Step by Step: How to prep and finish a wood burning.

This year for the holiday season I decided to burn a couple of snow globe ornaments on my Drawing With Fire YouTube channel. This past Tuesday, I was asked by a wonderful subscriber to write out the step by steps of how I got to the point where I could apply the glitter snow. These are the steps and supplies. I included how I did my final varnish as well.

Here are the supplies I used to prep & color the project (links for supplies will be down at the bottom of the page):

Krylon Gallery Series UV Archival Varnish Spray, in Gloss
Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof White
Intrinsic Colour wood stain – Midnight Blue
Fine white glitter
Acrylic paint – white
Minwax polycrylic brush on varnish, in gloss
Small white bristle acrylic brush
Small sponge varnish brush
Cup of water & paper towels
Denatured alcohol (to clean off the wood)
Small palette (this can be a paper plate or piece of plastic)
Tiny plastic / paper cup (this is to mix the glitter)

STEP 1

Design, transfer, and burn the image onto your wood. Absolutely all of your burning should be completed before any color or finish is applied. Once your burn is completed, erase all of the graphite using a white eraser. Under lighter burns, graphite will show through. Now damped a paper towel with denatured alcohol to clean off any excess graphite and eraser residue. Do not soak the wood. Your wood should be fully dry within a couple of minutes. If it takes longer than 10 minutes, you have wet the wood too much.

STEP 2

Grab a small cup of water, 2 small paint brushes, the Dr Martin's bleed proof white, and a small palette of your choosing. The bleed proof white is thick, so you will need to be able to mix it with a little bit of water to thin it out. Dip the end of your brush in the bleed proof white and then wipe the brush on your palette. Dip your brush in the water and then stir it on your palette to thin out the white. Wipe your brush off to remove any excess water. This process will raise the grain of the wood. The more wet your brush, the more the grain will raise.

Now decorate any of the areas where you want snow. For falling snow use dots some large some small. For the snow falling that is further away, make sure that is lighter and more blurry. The bleed proof white does reactivate when wet. If you make a mistake just use a damp brush to rewet and carefully blot with the paper towel. It is easier to remove from a burned area versus raw wood. Apply as much of the white as you want.

STEP 3

If you will be adding stain to the base, now is the time to do it. Any areas of burn will repel the stain. I used the Intrinsic Colour wood stain in Midnight Blue, but you can choose whatever you like. Because I was applying the stain to a small area, I used a medium size soft brush to apply. Follow all of the instructions listed for your product. I do recommend that you use similar based products. Meaning if you are using a water based varnish to seal you piece, use a water based stain. If you are using an oil based stain, make sure to only use an oil based varnish. Everything that I am using is water based.

I stained my base and let it dry overnight.

If you don’t have stain you can use a thinned down acrylic paint. Wipe any excess water of the brush first. Fyi, acrylic paint will cover any wood burning. Watercolors can also be used the same way.

STEP 4

Now that the base colors are down we can do our initial spray seal. I'm using this brand for three reasons. 1. Stain is NOT lightfast. This means that over time especially in bright light, the color will fade. All stain is dye base and this is why it fades. Unless a UV coat is applied, I will loose the beautiful dark blue color. 2. The spray sealant dried quickly. 3. This brand is meant to protect artwork specifically.

For this piece I sprayed 2 coats following the directions. I use a medium size box to place my ornament in to spray. This helps to keep it more contained and it is easier to move my piece around without touching it.

My recently new spray buddy is a spray can trigger. It has made things so much easier to spray evenly without killing my hand. It's a pain to get on and off, but sprays wonderfully. Definitely worth the $10 I paid for a pack of two.

Step 5

You can see this step from start to finish in the live linked here. I painted on more snow with an acrylic white paint. Once dried, I mixed my glitter with a very small amount of my brush on varnish. This is the same varnish I will be sealing with. It really doesn’t take a whole lot of varnish, especially to do just the snow. In a tiny plastic cup, I used a popsicle stick to drip in the varnish and stir in the glitter. This will dry faster if the glitter is a little thick.

FINAL STEP

Once you have done all of your decorating and it is completely dry, it's time to do your final varnish. I use Minwax polycrylic in gloss for all of my pieces. I can see a depth in my burning that you don’t quite get with the other finishes. It also allows you to see your burning from the sides as you walk up. Unfortunately, especially with matte and satin, it blocks seeing your burning from any other angle except head on.

For application, I use a soft varnish specific sponge brush. Craft sponge brushes are to rough. Follow the directions as listed. I applied two coats for this project. For my regular pieces I apply no less than three coats. This varnish is self leveling, meaning when you first brush on you will see streaks, but as it settles it smooths itself out. Don’t freak out this is completely normal. If you use a rougher brush, it doesn’t smooth out as much.

Brush on your first coat going with the grain of the wood. After the first layer dries (2 hours), lightly sand with 220 grit sandpaper. This isn’t a harsh sand, it is just enough to scratch the surface. Make sure to sand with the grain. You will see a white residue powder, this is the varnish and it is normal. Wipe with a slightly damp paper towel, wipe dry if needed. Apply you second coat. If the second coat, is your final coat; you are done. If you are doing more than two coats, make sure you lightly sand each coat after it dries. Your final layer isn’t sanded.

You are all done! Run a ribbon through the ornament hole and hang it up.