Pyrography means “writing with fire”, from the Greek pur (fire) and graphos (writing). It is also called pokerwork, Fire Needle Embroidery, or purography in China.
In straw work, it is the art of decorating straw with the application of heat as a color treatment. This achieves quite a large range of tones and shades. Many countries, such as China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Croatia and Uzbekistan, to name just a few, appear to incorporate heat into their straw work as part of their straw art culture of creation. Heat can be applied to straw using a wood burning type tool, or a heated household clothes iron or other heated sources such as stones.
The above example straw palette of pyrography straw was created by Jasmin Mesmaric, Croatia, and is a fine example showing the range of hues that can be achieved using natural rye when skillfully applying heat to straw.
We would like to show you a few current examples from around the world.
Uzbekistan artist Atabek Yudashev uses pyrography in many of his works.
A different look altogether by Valery Kozlov: The textures achieved by the varying shade of the straw really help to bring the picture to life.
From Jorge Huerta, Columbia:
From Bangladesh, the below wheat straw nativity scenes are colored from heated stones to create their pictures.
Again from Bangladesh, pyrography straw can be found in cards:
The following video shows several techniques used when creating this type of straw work.
From Colombia, Jorge Huerta offers the following video
The Straw Shop wanted to present and explain the heat application process in straw art that is found throughout the world.