Pyrography Nativo Bee Hive

I did some wood burning on another native bee hive, this one is a Nativo hive. I still need to revarnish it as I sanded it all off before I started burning, it's possible to burn while varnished but I prefer not to. Once I've varnished it I'm going to use it as an eduction on my TC hive, this will be the first time I try them so we'll see how they go!

Bamboo Salad Hands

These were a birthday gift last year and I wish I had bought more of them because they turned out great! Unfortunately when I went back to buy more they had none left.

Bamboo is a little difficult to burn, especially thick lines so this simple monstera leaf worked out well.

Chicken Coop Signs

Before we got chickens I spent ages researching chicken coops and saw so many funny chicken signs that I decided to make a few for my own chicken pen. The first one I ever made was "Eggcellent House" which my mum wanted as the name for her chicken coop. She never got around to hanging it on her coop so when she rehomed her chickens she gave it back to me.

The top two are just pieces of dressed pine which I varnished really well, they're in need of a light sand and recoat as the varnish is starting to crack on the top, but the burn has been protected by the varnish.

The mother cluckers was oiled decking timber and unfortunately being in full sun it has faded the burn and the wood has gone mouldy in the rain. I have a new sign on decking timber that I need to varnish so I can see how that well that lasts in our wonderful Aussie sun!

Birdhouse Gourds

Last year I finally planted two birdhouse gourd seeds to grow over the chicken coop - along with loofahs and snake beans. They did grow over the chicken coop, but they also travelled up our huge dracena, over the quail shed and along the shade cloth we hang over the bees.

With all the research I did, I was only expecting a few gourds from each plant. But only one plant survived to do all that travelling, and I now have so many gourds! Surprisingly the plant is only dying now wheras the loofah died off when the cold hit over a month ago.

Gourds can take months to dry, as they've dropped from the vine I starting making macrame hangers from twine so they have really good air circulation to prevent rotting. Then I just grabbed an old piece of wood from the yard, screwed in a whole heap of cup hooks and put it between the sheds. I read that they go mouldy and smell pretty bad as they dry out so I figure the junk pile won't mind!

It's working well, I have a few that seem to be fully dry and I haven't noticed any mould or any bad smells - not that I'm going to breath deeply or intentionally smell them when I get close.

Since that old piece of wood doesn't seem to be coping too well with the weight of the fresh gourds the rest will hang out on the mulch until I have room on the hanger. Gourd farmers do just leave them in the field over winter until they dry out so this shouldn't be a problem. Although I do wonder if contact with the ground might cause mould or rot issues.

The first thing I'm going to do is put a couple of small ones in with my finches to see if they like them. The main reason I wanted to grow them is to do pyrography on them. I've seen them used for bowls, spoons, yarn bowls, ornaments, planters, lanterns and of course they used to be used for water hence their other name of bottle gourd.

Pyrography Native Bee Hives

Last year, before life threw us many lemons, I got the chance to do a collaboration with Steve from nativebeehives.com who makes beautiful cypress native bee hives. H trusted me enough to decorate some of them with pyrography, along with one of his ukuleles.

I have wanted one of Steve's hexagon hives since we first learnt about native stingless bees. Now I think it is too lovely to put outside in the weather and it sits proudly on display, safely inside. One day I'll find the perfect spot to keep it protected from the elements and where I can see it through the window.

Steve gave me an octagon hive and in exchange I got to burn on two of his other hives for him and he also let me do a burn on one of the ukuleles he makes. These are by far the nicest woodworking pieces I've ever burnt on, I was so excited and but also a little terrified that I might make a mistake on such beautifully made hives. Luckily I didn't mess them up, and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

The only thing that needs to be condsidered when doing pyrography on native beehives is if you want to split them later on - the top two levels will be separated from the bottom level so the design can't continue through the levels.

Steve makes a lot of creative and fun native bee hives that are incredibly high quality so please check out his website - he also has an online store if you're interested in buying your own hive. And if you'd like to read the article he wrote about my pyrography you can check that out here.

Bee honey dippers

At the moment I am totally uncreative, there aren't any crafts I feel like doing. After my huge list of handmade gifts at Christmas time (and the birthdays around the same time) I just get worn out and don't craft for awhile. But it is March now, this weekend is Easter and other than my sister's birthday in January, I haven't made a single present. 

I have a birthday present to finish in just over a week (and by finish I mean I also need to start it)! Hopefully starting on this handmade gift will help me get the creative bug again.

Luckily for my blog, I have plenty of goodies I've made and haven't yet shared. Like these honey dippers.

I know they're not commonly used anymore but they are cute in their own right. Personally I think I made them even cuter with the little bee designs I burnt into them. I made tips for my wood burning pen to create the basic outlines to keep them consistent, then just added in the details.

I've given a few of these as gifts, and a few have been added to my "selling box". My selling box is where the items go that I've made just out of enjoyment, not intended for anyone in particular, just my one day I'm going to have a market stall or website where I can sell my creations. I am happy that it at least has been added to since Christmas.

Wood Burned Cat Spoon

I just had to share this photo...

This is Chaos, he is one of my foster cats (most likely that sentence will have the word "foster" removed). 

Chaos decided to "help" me photograph one of the wooden spoons that I burnt a cat design on. What normally happens is that I start clearing space to take a photo or start a craft and all of a sudden one of the cats decide it's the perfect spot to sit/lay/sleep/play. Luckily this time he was in a good mood and let me sit the spoon under his leg. Funnily enough the first time I showed him a wooden spoon he attacked it, I guess there have been enough of them around my house that they are huggable now.

This spoon and a second one I made were Christmas gifts for the ladies who run the rescue that I foster for (plus toys for their cats).

Woodburned Knife Block

Every time I go to Ikea, there are so many things I want to buy and by the time I get to the register I'm dreading the total. So I mentally take note of all the things I want so I can think about it for awhile before buying.

One of those items was their RETRÄTT Knife Block - an item I don't actually need since I already have a knife set with a block. Plus I wanted to burn a design on it and I wasn't sure if I could due to the lacquer.

Eventually I bought it of course, then it sat on my desk for ages because every design I tried to draw on it just wasn't right. Until I decided to get out my flower stencils and draw a few of those on. Then googled flower drawings and sketched a few of those in the gaps. So I started burning, drawing in more flowers, stems and leaves, then burning some more until I was happy.

Because of the lacquer, my pencil drawings rubbed off very quickly so I had no choice but to draw and burn flower by flower. Ordinarily I like my projects to be perfectly planned, but luckily this one turned out great and most importantly I enjoyed doing it.

Wood burning

At one stage I decided I wanted to try wood burning, so I got out my trusty plastic melting soldering iron and had a play with some scrap wood. It didn't look that great, but I blamed it on the wood I used, along with the fact I was using a soldering iron and bought a proper wood burning tool anyway!

So far I am finding that while sometimes it is the wood that is the problem, for the most part I'm just not that great at it. It doesn't help that I only found one wood burning tool, and I don't think it's all that flash.

Rather than wasting  my time doing scribbles on scrap pieces of wood, I found a cheap pack of wooden spoons and got to work. 

Even though I'm a total novice, I'm happy to add these to my kitchen and hopefully with lots of practice I will get better - or I'll buy a better wood burning tool. 

With Christmas getting closer, these spoons will be put to good use making rumballs - let's hope that unlike last year we don't end up with another snapped wooden spoon!