I was very lucky this Christmas to receive a pyrography set from Mrs Sketcher and I have been having fun experimenting since.

It’s always great to find a new way to be creative and from my early experiences it seems pyrography, which is the art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks is perfect for my style of sketching.

Using a ‘pen’ with a heated tip you can make a marks on wood and with a number of different shaped tips you can make various marks from curved lines to broad shading. Below is my first mess around with the pen, and a burn portrait of Mocha, the Sketcher Cat.

I have included a link to a similar kit to mine online if you want to have a go yourself, it is a little tricky to get used to the speed in which you move the pen, as depending on the wood if too slow the tip can stick resulting in a large burn mark, and if too fast then the linework can be too light. But once you have a controlled speed the drawing is relatively easy.

The kit I received had a number of wood pieces within to try out the pen but unfortunately they were not labelled so I cannot name the wood that these are made on, if you can then please let me know.

A similar pyrography kit at the HobbyCraft website.

The original Edinburgh Castle burnt sketch is available framed for £75. Let me know HERE if you would like to purchase it.