Techniques: Pyrography (Executed)

So I've just received Pyrography tool and began testing it out to see what I can produce as a beginner. Here are some photos of my attempt:

Techniques: Pyrography

While looking at ways I could develop my final outcome, I found a technique called Pyrography. 

'Pyrography is the art of decorating wood or other surfaces with burn marks, resulting from the controlled application of a heated object. Such object known as 'poker', this technique is also known as Pokerwood or Wood burning.'

This technique will allow me to burn my illustrations directly onto wood or leather. So as I originally thought of laying out multiple sized canvases in a formation and illustrating onto them to create a canvas collage piece (tester--->), I'm going to look into making wooden boxes to carry out the same purpose, but using pyrography instead.







I was also considering mixed media in the process, so where I have burned in the intricate detail, I will apply colour using some sort of ink to give it a watercolour effect on wood.

As I saw other areas you could apply Pyrography to, such as merchandise, souvenirs, jewels, accessories, I saw an area of opportunity open up for me. Lately I've been making my own jewellery and this gave me an idea to push them further. Here I have an example of a wooden one that I have done before:

So if I could get my hand on bigger wooden gogo beads, I could have a larger scale to illustrate onto using pyrography, which I could exhibit along with the box installations.

Jeannie Phan

I've been looking at some pieces by Jeannie Phan and noticed how she effectively combines surrealism in her work. She tends to illustrate hair protruding through absurd areas of the body, and does it beautifully, which contrasts with the daunting idea of where the hairs are actually coming from.

Also looking at how she transfers her work into merchandise/products, gave me a few ideas as to how I could implement my work onto something other than canvas or paper.

Inspiration

While looking at various artists, I have been gathering ideas on how I could develop my illustrations into final pieces.

3...2...1...Action

So! I'm thinking of getting started with the research and development process of my FMP Animation. I've been thinking about concepts and have a clear vision of how I want my video to look. However, I'm going to dig deeper and conjure a storyboard.

But first, inspiration!

Here's a short stop film by Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths. Although I wasn't really planning to do any stop motion sequences for my final, this video intrigued me. I may consider working on bits of stop motion shots to add into my animation if anything.

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This is another stop motion video I watched, it was done by a student and isn't as advanced as the first video, however I really liked it. I thought the concept was cute, it's a sweet and simple way of representing the effects of a highschool crush.

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Bjork's All is Full of Love, directed by Chrisopher Cunningham. I really love the way he incorporates liquid into a majority of his work. I'm a fan of the effect it gives and the delicateness of how liquid flows in a shot. I'm thinking about using black ink and paint in my animation to represent to represent the toxicity of the hair relaxer. The subtlety of the free flowing paint will contrast with it's dark toxic undertone, which I think would be quite effective.

Slave trade in relation to hair (Part 2)

It was not until the 1900's with the development of products from entrepreneurs like Madame C. J. Walker that products for grooming African/Americans were evolving and being developed. Around that time the first cosmetology schools were developed to teach African/Americans how to care and groom themselves. More important it was after slavery in America where the goal was to have "good hair" and the culture of straight hair evolved in America.

Also called a pressing comb or straightening comb, the hot comb is a metal comb that is heated on either a range top or burner to a temperature between 300 and 500 degrees Fahrenheit. By pulling the heated comb through the hair, the pressure applied during the combing process breaks down the hair fiber's biochemical bonds. As the temperature diminishes, the bonds reconnect and keep the hair straight. Typically, the hair remains straight from one to two weeks or until it comes into contact with moisture or humidity.

Though originally used by French women in Europe during the mid-19th century, the hot comb became the foundation of the Black Beautician industry starting in the early 1900s. Hot combs were a significant improvement from older methods used by African-Americans during and after slavery to straighten hair, which ranged from heated butter knives and cloths, to axle grease and homemade lye. Today, hot combs are still predominantly used in black salons as a means for straightening hair without chemicals.

In 1968, Philip LoPresti, M.D., Christopher M. Papa, M.D., and Albert M. Kligman released a study that stated hot combs had caused inflammation and scarring on the scalps of mostly black women. Labeled "hot comb alopecia," they claimed that the condition was caused by the combined use of petrolatum and excessive heat from hot combs, leading to burning and scarring along the crown of the scalp.

The first hair relaxer was invented by Garret Augustus Morgan, Sr., who was born in 1877 in Paris, Kentucky. At a young age, Morgan, the child of former slaves, excelled in school and always had an eye for inventions. Like many African-American children, though, he ended his formal education after elementary school to work on the family farm. Eventually, he left Kentucky and headed for Cincinnati, working and getting assistance from a tutor to continue his studies in English grammar.

African Americans noticed the way their hair changed with the combination of alkaline hair relaxer and lye soap used to wash hair. However, it wasn't until 1971 that lye relaxer was officially produced commercially. Proline, the manufacturers of Dark and Lovely, manufactured the first official lye relaxer, which consisted of sodium hydroxide, water, petroleum jelly, mineral oil and emulsifiers. The lye straightened hair by weakening the internal protein structures of the hair, loosening the natural curls.

In the late 1970s, African-American women and haircare product manufacturers began noticing the damaging effects of lye-based hair relaxers. Lye stripped proteins from hair, leading to breakage and thinning hair. In 1981, Johnson Products Company, Inc. introduced Gentle Treatment, the first no-lye hair relaxer. Instead of lye, their hair relaxer used less harsh alkaline agents, such as potassium hydroxide and lithium hydroxide. At the turn of the century, many hair relaxers, such as Soft & Beautiful, began creating herbal and botanical hair relaxers for African Americans.

Slave trade in relation to hair (Part 1)

While America had slavery, all other African countries were subjected to colonisation and Africans and African/Americans defined their hair styles based upon that of the slave and colonial masters. Slaves in America used axle grease, butter, lye heated knives and actually Irons as a way to straighten their their hair.

Ethiopia is the only African nation that has never been colonised, they have a cultured history of dealing with their hair for thousands of years. We in Buddhism deal with the law of cause and effect and all phenomena is govern by this law. When Africans arrived in America they came as slaves and we noted that the slave masters cut the hair of both men and women.

The Ethiopian people have never been colonised and they have not only a "Written History" of it culture but to this very day there are Tribes and cultures in old and primitive Ethiopia that have maintained there hair styles for Thousands of years. Although there are over 80 million Black people in Ethiopia, it would be rare to find a saloon where you can get chemically processed hair. Straighten combs or curlers, yes, but chemicals for hair - as in America, is unheard of.