Lichtenburg Fractal Burning demo coming up

[Roger Chandler]

Central Virginia Woodturners has its regular meeting next Tuesday evening, and the demo will be on Lichtenburg Fractal Burning, with turners Kirk McCauley and Mike Sorge doing the demo. I have seen some of Kirk's pieces that he burned this way, and they are pretty interesting to say the least. I am a bit intrigued by the process, and am looking forward to seeing it in person, although I have read some info on it.

I am not sure if this technique will hit mainstream turning or not, but I am seeing more of it as of late......seems turners are looking for any "new thing" to embellish what is round and brown. Do you think that Lichtenburg Fractal burning has a future or is it a fad that will be passing within a few years?

[Bill Boehme]

Woodturners have been doing that for years. I watched one of my club members do it and I have seen pieces on display in the instant gallery at SWAT. I wasn't impressed because there's nothing creative. I figure it won't be long before someone is electrocuted messing with it.

[Sid Matheny]

I'm with Bill on this.

[John Grace]

Like beading, 'wire-burning', etc...it's just another embellishment that is perhaps enjoying a current boost in popularity. But like water sloshing in a bucket, it will eventually find its own level of usage relative to the piece and the turner.

[George Overpeck]

If well done on the right piece of wood it can be a great accent, it's organic enough to stay inside the aesthetic of wood generally. For instance if you were to make similar micro and macro level doodles with a woodburner it would be just as nice as doing celtic knots, just a different motif.

There's plenty of creativity going on the the overall production of a work and accents don't have to be painstakingly representative. But most of us have been creating with the purpose of having a stand alone beauty between the surface, form, hand feel etc. so use of HVP is somewhat gilding the lily, unless you have a piece that is lacking. Even then HVP might make it worse through scorching or imbalance.

Similar point against - at the point when it's used there has already been significant effort put into the turning. Sunk costs fallacy will affect your judgement of it's contribution to the piece.

Point for - there are some dull species. We steer clear of them. But if we use a very plain wood then we get a canvas, if we use a hollow form or vase we get a wrapped canvas.

Point against - the process of HVP is so interesting that it's hard to disentangle the doing from the results. Again we might overweight how much it adds.

I've done it on 10 or 15 pieces, not all of them really stood up to the "why" question but a few did.