What's happening guys, welcome back to the workshop.
It's been a very successful and busy week here at Zebrano HQ, and I thought I'd top
the week off by proposing a toast to all of you, my customers and followers.
We all know there's no better way to propose a toast than having a couple f frothy ones
with the boys!
(Look at me Mr fancy with the bottle of Peroni!).
So in order to get this party started I decided to make this bottle opener that says “Blood,
Sweat & Beers”.
I made this project with a few simple tools & materials including: this “Bar Blade”
bottle opener (bar blade); my trusty pyrography tool; some Serious Glue; and a load of old
wood veneers.
I've included links to the tools and materials I used to make this bottle opener in the description
so go and check those out.
If you also like this swanky pyrography design then you can purchase it from my Etsy shop,
download it instantly and use it in your own projects!
Without further a do, let's have us a party!
To begin the project I glued up a few pieces of wood veneer using the serious glue.
Each piece was roughly 80mm x 40mm.
I made a lamination for both sides of the bottle opener using Maple and Walnut and after
gluing all the pieces of veneer together I clamped them up and left the glue to cure.
Then I trimmed each piece on the bandsaw so the edges were perfectly flat and sanded the
faces and edges with a few grits of sandpaper.
I once again used the Serious Glue to stick the pieces of wood to the bottle opener.
I just applied a generous amount of glue to the wood, smeared it all in with a brush and
then clamped it down between two pieces of wood to ensure an even amount of pressure
was applied.
Time for the boring bits.
This is how I transferred my design to the wood and for this stage I need to show you
how I used technology.
This is a free image editing software called GIMP.
All I did was open a new project, ensuring the resolution was set to 300dpi for good
quality.
Then I changed the dimensions of my canvas to 40 x 80mm.
With my canvas set up I opened up my “Blood, Sweat & Beers” artwork in .png format so
it was just a line drawing.
Then I copy and pasted this into my 40x80mm canvas and resized it until it was a good
fit.
I printed the artwork, cut it out and taped it to a piece of carbon copy paper.
Then I taped my paper to the bottle opener and began transferring the design.
To do this I simply traced over all the lines with a pencil which left a magical blue imprint
on the wood.
And that is one way to transfer a pyrography design to wood!
Let me introduce you to the Burny Star, my pyrography tool.
The reason I like this tool is that it has a variable temperature gage so you can choose
what temperature you want to use and it has a really nice ergonomic grip (it comes with
a couple of nice tips too).
That's what I would recommend, if you're going to get a pyrography tool then get one with
variable tempetatures, it just allows you to do more professional work.
Speaking of professionals at work, here's me burning some lines like a boss.
This is sped up quite a bit but I just traced over all of the lines carefully and slowly
until I had a nice outline of the design.
Next I did a bit of shading by turning the temperature down on the tool and picking out
a few details like where the scroll over lapped, the beer inside the bottle and a few shadows
here and there.
These darker bits really brought the design to life and here's how the finished artwork
looked.
To finish up I applied a few layers of oil and this really made the grain pop!
So that brings me to the end of the project and honestly I'm not even sure if I like this
one that much!
It's not perfect by any means, it definitely has a few mistakes but I guess that just adds
to it's endearing “handmadeness”.
It's no oil painting but it facilitates me indulging my drinking passion.
As always thank you for watching, check out those pyrography designs on Etsy, check out
the links to the gear on Ebay, and PARTY HARD BRO!