Cutting board and Chess board

This is my first attempt at a zig-zag cutting board after reading the great blog on how to do it posted here at lumberjocks (is it terrible that I forget the jock who posted it….but he knows who he is and I thank him). The woods are cherry in the middle strip and then walnut and maple strips out to the ends.

The checker/chess board is maple and purpleheart. I seem to have lost the great purple color of the wood on this one. Any ideas as to why??? I finished it with a combo wiping mix of turp/BLO/spar varnsih for the first coat and then just BLO/spar varnish for each additional coat. It looks like plain walnut now (which is o.k., I love the look of walnut but I really wanted to have that purple color to wow my kids when I gave it to them). There is always next time.

Thanks for looking.

-- --It's not how long you live, but how you live that makes it a life.--