PYROGRAPHY IS THE ORIGIN OF ALL ART

There is an unconscious, but insidious influence upon the modern day pyrographic artist. The attraction is subtle, but it is derived from thousands of years of instinct and influence by our ancestral past. It originates from the marriage of art with fire. It is a primeval art form of our forebears and is the origin of all art created by early human beings. This art form precedes the great arts and artists of China, Rome, Greece, Egypt and others. The most primitive of people with the most primitive tools created this art, with fire and wood, in their cave dwellings. Yes, my pyrographic friend, you wonder why it is so difficult to perceive the attraction of pyrographics. You are experiencing, practicing and enjoying the first evidence of human art. This is a compelling attraction you might have difficulty in explaining. Perhaps, now you might tell people that they are viewing the evolution of a primitive art form.

The history of Pyrography is so old that educated guesses and speculation, as with most anthropological theories, is part of the presentation. It employs common reasoning as well as studied evidence of the art. There is no written history to inform us about the burning art of the Neanderthal or other nomadic tribes, but we have cave evidence of the art they created during those ancient times.

If we found a charcoal drawing on the wall of a cave, it would be like walking into "a" "primitive" house and noticing a picture on the wall. And, if it were obvious how that drawing was made and could be easily duplicated with the same primitive tools, we could be assured of how it was done. The picture, the charcoal branch and the subject tells the story.

When the method was obvious and simple, we could immediately reproduce it. But, if it required us to use special tools and/or techniques to copy the art, then you can only speculate as to how it was done by the primitive person.

The use of fire has been around for about 10,000 years. Fire became one of the most important tools the primitives acquired and it made for a better and more successful life. The primitive person used fire for light, for warmth, for cooking and eventually for art. About 6,000 years ago, these ancient peoples learned to use fire to smelt copper. With this procedure, the primitive could now make hand tools. He made axes and knives, then sharpened them on stones.

Wood, from trees and shrubs, was probably the logical material a primitive person would use for fueling his fire. Although, later animal dung was used. It was not hard to reason that he might have pulled a branch from the fire with the opposite end still burning. When the flame expired, he found if he rubbed the charred end of the branch on the cave wall, it would create a black line. We can assume the first pyrographic artist was a cave dweller. Unfortunately, he found that the branch would soon run out of char and had to be returned to the fire to be replenished.

The word "pyrography" was given to art that had an element of fire in its inception. It is a contraction of two Greek words: "pyro," meaning heat or fire, and "graphics," meaning expression with lines. The writing with char on the wall meets the criteria of "pyrography," since fire was necessary to create the char, and the drawing on the wall was "an expression with lines."

Early tattooing was a form of pyrography. Primitive peoples charred bones in a fire and then pounded them into a black powder. The charred powder was then rubbed into a design of punctures made into the skin. Recently, they discovered the body of a man that was encapsulated and preserved in a glacier. He was called the "Iceman." This primitive human being had tattoos of two intersecting lines on his legs in the shape of a cross.

Consider Neanderthal man. He belonged to one of the tribes that roamed Europe 35,000 years ago. This creature had a large brain capacity, but a sloping forehead, large nose and large eye sockets. The jawbone receded much like an ape of today. Neanderthal was a successful tribe that lived in Europe for over 250,000 years. No one knows why they became extinct after being successful for so long a period of time. They lived in harmony at that time with the Cro-Magnon tribe which had skull-like features that were closer to modern humanoids. 

There are other pictures made on the walls of caves. Some made by striking a tool against the stone and chipping off the unwanted material. Another method was the primitive person chewing off the end of a cooled charred branch. After much chewing and mixing with saliva, he created sort of a black paint. When the particles were fine enough, he blew it out much like a spray. The cave person's hand became a stencil. When he place his hand on the wall and blew the black spray around it, he created a picture of his hand. This was another form of pyrography since it met the criteria of fire and art expression.

Primitives, like the Neanderthal, found other uses for fire. They found if they burned the tip of their wooden spears, this would harden the wood at that point. (Pyrographers take note: If you burn a wooden area during your pyrographic art, it becomes more difficult to burn over that area again). In later years, there were some Native Americans who would make a log canoe with fire. They found it easier to shape the canoe by scraping out the burned interior. They found that the charred wood would not split. For instance, if the Native American wanted to hollow out a log to make a boat, it was easier to torch it and chop out the charred center. He repeated this process over and over again. With this method, he also, could control the shape better. Of course, this was a long drawn out procedure that took an enormous amount of time.

With the discovery of metal, pyrography took an enormous leap. The tool could now effect the medium it burned instead of just applied char art. In the taverns of Europe during the 1600's and early 1700's, artists who we now recognize as old masters gathered together. As they sat by the fireplace, conversed and drank their spirits, they would put a metal rod in the fire and when it was heated, they wrapped the cooler side with animal skins to protect their hands and would burn pictures on the wooden walls of the tavern. Unfortunately, they had the same problem as the primitive did. The metal rod would soon cool off and stop burning lines in the wood walls. They solved this problem by putting several metal rods in the fire in order to continue their art work. This is where the expression, "having more than one iron in the fire" became popular. The metal rods they put into the fire, became known as "pokers". In Europe, they still call burning pens: "pokers."

Instead of "pyrography," the art work, in those early days in Europe was called "poker art." John Cranch was born in Kingsbridge, Devonshire, England in 1751 and became adept in the art. He published the first known book on "pyrography". This writing was published in 1811, and was entitled, "Inducements to Promote the Fine Arts of Great Britain by Exciting Native Genius to Independent Effort and Original Design." Wow, that sure was a mouthful!

If you visit a museum today, you can see many appliances used in the nineteenth century. At that time, women were using a hand pressing iron made entirely of metal, including the handle. They would place the iron on the top of a heating stove until it accumulated the stove's heat through molecular action. When it was hot enough, they would wrap some insulating material around the metal handle and press their family's clothes. After a while, the handles were improved by covering them with wood. Wooden handles started to appear on all heating appliances, such as: curling irons, pressing irons, soldering irons, pokers, etc. The advantage of metal was that it retained heat for a long period of time especially, if the metal was a large and dense mass. The same logic applies to the soldering iron types of burning pens: the thick, dense copper tip retains the heat longer than wire tips would.

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