I was looking through my stock of roughed out urns for plainer pieces to decorate with pyrography and came across this piece of Black Poplar (populus nigra). I had intended to use my colouring technique to enhance the hidden quilting in it but decided it would be a good canvas for one my 'tribal tattoo' inspired decorations. The resulting patterns contrast vividly with the almost white background of the poplar. The roughed out piece is taken back to the lathe and the interior and exterior are trued up, then the exterior is sanded in the normal way down to 600 grit. I use a white wax pencil to roughly sketch the path of the 'tattoo', then start with the pyro pen. the outline of each triangle is cut in with a knife like tip then each triangle is filled in with a 2mm ball tip, any carbon build up uon the surface is removed with a soft tooth brush. When the 'tattooing is finished the piece is lightly hand sanded and four coats of hard wearing hardwax oil are applied with eight drying time allowed between each coat.

It measures 320mm H x 155mm D (12 ½ " x 6 ⅛ ") and has a capacity of 2.3ltrs. (140 cu in)