Wood burn wall hanging of Raggedy Ann and Andy with fairies, gnomes, plants, mushrooms and birds which has delighted our family for years. For this Instructable, we'll share with you and reverse engineer this marvelous work of art.

Supplies:

Board - 1.5 feet x 2 feet x .5 inches thick, Old Bread Board

Image on Paper

Tape

Carpenter's bradawl or other incisor or indenter

Wood Burner

Wood Stain

Step 1: The Board and Tracing the Image

The board is an old bread board of relatively soft wood without wood grain appearance, perhaps an alder or maple. Bread boards could be softer than cutting boards. The vertical boards are tongue & groove connected to the end cap pieces. Gaps between the vertical boards add to it's charm.

Tape image securely onto the bread board and trace with carpenter's bradawl. For fine work, an X-Acto Knife can be used being careful not to cut away so much of your paper that the image shifts. The resulting indented lines in the wood form natural wood burning tool tracing lines. Close inspection of our Raggedy Ann and Andy shows some fine cut lines that were not retraced with a wood burn tool.

Regarding stain, it's unclear whether it was stained before or after. Before seems safer but then you'd smell vapors from the wood cutting heat. After might add a little color to the wood burn areas but sounds scary after this much work! It appears some oil stain was added to it's age old patina, particularly to the horizontal borders.

Step 2: Artist - Willcutt

This wood burning was purchased in North or South Carolina, here's the artist's name. If you know her, please thank her for this marvelous and much loved work of art. We get a kick out of her very appropriate last name!

“What you want to do, and what you can do, is limited only by what you can dream.” Mike Melvill

Step 3: Texturing and Shading

Close examination of the images indicates various texturing and shading techniques from cross hatching to various stippling patterns, and scumbling. Note, even the background is shaded with light scribble wood burn marks. Also note, the image extends onto the top border softening the framing. The whole bread board is suspended by a simple cotton string through single hole, appropriate for this intricate but simple Raggedy Ann and Andy.

I hope you enjoyed the inspiration of this delightful piece. Many blessings to the artist!

“There's no advantage to hurrying through life." Nara Shikamaru