I had the opportunity this week to attend an online pyrography summit. I follow @woodburncorner on instagram and she did a great job promoting and hosting the summit. There were classes Mon-Sat (finishes today) and it was all free!
I had been feeling a bit all over the place in terms of what I wanted to work on next artistically. I felt a bit stagnant with my wood burning. Sometimes all it takes is hearing others talk about their experiences, tips and mistakes to spark interest again.
Even though it was a workshop on pyrography, there were classes that any artist, and for some classes, any one, could benefit from. Here are some of the things I took away from the week.
Goals– write down as many goals as you can to achieve in five years then choose ten to accomplish in the next year. These should be from all aspects of your life. Pin those ten goals up where you can see them daily.
Finding Focus– ask yourself six times ”Why am I doing this?” Why is my work different? What does a customer get from my product? Focus on only a maximum of five different themes with your business/blog/hobbies.
Books for Life – Contagious by Joana Berger, 4 hr Work Week by Tim Ferriss, Imagine Heaven by John Burke, 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
Books for Artists – The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon (he was a keynote speaker..so engaging that I already downloaded one of his books)
Social Media– everything you are trying to promote on social media needs to be posted ten times in ten different ways. Write like readers are friends. Be genuine and real.
Wood– The five best woods for burning on: basswood, maple, aspen, yellow poplar and birch. We have two of these types of trees on our property!! Book to read: Wood by Eric Meier
Neat Pyrography Tools– Tom Bow sand eraser to erase graphite transfer, white charcoal pencil to highlight, finger gloves to reduce heat on skin, ceramic knife to scrape away overburn, beanbag to rest hand on while burning.
Colour – ways to add colour to wood: water colour, acrylics, coloured pencils, gel pens. When using water colour give your wood a water coat first and WORK QUICKLY. Layer your colour to add 3D effect.
Pinterest – by using Pinterest, you can increase your website traffic by 90%. Every picture you post, you can add a link. Use Idea Pins (videos) to get more traffic. Use variations of the key words you are trying to promote (woodburning, wood burning, pyrography, burning wood).
Instagram – Reels are seen the most then stories then carousels then images. Use the platform to find out current trends; which products are popular. If you are not selling or entertaining then instagram may bypass your content.
I enjoyed listening to everything and took notes for myself but I chose to mostly stay out of the chat. I am a listener unless I have some advice to offer or a burning question to ask.
We had the opportunity to watch specific pyrographers work on their own pieces. Somehow it made what they were accomplishing less out of reach than before.
There were a few sessions where we burned template ideas that were offered to us.
Here are the ones that I tried.
A Mandala: I chose a mandala snowflake as it had snowed on Sunday
The next one was a template of a poppy from The Woodburn Book of Community Templates designed by @finelinepyro
The last one I did was another template created by @knotsandembers also from the same template book.
Overall, tuning in to most of the presentations was definitely worth my time. I got some good pointers in areas where I have struggled. I got a few new followers and started following others. Grateful to the pyrography community for coming together and putting together a great week of content. It has brought me back onto the creative path.
All good!