How odd the friendships we make over the Internet are. I mean, I have met literally hundreds of people by distance, connected only through a few wires and an interest in an obscure art form. Just about every single one of them has written kindly to me and I return that kindness when writing back. We share ideas and thoughts and passions and sometimes we even share parts of our lives with each other. Some of these people I get to know better than others, and some of them become my friends...all via two computer screens and some tapping of keys. What a funny world it now is that you can make friends with a person this way and be profoundly saddened when they die and yet you have never heard their voice or know how tall they are...or what colour their eyes are.

   I didn't know any of these things about Jan Farrar but she was a friend to me as well as to many other pyrographers, animals lovers and people around the world.

   We all knew and met Jan in much the same way, by tapping some keys in response to some such thing being asked or answered. I was trying to remember today just what my first contact with Jan was and I'm blowed if I can think exactly what, but I have no doubt it would have been an email from her asking me about how I burnt dog hair texture. And that just has to make me smile because if there was two things Jan was mad keen crazy about, it was dogs and her pyrography:)

   I answer all my Email eventually, so I know I wrote back, then she forward, me back and so on. Initially it was about pyrography, then about her Mum and my Mum, then about our dogs, then about health scares, then....it just kept going...as it does on the Email.

   I remember how kind she was when my mate Dorji died and that she understood how it can hurt to lose your best doggie friend. She sent me the rainbow bridge thingee, which I had never seen before and of course it made me blubber like a baby, but in a good way.

   I remember how she always asked after my Mum and how she understood the stresses of that situation because she had been going through it herself.

   I remember how kind she was about my work and how modest she was about her own. From the moment Jan began to burn she tried to be better...impatiently at times. I wonder if she understood how far she had come in such a short time? The people at the pyro groups sure told her, so I hope she believed us. The people who proudly hang her work on their walls must also know how lucky they are to have a Jan Farrar original.

   I remember how keen she was in the discussion groups; how polite; how helpful. LOL...how she put us in a frenzy when she asked us how to burn white!

   I remember when she told me there was nothing more that could be done. How her biggest fear was for her dogs to find good homes. (They did:))

   I didn't need to know the colour of Jan's eyes to know she was kind and even and gentle and helpful and compassionate...a great burner and a dear friend. What's more, I'm not alone in knowing this or alone in being saddened that I won't see her words or art again.

   The Internet is a funny place to make friends, but we do and we are...and we are better off for it.

   One of the questions I get asked a lot about is how to burn on dark wood. Well...it's a bit of a tricky one. You can of course burn on dark wood without adding any colour or highlight at all, but because of the darkness of the canvas being used, there is a certain natural loss of contrast between wood and art work. Black against dark just doesn't allow for a lot of subtle burning to show through.

   If you want to burn on dark wood and not add colour you are often forced to either burn simple line work or highly contrasted work. Some wood is indeed too dark to even take the most basic burning and it's not worth the effort, especially after the timber further darkens after finishing. One way however, to make this wood suitable to burn, is to apply some sort of pigment to help the work stand out.

   Ding, ding: round 12 in the never ending debate of should we, or should we not add colour to pyrography. In the black corner we have people who believe that colour should never be used in pyrography. In the Red corner we have people who love using colour in pyrography. In the middle, wearing a white shirt, are the likes of me, who think that colour has a place in the right situation.

   I love black and white photography, black and white art and black and white films. I prefer most photo portraits in black and white, but would the famous National Geographic cover of the Afgahn woman have been so striking and effective if you couldn't see the green of her eyes? Would autumn trees or a sun set look quite as good?

   To myself, the use of colour or not is often decided by what I am trying to convey. A horse for instance, to me, is noble and strong and it's structure and air are what I'm looking at...colour doesn't feel important in that case. The same with an elephant, a musical instrument or a portrait etc. But a Tiger...hmmm...erring on colour. A deer in autumn foliage, the yellow eyes of an owl, the vibrant feathers of a male mallard duck; all of these things and more benefit from the use of colour in my pyrographic work.

   Sometimes though, my use of colour is dictated by what I'm burning on. For greater contrast pyrographers will often choose a light toned wood to burn on. Sometimes though, you either can't find enough good wood or you want to try your hand at burning on figured or dark wood. I decided to have a go at mallee wood, which is a heavily figured and extremely hard Australian wood.

   The only way I felt this timber could be used for my work was to approach it almost like the wildlife carvers do. They use a burner as a texturing tool for fur and feather and then often seal and paint over the top of the texture.

   I decided to burn the texture of the animal into the surface and then apply paint in a way that allowed selected burning through....sometimes a hint, sometimes all of it.

   In the next Pyro News we'll look at this subject more closely by following the making of a large pyrographic piece on mallee. I'll have a bit of a natter about the process and thoughts behind it.

   I got an email from a woman the other week asking for advice about what to do to prevent her pyrography from fading. She's certainly not the first person to be horribly disappointed by this problem. I myself have been shocked by the amount of fading on a portrait I did of my brother, and I'd like a dollar for each time this subject has come up in one group discussion or another.

   To my mind, this is one of the largest hurdles that pyrography faces in being more seriously accepted as an art form. It's a problem that I have tried to tackle at various stages in the past by conducting tests and a few of us even tried contacting some specialists to see if some answers could be found, all without success. I confess I haven't been a tenacious in trying to find a solution as I would have liked because, frankly, I get frustrated and sick to death of the blasted subject.

   Maybe there isn't a solution...maybe it's something we have to put up with. But as I answered this lady with the usual advice, I got to thinking about that portrait of Scott (my late brother). Why did that one fade and other work not? It is, after all, living in a very subdued light so that rules out the direct light theory. Yes, it is burnt rather shallow, so perhaps that is the answer. Yes, it is finished with oil and I have often suspected certain oil might hasten the process...or does it? Why do some very old examples of burning still look good if fade is an issue?

   What we burners do suspect is that pyrography put in direct light (artificial and natural) with cause it to fade in varying degrees. Does flourescent light cause more damage than incandescent? We suspect this stops after a certain deteriation. Is this so? We suspect that gentle, light burning will fade faster than heavy, but what kind of light burning? Shader or skew? We hope that certain finishes will protect our work better than others, but is this so? Are certain woods better to burn on than others in regards to this?

   The jury is still out on whether fading in pyrography can be stopped but there is no reason we can't try and find out what elements best promote fading so we will be more equipped at preventing or lessening it.

   I considered doing another 'bullet poll' for this but I think the answers will be too complex for so few choices. I've decided instead to ask those who want to participate to cut and paste the series of questions below into the Email address provided (also below) and fill in the answers under the appropriate question.

   Do you have a pyro picture that you have noticed has faded? How long ago was it burnt? On what wood? Etc etc. PLEASE PARTICIPATE. YOUR ANSWERS WILL HELP ALL BURNERS! We have well over 1,000 pyrographers as members of the pyro newsletter and even if a quarter answer we'll be bound to get a nice cross section of the problem. I'll then compile the answers in a table and write a summary for a future Pyro Newsletter. I'll also publish all of this on my web site so all pyrographers can freely read the findings.

   If you have more than one faded piece I really hope you tell me about each one. The more evidence I get, the more we will learn. I will ask you to send ONE EMAIL PER FADED PIECE so that I don't have trouble separating the various answers. I will also ask you to submit information about monochrome (burnt) pieces only. Colour may mask the problem and also open up big batch of unknown variables.

   As you will see, these questions aren't multiple choice because there are too many possibilities. Please answer each section as briefly as you can...one word answers are accepted If you don't know what a particular wood is, describe it as best you can. If you don't know what a wood sealer/finish is made of, mention the product name. I'd also really appreciate answers in another colour if possible but if you don't know how to do this, black is fine....perhaps answer in UPPER CASE to help me out.

   Unfortunately, a couple of emails found themselves posted to the Pyro News data base by mistake. Even though there was no harm in this, it is embarrassing to me and after much tweaking I have come to the conclusion that the mail delivery site I use is not secure enough for me to ensure this will not happen again.

   I did play with the idea of using Yahoo for the list but don't want to force people into joining a group if it can be helped. I've also looked at several other options for bulk delivery, without joy. For now I will hand deliver The Pyro Newsletter from my own mail server. With nearly 1,100 subscribers, (and growing each day) delivery wont be nearly as easy for me but I feel more comfortable in knowing no Email, except new edition announcements, can go to the list.