wood burned tabletop

I love wood burning projects and when I recently found a round piece of wood in our shed I thought it would be the perfect surface to burn and transform into a side tabletop. 

Since it was round, I thought a mandala design on top would be perfect! 

To begin, I used a compass and a ruler to map out my design. 

Using my Wood Hollow Creative Woodburner Pen I got to work burning my design.

This kind of work can be tricky. To begin, it takes a lot of time to burn into a piece of wood this big and your hands will get really sore. I like to work on something this large in stages over the course of a couple of days. 

It's also tricky because hard and cheap wood (like the piece that I used) can have a lot of grain and knots in it. The process can be challenging because the grain and the knots won't burn the evenly- there will be a lot of "interruptions" in the design. I personally don't mind. I actually love the character of wood grain and the imperfections but you could use a softer wood with less visible grain for a smooth burn.

After a lot of hours and a sore hand I finished the mandala. 

The last step was to use brackets to attach the tabletop to metal legs

Check out all of my wood burning projects below.

1. wood burned blocks 2. wood burned bangles 3. wood burned buttons 4. wood burned earrings 5. wood burned spoons 6. wood rings 7. popsicle stick bracelets 8. wood burned frame 9. wood burned boxes