OACG Featured Member: Don Worden, an Ohio Pyrography Artist
Woodburning Artist, Experimenter & Pyrographer
Don Worden’s eye for detail and perspective lends a photo-realistic quality to his work that draws you into the scene, while the warm, sturdy quality of the wood itself invites your fingers to explore each image further.
A self-taught artist, Don has been experimenting with various approaches to wood burning for well over thirty years. He began with a little woodburning tool many school children use and a few smooth pieces of wood. Soon he was out of wood, and began a search that ultimately led him to choose basswood as his preferred surface - the same wood many carvers prefer.
Soon after discovering basswood, Don burned out the little tool he had been using. At that time there were few, if any, woodburning tools on the market. At the suggestion of a clerk in a craft store, Don went to a hardware store and bought his first Weller 25-watt soldering iron. It has been his tool of choice since that time. He also uses a heavier, 40-watt Weller for background and some shading. Although he has experimented with other types of woodburners, he has developed his own style and approach and has never found the need to switch tools.
Searching for appropriate subject matter led Don to calendars, post cards, greeting cards and photographs. His favorite subject matter includes bridges, lighthouses, ships, homesteads and a wide variety of subjects drawn from God’s creation, including flowers, birds and animals - both domestic and wild.
For more than thirty-three years, Don has exhibited in shows in Ohio, California and Kansas. He has taught wood burning classes in adult education programs, and has given demonstrations to several wood carving clubs and wood working groups.
For many years, he has specialized in doing homesteads and other special orders. These have included replicas of business cards, castles and old family homesteads for many customers, ranging from St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow, Russia, to old castles in Germany to a replica of Nantucket Island. While many house or homestead projects have been of buildings from a bygone era, some have been of very modern structures. One reason that Don enjoys doing such projects is that each one is unique unto itself.
Don is a resident of Dalton, OH, and a member of the Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild, the International Association of Pyrographic Artists and the National Wood Carvers Association. He can be reached at 330-828-0254 or don@woodburningsbydon.com. To view a gallery of his work, visit his Web site at www.woodburningsbydon.com.
If you are an Ohio Arts & Crafts Guild member and would like to be a Featured Artist, please e-mail Guild Manager or call the OACG office at 330-456-0477. Featured Artists are also spotlighted in the OACG newsletter Creative Ohio.
The Arts are ALIVE in Ohio!
Support the visual arts by becoming a member of the Ohio Arts & Crafts Guild. Established in 1963, the OACG is a non-profit service and informational organization representing practicing artists and craftspeople at all levels of achievement: amateurs, professionals, and students. Our membership represents people of all ages and walks of life who appreciate and support the arts and crafts. In addition, the Guild promotes the future of arts and crafts by awarding annual scholarships to Ohio high school and college art students.