Wood Burning 101

I just thought I would show you some of the wood burning creatures, signs & symbols that will adorn the railing of the treehouse.

We have worked really hard on these with a few burnt fingers . . . and legs (don't ask). Anyway . . .

I'm having a lot of fun doing these designs. Each simple design on a board takes a minimum of 4 hours. So you can see where my evenings have been spent. . .

Yeah there's dragons, dragons and more dragons. But there is also other interesting designs.

Different Celtic knots, ok so the second knot has a dragon head, but the other knots, pyramids and the eye of Isis doesn't.

Then . . . there's a few more dragons, but as I said in an earlier post mapmakers wrote this at the place their worlds stopped.

So I thought it only appropriate to put these on the railings because if you don't stop at the railing your world will stop, 15 feet down.

Headless Dragon

The dragon's head is still missing, it's a work in progress. It will be mounted to the top of the railing when it's complete.

This side of the head is almost done, but I still have to start burning the other side.

Working on the Railing

Each post has a different design or mythical beast burned into it: The first going left to right is a winged dragon, then the eye of Isis, and another winged dragon. Notice there is a space for another post that is in progress at the moment.

The first post depicts a dragon, the second shows three different Celtic knots, then an abstract design of the three pyramids of Egypt with the eye of Isis towards the bottom.

The post that was in progress is now in place and has a scaled body with a clawed leg protruding from it. This will be one of the dragons that we are working on.

A Dragon of an Idea

Royce took the quote "Beyond This Place There Be Dragons" literally and ran with the idea, or maybe he sawed with the idea.

Anyway, he thought it would be neat if the railing had a dragon image, so he decided to create one.

He made woodburned scales on the entire length of the post board(both sides), well I should say we woodburned scales on both sides because when he realized just how long it would take to burn each individual scale he conned me into helping him. Then he kinda told me what a good job I was doing and let me take over the woodburning while he supervised.

Then some how we decided that a dragon would look good on both sides of the treehouse deck. How do I always get myself into this things?

Walk This Way

Caught this picture of a hammer in action. (That's the blurred thing in Royce's hand) Some of the boards were so hard that the nail gun left the nail sticking up out of the board. So we would have to take Manual, the hammer, and drive the nail the rest of the way into the board (that's the nickname for the hammer, it's short for manual labor).

We had a system going, Royce and I measured the length the board had to be cut, then I cut the board and Royce nailed it into place.

Some boards had to be marked and cut so it would fit around the posts and a few trees.

S0 what do you think . . . How's the walkway look? We left the boards off the edge of the walkway so we could have easy access to put the railing posts in place.

Greg and Nadine came over just as we were finishing up the walkway and putting our tools away. So they helped us carry them downstairs.

Treehouse Floor Looks Great

We got the treehouse floor boards all planed and nailed into place, so we started on the walkway that will go around the outside of the house.

We ran into a few complications that had to be dealt with, like this pine tree that is growing up through the walkway path. But that's why this is a treehouse. Royce just put a few extra bracing boards on each side of the tree then nailed the walkway boards on top. Problem solved!

Building the walkway went fast. Doesn't the floor boards of the treehouse look great?

Laying down on the floor looking up through the trees sure is relaxing. Awesome view too and there's a nice breeze today.

Just a few more sections of the walkway to go and then we get to work on the railing.

Royce keeps steady at it cutting another board to nail in place.

I help with the measuring and of course the picture taking.

He's working his shoes off!

Visitors

Our neighbor Steve and his son stopped by to see how the treehouse was coming. Not only does he have a new army jeep to play with, but now he has an army helmet to wear when he drives his jeep.

Everybody Getting in on the Act

We are trying to get each member of the family to create their own wood burning design on a post. Stephaney is burning her last name in Celtic letters.

Looks like a hair frazzling job to me. Meanwhile as we are decorating the posts, Royce is going up and down and up and down the stairs carrying the boards that he has planed down a quarter of an inch.

Looks like he's getting tired of climbing those stairs. After he nails the boards in place he goes down and planes a few more.

That is a really big pile of sawdust that has accumulated from all that planing! Sure is a big mess for only shaving off a quarter of inch, unbelievable.

A Lot of Posts to Burn

These boards will be part of the railing that goes around the treehouse platform. I'm burning our family's Zodiac symbols on this post.

Take it from the top: Aquarius is Royce, Leo is Lesley (that's me), Cancer is Stephaney, Taurus is Stacey, Gemini is Mea, Scorpio is Taylor, Aries is Rod, and Virgo is Nick.

This post shows the all seeing eye at the top, then alchemical symbols: The four classical elements, air, fire earth and water. Next is the three principles: salt, sulphur and mercury. At the bottom is the symbols Aquarius, Wednesday (Royce) and Leo, Tuesday (Lesley) with the Roman Numerals for 1954. Royce is Aquarius born on a Wednesday, I'm a Leo born on a Tuesday and we were both born in 1954.

This wood burning shows the Castle of the Unicorn, with a Celtic cross and runes that read exactly that "Castle of the Unicorn".

Treehouse Floor

This weekend we are working on the floor of the treehouse. The front decking is almost complete, there is just the boards that go around the edges to finish. But those have to wait until we finish the railing.

The railing will take awhile because we have decided to wood burn designs, symbols, and scenes on each of the supporting posts.

So while I'm doing some wood burning one of the railing posts, Royce is putting the boards in place for the treehouse floor.

Each of the boards had to be plained down a quarter of an inch so we can put plywood flooring inside the treehouse. They look almost too good to be covered over.


The floor is looking really good and Royce is pleased how it is turning out. His smile is worth a thousand words.

A Walk through the Artist's Gallery

Up the stairs to the first landing.

Beyond This Place There Be Dragons - These words, found on every map more than five hundred years ago, are what the mapmakers wrote at the place where their worlds stopped.

We pause on the first landing and look up at the second. Where to?

First Star to the Right Straight on 'til Morning - That was Peter Pan, standing on the hands of Big Ben with Wendy and her brother. The man who wrote it, Sir James Matthew Barrie, was born at Kirriemuir, Scotland on May 4th in 1860. Just a little trivia along the way.

See there's Earth's "First Star to the right."

Shall we go up to the top?

And when it finally comes into focus we see . . .

Not all who wander are lost - J.R.R. Tolkien in his book The Fellowship of the Ring wrote:

All that is gold does not glitter, not all who wander are lost; the old that are strong do not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be the blade that is broken, the crownless again shall be king.