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Pyrography is Greek for "fire-drawing", and is the art of producing designs on wood, leather, or other materials using heated tools or a fine flame. This form of creating is thought of by many as the very first primitive art form because of early cave drawings made with charcoal from heated branches and stones. Artifacts from ancient Peru and other primitive cultures indicate that pyrography was used to burn decorative and sacred designs onto gourds and wood, and even onto human bodies, thus being the earliest form of tattoos. With the discovery of metal, pyrography took an enormous leap. During the 1600s and early 1700s, European artists would gather together in taverns by the fireplace and enjoy a drink while metal rods or "pokers" were heated in the fire. These pokers were used to burn pictures into the wooden walls of the tavern. Each artist would often have several pokers heating at once, so that they would not have to stop every time one of them cooled... this is where the expression, "having more than one iron in the fire" came from!
While I started off using the inexpensive burning pens you can often find at your local craft store and that many folks used as children, I now use two professional burners. This allows me to simultaneously use four different pens with unique-shaped tips that are able to heat up and cool off instantly. 
I've been doing pyrography for about six years now. I burn on many different kinds of wood, including pine, maple, cherry, birch, oak, driftwood, and even old beat-up wood scraps that I am able to recognize potential within. After each design is burnt into the wood, most of my pieces are painted with acrylic paint, often watered down into a stain-like consistency that allows the grain of the wood to subtly peer through the colors.
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