Leather Ogham Pyrography

I made myself an Ogham alphabet set on leather, to use for amulets, contemplations, offerings, and divination. Plus, crafting the set in the first place was its own magical spell.

Thank goodness that some new wood arrived, and more is coming! I purchased a woodburning pen recently and, after doing pyrography on the few wooden items that I could reasonably consider for such a use, I am now hungrily eyeing my antiques, window frames, and every other piece of wood in—and of—the house.

Some might say I should go for it, but I know in my gut that, in my case, it … is … a … bad … idea. There are some things it’s wise to never start, because you know you’ll never stop. I don’t want a home in which every last inch is wood-burned.

Luckily, a neighbor gifted me some small maple and oak branches. I can’t adorn them yet because I’m waiting for a new saw suited to sawing wee branches into small segments. My current, mammoth saw makes the job incredibly time-consuming.

Plus my friend SnowStar is sending me some other wood. Thank you, SnowStar, Goddess bless you!

In the meantime, I thought I’d try my hand at pyrography on leather.

The photo shows the result. I think perhaps the leather is bow shot deer.

There are clearly varying degrees of skill in my leather-burning. (This is only my fourth attempt at pyrography.)

After burning some pieces, I switched to a finer point, which did a much better job. These are very small pieces of leather:

The scraps on the safety pin in the first photo are duplicates of other pieces, either “seconds” or intentional extras.

I thought I was going to send an extra to SnowStar, but since she’s sensitive to scents I’ve given up the idea. Be forewarned if you’re thinking of leather pyrography: the scent of burnt hide is so repugnant as to be almost nauseating! And the scent is not faint at all, quite the opposite.

I did wash the finished items in soap and water, and then rinsed them in water to which I added essential oils, said essential oils being also used for their magical attributes.

Then, I hung the leather bits outside to air, after which I sprayed them with an exquisite organic frankincense hydrosol, both for magical purposes and to moisten the little rumpled pieces of leather so I could safely iron them flat.

Their smell is okay now, but I suspect they would have to air outside for days to completely lose the burnt hide scent because it is strong. I brought them in after a few hours because I was impatient. I might hang them outside again.

I made them to use them as additions to amulets, amulets unto themselves, and as pieces for contemplation, offerings, divination, and more. I also felt the crafting of them in the first place would be both a contemplation and spell.

I put a hole at the top of each piece, which allows more variety of usage. The holes will also show me, when I’m tossing the leather for divination, which way is up for each figure, since many letters in the Ogham alphabet become a different letter when upside down.