Gourd Pyrography: The Art of Woodburning Gourds

Gourd pyrography, or woodburning gourds, is one of the most popular art forms among gourd artists and gourd crafters. Pyrography is the art of burning, (Pyro), a picture or image, (graphic), on to something. There are many popular canvases for pyrography including wood, leather, paper, Tagua nuts and, of course, gourds. Wood is the most commonly known medium for woodburning, those of us who grew up in America have seen the woodburning kits for kids with a nine dollar burner and a piece of wood with a picture outlined on it already, however the art of pyrography has made great leaps beyond those little kits.

Today pyrographers normally use professional pyrographic pens that heat up and cool down rapidly and have a temperature control for better control of the burn itself enhancing the ability to create smoother shading. The $10 and $20 woodburning pens you might find at WalMart are not good for woodburning gourds because they get way too hot for gourd work, however I will discuss in another article how you can make a temperature control for those types of woodburners.

Perhaps a couple reasons why Gourds have become such a great medium for pyrography are because of it's consistency and it's lower burn temperature. When a pyrographer burns on wood you have to deal with the difference between the grains of the wood. Some parts of the grain can burn rapidly while between those parts of the grain it burns slowly, thus leaving a dotted looking line when trying to burn across the grains. Gourd Pyrography does not encounter this problem since gourds have no grain to them, or if they do, the entire surface of the gourd is the same layer of grain, therefore woodburning gourds is a much easier art form to learn because of the consistency of the burn.

Another reason why gourd pyrography is so popular could be because gourds will take the burn more readily and at a lower temperature. when you do a lot of really hot burning, then woodburning pens tend to get a little hot to hold. Even with their foam insulated tips, the heat can eventually work it's way through to your fingers.