Burning With Talent

As you all know, I am a man of great creativity and artistic talent. So when KLS received this for Christmas… 

 
…my interest was piqued!

The kit contained a woodburning tool, two pieces of wood, a sheet of instructions, a sheet of designs and some carbon paper to transfer the design. Here’s the tool: 

 
And here’s some of the design ideas and instructions: 

 
As you can see, it’s all very helpful to the beginning pyrographer. Me though, I don’t need design ideas! The very suggestion is a slap in my face! 

No sir, I knew precisely what I’d be burning into the wood.

It didn’t take me long to master the variety of lines and techniques possible with the tool: 

 
And I wasted no time in the creation of my first ever woodburning masterpiece. Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you “Herald of The Dark Star”

 
Takes your breath away doesn’t it? 

The bold line work. The subtle shading. The dramatic blackness of the sun. I’m sure you’ll agree that in only about ten minutes I created something truly unique in the world of burned art.

Some detail of the shading process: 

 
Three coats of varnish and a wall mount later and this has now become a permanent display in our home: 

 
And with woodburning mastered, I wonder what I’ll turn to next?

The Master At Work

In neither of these cases was I aware I was being filmed 🙂

Me whacking moles: 

Me running hurdles and throwing a hammer:

As a comment on that final video, yes I have gotten that far (and further) before. It’s just that it was > 20 years ago.

Also, look closely and you may witness me busting out the legendary ‘triple flapper’ technique at one point 🙂

Ice Over

This was the view from just outside our cabin yesterday morning: 

 
As you can see, the weather had cleared and the ice had receded. Shortly after taking that photo a curious boat cruised past: 

 
Much later in the day we returned to find the view outside had changed significantly: 

 
Look at all that ice! The person at the end of the dock is the proprietor of the motel, who was frantically breaking the ice sheet that had slowly drifted east across the lake and was now threatening to crush his docks.

He explained to me the boat I’d seen earlier cruised back and forth all day to create a wake to keep the ice sheet on the western shore, but it hadn’t been enough yesterday and he seemed quite concerned it would damage his property.

Afterwards we returned to Funspot and didn’t get back until dark. This morning the ice was on the other side again and the docks intact. I think they dodged a bullet!

  
That’s a 306 foot tall monument in Bennington, VT built in the 1880s to commemorate a battle that occurred nearby over 100 years earlier. That little silhouette at the bottom is KLS! There’s actually an elevator inside that takes visitors up to a viewing platform but it’s still closed for winter so we couldn’t go.

We had stopped there on our way home today from our short “lakefront video game holiday”. While the trip itself is done (and was great), there’s still one more blog post to look forward to…