Progress? Maybe.

 In 2022 I burned a dragon on a box the dragon was holding a sphere and I thought I would make it look like it was holding the world.

Except when I took a picture of it, well to me it looked like the head of a bear and my BFF thought it looked like a wolf.

In an attempt to make it look like the world I coloured it blue and green. That did not work, just made the creature, whichever you saw look mouldy.

A re think was required, and whilst I did that it went up into the loft as I had a stand or perhaps mount thought going on in my head.

That got paused, I think I wanted to do some extreme sanding and then could not be quite bothered.

So, whilst I was in the loft over Christmas and working on something else up there (expect that something to get a post of its own later when it hopefully gets to its intended placement) I came across the box whilst looking for a pencil.

Down from the loft it came. I am not sure what I intended to do with it. It sat, and I looked at it and it sat.

Then I thought I would just go over the sphere with a white marker pen. A few times, until the blue and green went away. I did, it sort of did and I wondered "would it look better if the background was all dark". Getting out the pyrography stuff takes a bit of time, and preparation and organising ventilation, its winter and cold. There just happened to be a black marker pen in arms reach.

"just to get an feel of how it would look" I tell myself.

"Hmm not bad" was quickly followed by "people sometimes colour the pyrography perhaps?"

The metallic watercolour paints  also happened to be within arms reach and one thing leading to another..

...painted dragon, it even has metallic blue over the black, just to see how it looked, background.

The question of if it is progress or not, I do wonder what was the point of doing the woodburn in the first place if I was just going to paint it?

It is not even finished. The sides need something doing to them, and the inside of course and that mount/stand whatever may need a rethink.

At least I have a new Forestella Song to add to the musical background of my ongoing contemplation.

I wonder if perhaps the title of the previous song might be something the box is singing as it waits to be finished.

Wind, wind wind the bobbin

 I was doing a lot of that to get the threads into my new box.

Something I usually find soothing, but then usually I am not doing this many at once.

Or thinking " I could be stitching dragons" , it needed doing, so do it I did.

They look pretty sideways in and thread showing. 

And just in randomly as they were wound.

However, I do prefer them stored in number order and thought I might try them numbers up to see if I like it that way.

It is not the full set of numbers and the gaps in the sections are reflective of that.

Still it will be a good basis for any patterns I chose to use this thread for, repeats of cover kits or cards that much as I might hope otherwise might not be kept. That sort of thing.

I have shared this Forestella link before, the title fits and I am rather fond of this one

Gifted Gorgeousness January 2026

I am not sure at this stage if the originator of this particular themed link up will be hosting it this year. Due to circumstances certain hops and linkups had to be paused last year.

I did note however that more than one blogger  still posted on the 15th of the month any items either gifted to them or intended as gifts even without the link being available.

I expect we all received something craft or stitching related last month so January might produce a few posts in the blog world on this theme.

For me, a gift from my father, one he spotted and chose himself for me. 

I am fond of a box

This is a very nice box. And what will I put in it? Well I will put in it those numbered threads I was previously gifted inside a very nice cardboard box. I made a few cardboard bobbins, but that was irksome so I bought 100, that should do the trick .

And the drawer at the bottom, variegated threads may well find a home there.

I have plans for the top but after the dragons and the All our Yesterdays projects I think.

Click here to pop over to jocondine for her GG2026

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Gifted Gorgeousness May 2025

 No Sunday Stitchings today, I was not feeling well when I woke up. My parents were able to go and when they came back announced that there was a gift for me!

Oh a box I do like a box, nice colour and leaves how nice that someone sent me a box.

Oh it has things in it! Wow I was happy with a box.

Sorted the threads into numbered and not

That's a lot of  numbered threads, it is the DMC numbering as evidenced by the 310 Black but I think it is the "other" three letter named number compatible range so that should be interesting.

And lots of random threads to add to my collection of those.

And the wool, well with the permission of the giver it might for obvious reasons find its way to another home.

A nice bit of thread sorting and being able to participate in this months link up with Jo over at serendipitous stitching cheered me up.

A round box

 I started on this box some time ago. I had been gifted a spool of nail foil, you put the varnish on wait for it to get tacky press on the foil wait then peel off the back and have pretty nails.

Nope, not for me, it did not work. So I had the bright idea to varnish a box, wait for it to get tacky and try the nail foil.

It was only fractionally more successful then om my nails. So I only did one strip along the bottom. Then varnished it with a gold tinted varnish. The rest of the sides with normal varnish and back to the gold for the top.

And I waited for it to dry, And then forgot all about it, drying up in the loft.

Of course a trip up to the loft for something else (purple paper which I never did find, must have used it already) got my eye on it and thought need to get the inside of the box sorted.

Had some nice material, bits from some trousers a lady at work gave me (wow that was some years ago) after she had already chopped bits off to line a bag.

It was a shade of purple or maybe you might call it pink with a hem of gold. It was the hem of gold that made me think it might be a good match.

And As the box had a fret work top, the lid needed a double sided piece.

The inside.

The trickiest
thing to get one was the little tassel, getting the ring through the ring on the catch.

Its not fully finished because I don't know who it is for yet, and once I do, well the base might get a touch of pyrography and some varnish or it might just get some green stickyback plastic ( I can't think of that without thinking of Blue Peter makes).

New Pyrography Tool

 I bought a new tool, with a temperature display and two pens that I can alternate between. 

The thing to do with a new tool is have a practice, test the new tips (it came with lots of tips) on scrap wood and see what kind of marks they make. 

That would be the smart thing to do. However, I am ever impatient and feel that having made the effort to get the "stuff" out that I should have something to show for it.

When I did the -prague-castle.  for the lady at work she then gave me a bag with a few different styles of boxes from The Works.

One of which is an oval box about 5.5 inches by 3 inches. Which was just big enough to fit on a dragon design I had saved from a magazine. So that is what I did.

I managed to try four different tips, reminding myself how much I enjoy doing this and that I should work out designs to go onto the many a wood item I have collected for that purpose.

I am rather pleased with the way the burn went and am pleased that the tool works for me. I liked being able to set the temperature exactly. I liked the pen rests that safely hold the pen whilst it cools. I liked having a pen cooling whilst I could work with a different nip at the same time. I liked the size of the tool and the grip which stayed comfortable and cool throughout.

I also liked the length of the wire on the plug (no need for an extension cable, as with my other tools) I look forward to investigating the other tips. 

I might have to add a touch of colour on the sphere the dragon is holding to remove the wolf's head effect. (does anyone else see a wolf?)