Pyrography is the art or craft of creating images on leather through the use of a heated tool (In the Victorian times it was known as Pokerwork). Pyrography on leather has developed into a fine art and is a skill not easily mastered. Different colours and textures can be obtained by varying the the temperature, speed of movement and presure of the heated tool on the leather surface.

Miriam Naughton is one of Australia's leading naive artists. She was born in Sydney in 1925. At the age fo 17 she joined the Australian Army as a signils operator stationed in Cairns, Northern Queensland for the duration of World War II. At the end of the war she took up the position of assistant to the Superintendent of Yarraba Mission near Cairns. It was here that she was introduced to painting through the work of an old Aboriginal man named Joe who would sit on the beach and do traditional paintings of Abroiginal design. It was he who inspired her to do her first painting 'Visit to Yarraba by the New Bishop' (1947).A 'true naive' painter Miriam has had no formal training. Close text.