Further Tips on Making the Folk Art Walking Stick-Photo

I wanted to show the color change to the walking stick once I stained it with antiquing medium.  I have placed an unstained stick of locust wood beside it so you can see the depth of the color change. 

For this walking stick I used a clear antiquing medium mixed one to one with burnt umber.  You can generally buy a pre-mixed antiquing medium and not have to mix your own.  However, my craft store has changed ownership and now they are now carrying different products.  Instead of trekking to another store in search of my usual product, I decided to experiment.

I always test my materials on a piece of scrap wood first.   The burnt umber mixture was my second test.  My first choice of color to add to the stain had too much red in it.  If I had put that color on the stick I would have been really dissatisfied.  I can't stress this enough.  Test your materials for color and compatibility on scraps of the same type of wood you are using for your project.  It has to be the same type of wood because different types of wood can look completely different using the same stains.   Compatibility of materials can also be an issue.  Sometimes oil based and acrylic based products will not work together.  In some cases the top material can flake off.  In other cases, the top material ends up obscuring the layer beneath it.  You don't know how the products will act together until you test it.

My Wild Rose walking stick has three coats of the antiquing medium/burnt umber mixture on it.  This was followed by four coats of indoor/outdoor satin finish polyurethane varnish.   It gives the stick a nice patina without being too dark.  The coats of antiquing mixture also slightly toned down the bright rose colors giving it a more natural dusty rose look.  It may have been hard to tell from photographs, but the rose color was a little bright. 

Some people have wondered why I did not use regular wood stain.  I could have, maybe.  Once again, it is a matter of testing materials.  It may or may not have worked, and wood stain is more expensive than a small bottle of antiquing medium.  If I had decided to use a wood stain, I may have had to stain some areas and left others unstained so I could paint it.  If I had decided to stain the stick and paint over it, I would have had to do a long term test to see if the paint would flake off over time.  A walking stick has a long life.  I want my walking stick to look nice for the long run.

Full View of folk art Wild Rose Walking Stick

The walking stick is not quite complete in this photo.  I still have to stain the stick with antiquing medium.  However, it does give you a look at what the whole stick looks like full length.

The dark wood burning around the design helps it to stand out from the stick.

Folk Art Wild Rose Walking Stick-Tip of the Day - Photos

I have painted the leaf detail on the folk art walking stick over the weekend.  When you look closely at the detail, you can see that they are primitively painted.  However, when viewed from a distance, such as if you stopped to speak to someone while out walking with the stick, the detail gives the appearance of direction and motion to the leaves.  If you were to see the stick in person, you would really notice the difference.  Without the detail the leaves look flat. 

Unfortunately, the resolution on these photos hardly makes it worthwhile to post them.  The difference is really quite hard to see.  The top two photos are of a section of the walking stick with the leaf detail painted.  The bottom photo shows a section before the detail was painted for comparison.





The design on this walking stick is quite small.  The flowers are only one inch wide.  The leaves are about 5/8 of an inch long.  The small size of the design made it fairly difficult to wood burn and paint.  I counted how many times I had to reposition the wood burning tool to follow the design on one flower (122 times) and one leaf (24 times).  If that same figure held true for all the flowers and leaves on the walking stick, this walking stick would have 6,758 individual wood burns on it.  It would have been a better approximation if I had counted the amount of burns on several flowers and leaves and taken an average, but how long do you want to keep counting for somethin that is not really relevant to the project.?

Tip of the Day:  When wood burning a design with a repeating pattern, it is important to make the depth of the burn consistent throughout the project.  Differences in the depth of the burn will be very noticeable.

 

Update, Tip of the Day-Photos

I've been painting the walking stick this week.  So far I have painted the roses and the base coat of the leaves.  I'm not particularly pleased with the roses at this point.  I was trying to paint them like a particular rose, but it seems to lose something in the translation.  I thinking I may paint them a solid dark pink, but I'm concerned that they will lose some of their energy that way.

I still need to do some vein detail on the leaves.  I also need to add the antiquing medium to stain the wood a darker color.  The darker medium over the paint will soften the pinks a bit.  at the moment they look a little bright.

Tip of the Day:  Wood burning on a walking stick can be a bit of a challenge.  The stick is more or less round, which means it rolls fairly easily.  Supporting the ends of the stick on something soft such as a rolled up towel will help keep rolling to a minimum.

I've added a photo of one of my gazing balls in the garden.  I snapped this photo before I weeded the garden.  It was a really hot day and I decided to put off weeding it was a little cooler.  The weeding is finished but I haven't snapped any new pictures since then.

Update on Wild Rose Walking Stick and Yard Photo

The design is now painted white.

Despite a very busy week and weekend, I've managed to put a white base coat on all of the design on the walking stick.  There are no new pictures because the white does not photograph very well against the white wood.  Imagine all of the design is painted white and you will get the gist of the progress.

Since I don't have a new photo of the walking stick, I thought readers might enjoy a photo of the yard.  We have had a lot of rain this year and the flowers (and weeds) are growing like mad.  I'll include a few photos of the yard over the next couple of posts.

Day Lillys and Sun Dial

Update on Walking Stick & Tip of the Day

Update
I have completed wood burning the wild rose design on the walking stick.  I had considered adding a second spiral of the design, but I see now that there would not be enough room to do this without making the design look crowded.  Chaotic profusion works well for nature, but not very well for art.  I am considering wood burning a bit of enigmatic poetry on instead, but I may ultimately decide to just leave it as it is.  I think I will go ahead with painting the design I have on it already and see how it looks before changing my plan for the walking stick.

I am often asked where I get my wood for walking sticks.  I live near a farm.  Every few years the farmer will cut down the saplings that grow at the edge of the field and shade his crops.  With his permission, I forage through the downed saplings and select the ones that will make a nice fairly straight walking stick.  So yes, some trees were harmed to make walking sticks.  However, they were already cut down by someone else and all I did was pick up wood that was left to rot.  I offer the downed saplings an opportunity to live on as a work of art.  

It occurs to me that some people might be inspired to decorate their own walking stick after viewing my designs.  My tip of the day deals with the work that needs to be done with the wood before you start putting a design on there. Hopefully, it will keep some people from making an aggravating and discouraging mistake.


 Tip of the Day:  Wood Selection and Drying Time

Begin by choosing a hard wood such as oak, ash, locust, or maple.  Softer woods can be used, but they may break if you were putting too much weight onto the stick.  I work with locust wood.  It is an extremely hard wood and makes a strong walking stick.  (I make my walking sticks to be used as actual walking sticks used for hiking rather than just decorative pieces of wood.)  I use saplings that have grown up straight rather than branches to make a walking stick.  Branches have more curves and often aren't straight enough.  However, if you find a branch that would make a nice stick, go for it.

You can't just pick up a stick, start stripping it and add a design.  Your stick will crack!  The stick needs time to dry before you begin working on the design.  The drying process can take years.  The stick needs to be off the ground in a dry place.  I usually keep my sticks in a shed. 

Some people say strip the saplings right away because it is easier to remove the bark while the tree retains some moisture.  If you choose to strip the sapling at that point, you will need to wrap the sapling in plastic.  After that, you will have to open the plastic for about an hour each day to allow it to dry out a bit at a time.  This is way too much work for me. I have had saplings crack even if I have waited a year to strip them.  Note: If a stick does crack, you can use wood filler to fill in the crack.

My method lets a sapling dry on its own.  The saplings I pick up are about ten to twelve feet tall.  When I bring them home, I cut them down to about seven foot lengths, cutting some material off each end so that each end has a fresh cut to allow moisture to escape.  Then I keep them in the shed for at least two or three years.  As the saplings dry out, they will splinter and split for several inches from the cut ends, but the rest of the stick generally remains intact.  When they are dry and I'm ready to make a stick, I cut off the splintered areas.  I will have a usable piece of wood somewhere between five and six feet long.  It is more work to get the bark off at this point but I find that I have more usable sticks this way.

Folk Art Walking Stick and Tip of the Day

I have begun wood burning the Wild Rose design on the folk art walking stick.  I estimate that it will take twelve hours of actual wood burning time to get the design on the stick if I keep it to a single spiral, and twenty-four hours if I decide to make a double spiral.  Once the wood-burning portion is complete, I'll give the stick a good sanding before I start painting. 

Each section of the design takes approximately an hour and a half to wood burn onto the walking stick. The design is about nine inches long.  To keep the pattern from being too repetitive, I use the pattern up, and then turn it upside down for the next section.
At first glance, it would not seem that changing up to
 make much difference,but it makes a big difference
when it is spiraling around the walking stick.  Walkingsticks aren't completely straight, so the crooks in the stick take the design in unexpected directions.  The unpredictable pattern actually helps mimic the chaotic growth of a wild rose plant.

Tip of the Day:  How to transfer the pattern from the sketch book to the walking stick.   There are a number of methods you can use to transfer the pattern.  Which one you choose may depend on what equipment or supplies you have on hand.

My Method-Using an Ink Jet Printer  For this design, it is worthwhile to tape your first copy onto the original sketch so that you have two strips per page.  Make sure that you make a very dark copy so that the design can easily be seen through the back of the page.  Then make all your copies from that sheet.  It saves paper.

At this point, you could cut out your design and use transfer paper to transfer the design to the stick.  Use the method of attaching the pattern I describe below.  I don't use this method for this type of project because the transferred design rubs off too easily.  While handling the stick during the wood burning, some of the design may be worn away.  Also the transfer paper leaves a lot of carbon smears all over the stick.  The method I describe in the next paragraph is a more satisfactory method of transferring the pattern.

Turn the paper over.  Use a colored pencil to trace over the design on the back side of the paper.  Cut out your design leaving a margin of 1/8 to 1/4 inch margin around the design. Wrap the strip of paper with the colored pencil side facing the walking stick and secure with small strips of  low tack artist's tape in the margins.  Trace over the design with a stylus.  The waxy colored pencil will transfer your design and stay in place with out wearing off as easily.  Each design strip can be used twice before having to change or re-cover the strip with colored pencil.  I usually change to a new strip after the second use because the strip starts to break down after being scratched by the stylus. Carefully remove each strip after the design transfer, checking to make sure that the design transferred adequately.  It is much easier to tape down and re-trace that section if you still have the rest of the strip in place.  If you have removed the entire strip before checking the design, it is much harder to make the pattern match up.  At that point you have to decide whether you want to free hand that part of the pattern or take on the tedious task of getting the points of the pattern to match before re-tracing the design.  After wood burning is complete, sand the stick to remove any transfer lines (and scorch marks!) that may be visible.

Using a laser printer:   Copy the design using a laser printer.  It must be an actual laser printer.  These two methods will not work with an ink jet printer.  (Trust me on this. I've tried.)  Copy the design as described above.  At this point, there are two methods for transfer.  If you have a pattern transfer head for your wood burning tool, you can tape the design face down and run the heated head lightly over the paper.  The heat will transfer the design onto the wood.  Make sure that you do not hit any of the tape with the heated transfer head. 

A second option for laser print patterns is to follow the above directions for copying and taping the pattern, then dab alcohol onto the back of the paper strip with a cotton ball.  The alcohol will transfer the lines.  Be careful not to use too much alcohol, it can cause the lines to run.  This option is probably not your best choice for using on a walking stick.  It works best on a flat surface.

If you have a burning desire (pardon the pun) to try a laser print transfer for a wood burning project, you can take your design to a copy place and have them run off your copies on their laser printer.

Wild Roses Walking Stick-Design Photo

I just have time for a quick post today.  I've started on my folk art walking stick with a wild rose pattern that I drew myself.  The pattern was inspired by the wild rose bushes on my property.  They bloom in profusion in the spring.  The rose bushes grow quickly with branches going every which way. 

The design will spiral up a walking stick.  I have started to wood burn the pattern onto the stick.  At the moment it is only spiral.  I may add another, depending on how the design looks once I have the initial spiral completed.

Thoughts on Diorama-Part Two

Many people have mentioned the juxtaposition of the two symbolic objects of devil and small town.  In our society, the devil symbolizes evil and the ills of the world in all its forms.  The small town is an idyllic symbol that holds so many unspoken associations:  honest citizens, a simple life style with no crime, neighbors helping neighbors, friendships, peace, religious community, parades on the 4^th of July, running barefoot in the grass at dusk catching lightening bugs, and so much more that it would be impossible to name them all.  These symbols as symbols are almost dynamic opposites.  They create tension and seem to tell a story.

The viewer of the piece supplies that story by accessing and projecting his or her own interpretation of those symbols.  In talking with various people I have heard many interesting stories about what the piece means to that individual.  I’ve noticed that the theme of the story is heavily influenced by age, gender, life experiences, and whether the individual’s life style is rural, suburban, or urban.  The stories and questions that have been raised are more interesting in the piece itself.  They span everything from whom or what the devil represents to thoughts on what occurs in the building with no name.  Once again, I will invite readers to leave comments on their thoughts about the piece in the comment section of the blog.

As I stated in an earlier blog, (Thoughts on Diorama-Part One) the primary impetus for making the piece was seeing the devastation to small town economies by the recent (and on-going) financial crisis.  The secondary reason for choosing a small town was all the political rhetoric going on with the current non-stop political campaign.  The 24 hour news cycle plays sound bites of politicians invoking small town America continuously.  One reason they visit and mention the small town is to pick up votes.  The bigger reason that so many politicians want to be seen in reference to small towns is that it creates an association between the politician and the symbolic meanings of a small town.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a symbol worth? 

Once I started thinking about the small town as a symbol, I started thinking about a small town in reality.  Are small towns now or have they ever been anything like the symbol they represent?  The symbol of the small town relates to the idyllic parts of small town life, but currently rarely associates with some of the negative aspects of that lifestyle.  As I said in Part One, everything that happens in a city happens in a small town, it is just a matter of scale.  Along with the wonderful parts of small town living there can be all the social ills of our society. A perusal of American history would indicate that many small towns were dangerous and lawless places during the formation of the country.  Only later civilizing influences turned the small town into a nice place to live.  I think that the current symbol of a small town was formed during and after World War II.  This was a time when the majority of the country worked as a unified group and religion and church community provided emotional support during a time of great loss. 

Showing the difference between the symbol and the reality was another concept that helped evolve this piece.  If the small town were portrayed without a devil, people would not access the total picture of the small town.  Most viewers tend to interpret the diorama in terms of opposites of good and evil, but my thinking is that this is more of a yin/yang depiction.  The evil is always there.  It is just in our minds eye we choose not to notice it. These were some of the ideas that came up in the development of this piece.