Pokerwork decorated jewelry box, treated with a little wood stain. Craft activities for teenagers to discover, using basic, fixed temperature pokerwork machines/soldering irons, which are generally supplied with 2 tips (one pointed and one flat). Here, the pokerwork is designed simply to mark out areas in the wood in order to make the painting stage easier. Artists who master this tricky technique can create real, highly-nuanced designs, depending on the temperature of the iron, which in the hands of an expert, is as good as a paintbrush...

Object in unfinished wood, such as this jewelry box in low-density wood, - wood stain (odorless craft version) - gold acrylic paint or - a paintbrush - a tube of gold outliner - and of course, an electric soldering iron

Here we're going to draw different patterns, using a normal pencil, either freehand or transferring drawings using tracing paper.

Fit the pointed tip to the soldering iron and heat it up, leaving it on its stand (be careful not to burn the electric cable at the same time!) As soon as it's hot, it's ready for use. It's best to have a test run or two on a small piece of wood to test out the iron especially in terms of l'appui du pyrograveur on the wood. What you are trying to do is make little marks, not burn the wood all around... Using a light grip, go back and forth with the hot tip over the outlines marked in pencil , never pressing down with the tip for too long.

The areas inside the marked-out areas are painted in gold acrylic paint. The rest of the box is stained with the wood stain you've chosen (choose a warm shade): the wood stain is liquid but will not spill over from one area to another thanks to the pokerwork, which will stop the stain from passing through the wood fibers. Once the paint is dry, you can draw on more arabesques with the tube of gold outliner.

Be careful not to use the soldering iron on just any kind of surface, as this could cause the release of toxic fumes. It's for this reason that you need to use unfinished wood!