Ombre Geometric Wood Art

Create beautiful art for your home using wood (that you may or may not already have laying around your shop) and a Bernzomatic torch. This project will surely elevate your interior décor but will only cost you $40 at most!

Directions

1. Size your plywood board sized and then use a straight edge to find the center of the plywood board and mark it in both directions.
   
2. Next, cut your pieces of wood into 45 degree angles. Set your miter saw to 45 degrees, and never move it to keep the angles consistent. Instead, just move the pieces.
   
3. As you cut your pieces, gradually lay them out on your plywood board. Don’t worry too much about the pieces overhanging off of the edge of the board, because you will be trimming them to size later. Also make sure to keep all of your offcuts to the side because you will use them later to fill in some gaps.
   
4. Continue this method until you completely fill in the “x” shape that you want to create.
   
5. After the center boards were done, lightly sand them down to prep for wood burning.
   
6. After sanding the pieces, make sure to flip them over and label them based on color tone, order, and what quadrant they were in so that you do not lose track of them later.
   
7. Next, take the pieces outside and began to torch them using the BZ4500 Heat Shrink Torch with Propane. In order to get the ombre effect, add one extra layer of heat to the board depending on how dark you want it to be (i.e., one layer for the light one, two layers for the light medium, three layers for the medium, and four layers for the dark one). Also make sure to sand the boards in between each layer of heat.
   
8. After torching the pieces to a place you are happy with, seal them with a clear spray paint to prevent the charred wood from shedding onto your furniture.
9. Once you are happy with the gradient in your pieces, attach them to your plywood board using wood glue and 1/2″ brad nails.
   
10. If you so choose, seal it all in with a lightly tinted polyurethane to give it more of an amber tone.
    
11. Once the middle pieces are attached and finished, it’s time to prep the filler pieces on the sides, bottom, and top of the wood art piece. Do so by using the cutoff pieces and trimming them to 45 degrees to fit in the spaces.
    
12. Once the pieces are in an order you are happy with, label each piece to prep them for paint. Then, paint the pieces white.
    
13. After the pieces dry, attach them to the plywood with wood glue and brad nails.
    
14. To ensure the border of the art piece would match the wood already used, take a few pieces from the lath bundle and trim them on your table saw to match the height of the piece.
    
15. Then torch the border pieces using the BZ4500 torch again to match the piece and sealed them with clear spray paint.
    
16. Finally, trim them to size and attach them to the plywood.