The past days have seen me working on what could very well be my favorite rune set so far. I trimmed some wood from the peach tree last year and finally was able to cut and sand it. Then I drew up a nifty little mushroom to adorn them. I have to say, I love them!
I thought I'd use this post to show some sneak peaks at the runes that will soon be up on Etsy, but also to give a little idea of what goes into making one of my sets.
I usually will pick up fallen wood in the yard or when I'm walking through the woods. If I do cut live wood, I make sure it's when I'm trimming the tree anyhow and not just lopping off hunks here and there for stock. This peach wood came from trimmings off of our little peach tree in the back yard. I've also scavenged some pits from fallen fruit to make runes from as well. I would love to actually eat some of these peaches, but the aphids usually get them before I do. I may look for some organic spray this year.
If I have a lot of wood blanks to cut then I'll take a trip up to my mom's house and use the band saw in her garage. Otherwise, it's up to my trusty mitre box and mitre saw. It takes a wee bit of work to hold everything steady enough to cut by hand, but it's not too bad. After all 24 blanks are cut, the real work begins.
All of my runes go through at least 3 phases of sanding. Depending on how evenly I was able to cut them, I may be able to go directly to hand sanding. If they're noticeably uneven then I use my Dremel to quickly take off a larger amount of material. Then it goes to the coarse sanding paper on both sides. I try to start out with 60 grit. After the 60 grit comes 100 and 120 grits. My arms, by this point, are spent. Lots of little circles on the sanding paper.....lots of circles. I have to admit, that this doesn't happen all in one day. The sanding, for the most part, takes place over 2 days.
After the sanding is done and the blanks are smooth, I move on to getting the design on them. Sometimes I'll use a design that I've already drawn, sometimes I make something new. In either case, the only way it gets onto the rune blank is with good old-fashioned carbon paper. I still have some left that my dad used and I remember using it in school! I did buy a pack of new paper but I'm still working off of the old stuff! Waste not, want not.
The next step is the burning. For whatever reason my brain has, I like to do the rune side first. Probably because it's the simpler side. Then I burn the actual design. This part is where I have most of my "discomfort" lately. Sore hands make it difficult to hold the pyrography tool for too long, so I usually take 2 or 3 days to get them all burned. It really depends on the complexity of the design. I had been using a really cheap tool with a clunky, heavy control switch built into the cord. I hated it! It made it so awkward and tiresome to hold because you always had that weight pulling back on your hand. My honey bought me a new tool with the power switch and temperature control in the body of the tool itself. What a difference! It's thinner as well, which makes it more like holding a marker. I think it's going to help me progress to much more intricate images.
Once everything is all burned and lovely, the runes are ready for their coating of boiled linseed oil. My "drying rack" is an old steamer pot / colander sort of thing. I have no memory of where the heck it came from but it works well. There's no fancy brushes to apply the oil either. Q-tips do wonders. I don't like to add too much of a finish because I feel that the more natural they are, the better they will connect with their owner. They're meant to be held and handled and in doing so, your own natural oils will paint them.
The very last step is making the pouch. I try to pick a color that complements them in some way. There's really no magic there.
So that's my process. I'm sure others do it differently and I'm sure there are ways that I could make it easier on myself, but this is what makes me happy. If you're not happy while you're making these, they won't be happy. Nobody wants unhappy runes.
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