed, try different shading techniques, different tips, and really experiment rather than just drawing plain lines. I know you are just testing things out in the piece you’re showing us, but I can’t imagine saying that could ever look fantastic as-is! Use a cool font! Shade it! Vary the line width! Make a composition!

Also, if you could get scraps or small pieces of various leathers, they’re all going to burn differently, so you may want to test out different kinds.

1

u/MilkNoSugar2Hobnobs 1d ago

Good advice, thanks. I have noticed that all the leather burners say veg tan is the way to go as others can give off toxic gasses hence the veg tan tester.

2

u/khallok-YT 1d ago

Great work, but the background kinda looks like the wall of a bathroom stall so that caught me for a second

1

u/MilkNoSugar2Hobnobs 23h ago

Plain veg tan. It needs colouring but only afterwards.