Pau-de-balsa (Ochroma pyramidale) (Photo credit: Mauricio Mercadante)
English: Balsa wood model airplane Photo by Zach Vesoulis on Feb 13 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today I thought I would share some of my favorite types of wood with you. For those of you that are thinking of trying out wood burning, this might help you a bit.
I have two favorites that I like to make my paintings on more than others, Poplar and Balsa. They are both low density and light weight woods, flexible and very useful for building.
Balsa trees (Ochroma Rynamidale) is from the family of Mallow trees and isnative to places such as Brazil and Bolivia. In that line of thinking Balsa comes from the Spanish word for boat- no surprise then, that the Balsa wood is very often used for building boats, as well as for the interior of surf boards, bridges and even World War Two airplanes.
Poplar has similar characteristics to Balsa. It is found growing in large amounts in the more southern states of the U.S. such as Georgia or South Carolina due to their warm temperatures and humidity.
The poplar trees wood can range in color from white to dark gray and has a smooth and soft bark. This makes it a wonderful wood for wood burning. Poplar too is a choice wood for construction of various objects in our daily lives.
The flexibility and low density of these woods, make them ideal for wood burning. They have a much lower resistance to the pyrographic pens heat causing the lines to flow much more freely than other more dense woods.
Now you too can go and pick a piece of wood for starting your own wood burning project!
Drop a word or two and let me know how it goes!
Bye for now!
Close-up of balsa wood showing its grain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WoodArt by Shaina 