Custom Instrument Wood burning
I love working with musicians to create instruments that make strong visual statements. Although I’ve been doing wood burning for many years, I had my first opportunity to do GUITAR pyrography just this past year – and I am HOOKED.
Musical Instrument Pyrography Portfolio
Wood Burned (Pyrography) Guitar with Chipko Movement Theme
My first guitar pyrography comission was this vintage Fender strat. The huge amount of trust my client was giving me inspired me to really step up my pyrography game. I spent over three months invested in the process of this first guitar. First I consulted with wood burning experts and luthiers. Then I tested dozens of different tools, on many different woods, including the White Ash the strat was made of. I wanted to make sure everything was just right before making things final by doing the actual burn.
The Wood Burned Ghost Pirate Guitarrr
Featuring Ghost Pirate, Kraken, Ghost Ship, Blue Ocean, Starry Sky with moon, and COLOR
When my parents saw how the first guitar pyrography project I did came out, and how much I enjoyed doing it, they did what they have been doing for me my whole life – they encouraged me to keep going, and helped me find the means and path to do so. My birthday was shortly after I finished the Chipko Movement guitar. So what did my parents decide to get me for a birthday present? Another guitar body to work on! We immediately started brain storming what it could become. My dad handed me the guitar complete with a list of silly names to potentially give it. And after quite a bit of sharing some really ridiculous ideas, we arrived at the Guitarrr. We concluded it would feature some or all of the following.
- a kraken (#1 most important because of my band Call of Kazulhu)
- skull and crossbones
- skull with an eyepatch
- mermaid
- pirate ship
- and ocean waves
The end result was this Gibson / Flame style guitar body. Soon my husband will put it together to become a complete playable Guitarrr with lots of frets on a gorgeous ebony colored neck with mother of pearl inlay.
Cajon with “Three Little Birds” theme
My brother’s birthday is just a little over a month after mine. So it became pretty clear that he, too, would be getting some pyrography in his life. I asked him, thinking I was being clever, what musical stuff he might need in his life, as a TOTALLY subtle way to suss out what to get him for his birthday. I was positive he would name some guitar, and I’d get to do some more guitar pyrography. Most other guitarists I know seem to always have whatever their Next Guitar will be somewhere in the back (or forefront!) of their mind, so I was pretty sure he’d be naming one. After all, he’s a very accomplished musician in this 40s who is, as far as I know, still playing the Squire strat he got in high school.
But nope – he did not say a guitar. What he needed in his life was more hand percussion! This threw a wrench into my plans to get him a guitar body and burn a cool pyrography design into it as the perfect birthday gift from an artist sister to her musician brother. So I racked my brain for all of about ten minutes to try to figure out what hand percussion thing I could do cool wood burning on.
Wood burning on a … drum?
And then it came to me – a cajon! A cajon has a nice big front surface that is essentially a canvas waiting for some artistic love. But it’s unsafe to burn through the finish that comes on them, so I had to do some hunting to see if there were build your own cajon kits like there are build your own guitar kits. And indeed there were! So, this is the front of the cajon that I did for him – photo of it it fully put together coming soon.
The song is one of both of our favorites, and the dark spin of the three very dead birds saying “every little thing is gonna be alright” amuses us greatly. Also, there are three bird skulls much like there are three human skulls in our Dandy Highwaymen logo, and the filigree is very Rococo style work – so it’s quite perfect for us to hopefully use on stage some day.
If you think all this guitar pyrography stuff is cool, the best thing to do is to submit an inquiry using the button below.
Whether you’re ready to have us get started on your instrument right away, or just want to stay in the loop about our current projects and learn more about our process, the inquiry form is the best way to be in touch.
