What on Earth am I doing?

Hello, this second blog finds me in a bit of despondent mood. You see I have now been practicing pyrography for a little over a year and I find myself at loss for what to do. When I started I had clear objectives, such as get myself to craft shows, set up a website, do some wonderful designs, provide plenty of value for money craft items such as keyrings and bookmarks; all whilst learning the art of pyrography. I was confident about this plan, after all I have over a decades worth of art education and organisational skills that were honed during my teacher training (yes I have even been a teacher), and also my military experience (Air Cadets count right?).

But here I sit, my mind almost a total blank, typing away with no idea where even this blog will end up. I don't think I'm on my own to have feelings like this, I think a lot of creative people sometimes feel a bit lost (if you don't or have never felt lost than kudos to you).

Unfortunately for you here is the rather dull section where I review what I've done so far, but I will include pics so it's not totally boring. In the beginning I had in mind to sell lots of smaller items such as the aforementioned keyrings and bookmarks. I wanted to keep the designs quite traditional in pyrography terms, flora and fauna etc, and customer requests. My reasoning here was that it is good practice, the pyrography equivalent of sketching that, as an artist, I do to keep my skills honed (that word again). In retrospect I believe that my first mistake was buying loads of smaller items for stock. Yes I have sold quite a few but I still have plenty left; also they have all had designs burnt on them so soon I will be left with just the unpopular designs.

Now I really wanted to make some larger pieces, I'd been burning these smaller items for a few months now but nothing really ambitious. As I'm based in Sherwood Forest I am able to get my hands on quality Birch and Sycamore, even the odd bit of Oak. I selected oak for a particular piece I had in mind, The Tale Of Robyn Hoode. This was to be done on a nice strip of oak in the style of the Bayuex Tapestry.

*Note to all pyrographers, Oak is a bugger to burn ;)

It turned out quite well and sold before I had even finished it. Now I've mentioned sales a few times but I need to make clear that its not all about money. However that said I still need to make a living, as do all craftmakers and artists, so the financial aspect does play on mind occassionally. It is very much a factor when considering what stock to buy in, what you think will be popular, will it be the design or the item it's burned on? I have considered all these things and the truth is... there is no definitive answer. I have however, in the time it has taken me to write this (quite a while I'm a bit of a troglodyte when it comes to computers), come to some conclusions and now have some idea as to what direction I will be going.

Firstly I have decided to continue burning on smaller items, I will try to keep the subject matter popular but the style will be more my own, for example the eggcup above. That eggcup shows how I like to depict animals, and plants are no different. Secondly I will be doing more unique pieces on wood from Sherwood Forest. These will have whatever subject matter I decide and be either in my folky style or naturalistic (keeping those skills honed haha); and finally commissions. I love doing requests, it makes it interesting and gives me the chance to try new things. On the subject of new things I have tried branching out with small leather items but leather is hard to come by so I will be experimenting on different surfaces over the year to see what works and what I like.

Thank you so much for letting me get this off my chest and hope to have lots of cool stuff to show you over the year :)

Rich.