One of the many new things that I've decided to try recently is pyrography.  

I got a simple (and surprisingly inexpensive) set on Amazon, and shortly thereafter went to try it out.

The first thing I noticed is that the fun swirly and sweep lines I wanted to do were not something that I could do right at the start.  In order to get the tip of the tool to move smoothly enough to do designs, I had to turn the heat up to the max setting, and that made it so I had to move far more quickly than I really wanted to do with something that was so spectacularly hot.  

Along with my beginner mistakes, I made this incredibly demented star that serves as a nice reminder of how much progress I may have in-store for me as I keep practicing and doing my best to not burn myself or my house down.  

Another good thing to note about pyrography is that the smoke can be pretty serious!  I can't recommend highly enough that you wear some goggles if you have them, and to make sure that your face is tilted away from your project.  Even if you're wearing goggles, good practice would be to keep your face away from something so hot it scorches wood in a second's breath.  I fortunately didn't have any accidents on this first round, but I did lift a little too quickly at one point and saw a chunk of my face being smoldered away before narrowly avoiding myself.  So word to the wise, goggles and face tilted away.

Eventually the sweeping motions I wanted to try got a tiny bit easier, and finding the balance between being firm and yet fluid started to make sense to my hand as I worked to understand this interesting new art form.  Plus whenever I was feeling like I didn't know what to do, dots were fun and easy to make, so if all else fails I can just get really good at pointillism.

Also, of course, I had to try to do some writing and see what that was about, and decided to go for one of the great loves of my life.

I hope you enjoyed the little change of pace, and I hope to be sharing more pyrography with you all soon.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.