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#1 ·
General Concept

This is the blog that I promised detailing my experiments in what I call "watercolor style" aniline dying. My sincere hope is that it will encourage some of you to jump in and help develop what I think is a huge potential of which I've only scratched the surface.

The idea of hand dyeing pieces of inlay or marquetry came to me because I was frustrated by the limited array of colors available to me in the veneer and solid wood supply to which I have access. I was enjoying the idea of inlay and contemplating more complex marquetry, but as you can see in the examples of my pieces below, I clearly could have created a much better representation if I had more colors in my palate. Colors particularly difficult to come by in wood are greens and blues. These would make oceans, skies, trees, leaves and many other things more lifelike and more vibrant. I know that convention in marquetry is that you use a wide variety of woods and make do with what nature gave you, but I'm not really all that good with rules and besides, I don't have access to a supplier of veneers where I can go and pick through samples looking for the right colors.

These are two of my earliest inlay pieces, done with a router inlay set. They're nice enough but lack, in my mind anyway, an "edge".
Cabinetry Plant Wood Window Wood stain


Wood Rectangle Shelf Bookcase Wood stain


I started by searching the internet for dyeing techniques in marquetry, aniline dyeing techniques, dying inlay etc. and only came up with a couple of suppliers who would sell me pieces of plain light colored wood that had been pressure saturated with some color. That wasn't what I was looking for. Next I bought a set of 12Ă—2 oz. bottles of liquid aniline dye http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Trial-12-Color-Kits-P51C12.aspx and started experimenting.

After some fooling around I decided to give it a go on my "Cabinetree" project. The tree trunk was dyed in a fairly conventional way, blending a few colors with sanding in between.

Brown Sculpture Natural material Wood Twig


When it came time to do the fall representation of Big Leaf Maple leaves, I cut the marquetry with the grains running the way that the leaf 's veins would run, more or less, but all out of maple, almost. I did use a few pieces of Walnut where the leaf curled up and was in shade, but other than that the whole marquetry was the same color. Not too impressive, I agree.

Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Art


That was when the experimenting really got into gear. I decided to try to "watercolor" paint with the dye in a wet on wet style, using artists' brushes and double strength dye mix.

Tartan Table Textile Vision care Eyewear


I started with the lightest color, yellow here, and flooded the piece, allowing it to get quite wet.

Plant Wood Art Tree Natural material


Then I added some green near the base of the center vein to show the last of the summer color hanging on. This was added while the yellow was still wet and allowed to just bleed with the grain. There's lots of room for experimentation here with different techniques, concentrations and solvent mixes. Aniline dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol or a mixture of the two. Further, there are three different alcohols (methyl, ethyl,and isopropyl) that you can use , each with it's own properties. Different combinations will exhibit different "bleed" characteristics.

Plant Tree Wood Table Deciduous


Finally I added the dark decaying color around the edges. This didn't seem to bleed back into the yellow on it's own but after a bit of experimenting I discovered that I could blend it very nicely by re-wetting it. This can be done with water, an alcohol or, as I did here, by dragging a brush dipped in yellow from the yellow out into the burnt sienna. There's lots to play with here.

Wood Wood stain Clay Varnish Hardwood


Plant Leaf Twig Wood Oregon white oak


That about covers what I learned about dyeing in the "Cabinetree" project. It only scratches the surface of the potential for this style and there's lots of room to improve and expand the technique.

Next time I'll go into the new ways I used the technique in "Facets" and show some of the tricks I've learned.

Thanks for checking in and for your interest. I hope I can inspire you to experiment with this stuff. It is a ton of fun.

Paul
 

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#2 ·
General Concept

This is the blog that I promised detailing my experiments in what I call "watercolor style" aniline dying. My sincere hope is that it will encourage some of you to jump in and help develop what I think is a huge potential of which I've only scratched the surface.

The idea of hand dyeing pieces of inlay or marquetry came to me because I was frustrated by the limited array of colors available to me in the veneer and solid wood supply to which I have access. I was enjoying the idea of inlay and contemplating more complex marquetry, but as you can see in the examples of my pieces below, I clearly could have created a much better representation if I had more colors in my palate. Colors particularly difficult to come by in wood are greens and blues. These would make oceans, skies, trees, leaves and many other things more lifelike and more vibrant. I know that convention in marquetry is that you use a wide variety of woods and make do with what nature gave you, but I'm not really all that good with rules and besides, I don't have access to a supplier of veneers where I can go and pick through samples looking for the right colors.

These are two of my earliest inlay pieces, done with a router inlay set. They're nice enough but lack, in my mind anyway, an "edge".
Cabinetry Plant Wood Window Wood stain


Wood Rectangle Shelf Bookcase Wood stain


I started by searching the internet for dyeing techniques in marquetry, aniline dyeing techniques, dying inlay etc. and only came up with a couple of suppliers who would sell me pieces of plain light colored wood that had been pressure saturated with some color. That wasn't what I was looking for. Next I bought a set of 12Ă—2 oz. bottles of liquid aniline dye http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Trial-12-Color-Kits-P51C12.aspx and started experimenting.

After some fooling around I decided to give it a go on my "Cabinetree" project. The tree trunk was dyed in a fairly conventional way, blending a few colors with sanding in between.

Brown Sculpture Natural material Wood Twig


When it came time to do the fall representation of Big Leaf Maple leaves, I cut the marquetry with the grains running the way that the leaf 's veins would run, more or less, but all out of maple, almost. I did use a few pieces of Walnut where the leaf curled up and was in shade, but other than that the whole marquetry was the same color. Not too impressive, I agree.

Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Art


That was when the experimenting really got into gear. I decided to try to "watercolor" paint with the dye in a wet on wet style, using artists' brushes and double strength dye mix.

Tartan Table Textile Vision care Eyewear


I started with the lightest color, yellow here, and flooded the piece, allowing it to get quite wet.

Plant Wood Art Tree Natural material


Then I added some green near the base of the center vein to show the last of the summer color hanging on. This was added while the yellow was still wet and allowed to just bleed with the grain. There's lots of room for experimentation here with different techniques, concentrations and solvent mixes. Aniline dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol or a mixture of the two. Further, there are three different alcohols (methyl, ethyl,and isopropyl) that you can use , each with it's own properties. Different combinations will exhibit different "bleed" characteristics.

Plant Tree Wood Table Deciduous


Finally I added the dark decaying color around the edges. This didn't seem to bleed back into the yellow on it's own but after a bit of experimenting I discovered that I could blend it very nicely by re-wetting it. This can be done with water, an alcohol or, as I did here, by dragging a brush dipped in yellow from the yellow out into the burnt sienna. There's lots to play with here.

Wood Wood stain Clay Varnish Hardwood


Plant Leaf Twig Wood Oregon white oak


That about covers what I learned about dyeing in the "Cabinetree" project. It only scratches the surface of the potential for this style and there's lots of room to improve and expand the technique.

Next time I'll go into the new ways I used the technique in "Facets" and show some of the tricks I've learned.

Thanks for checking in and for your interest. I hope I can inspire you to experiment with this stuff. It is a ton of fun.

Paul
Thanks Paul for the detailed & easy to follow tuturial. I may get the same kit, plus some additional colors to try.
Since I have an art background, the first thing I wondered about was the permanence of the pigments that make up the dyes. With artist's paints, the oils, watercolors, etc. have a lightfastness rating on each tube. 1 being most lightfast/permanent, 2 & 3 going down in stability accordingly. I wonder if aniline dyes have a similar system? If I can find a way to contact the manufacturer, I will ask.
I think what you and others here are doing with the application of translucent color is wonderful.
I look forward to trying it myself, and seeing more!
 

Attachments

#3 ·
General Concept

This is the blog that I promised detailing my experiments in what I call "watercolor style" aniline dying. My sincere hope is that it will encourage some of you to jump in and help develop what I think is a huge potential of which I've only scratched the surface.

The idea of hand dyeing pieces of inlay or marquetry came to me because I was frustrated by the limited array of colors available to me in the veneer and solid wood supply to which I have access. I was enjoying the idea of inlay and contemplating more complex marquetry, but as you can see in the examples of my pieces below, I clearly could have created a much better representation if I had more colors in my palate. Colors particularly difficult to come by in wood are greens and blues. These would make oceans, skies, trees, leaves and many other things more lifelike and more vibrant. I know that convention in marquetry is that you use a wide variety of woods and make do with what nature gave you, but I'm not really all that good with rules and besides, I don't have access to a supplier of veneers where I can go and pick through samples looking for the right colors.

These are two of my earliest inlay pieces, done with a router inlay set. They're nice enough but lack, in my mind anyway, an "edge".
Cabinetry Plant Wood Window Wood stain


Wood Rectangle Shelf Bookcase Wood stain


I started by searching the internet for dyeing techniques in marquetry, aniline dyeing techniques, dying inlay etc. and only came up with a couple of suppliers who would sell me pieces of plain light colored wood that had been pressure saturated with some color. That wasn't what I was looking for. Next I bought a set of 12Ă—2 oz. bottles of liquid aniline dye http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Trial-12-Color-Kits-P51C12.aspx and started experimenting.

After some fooling around I decided to give it a go on my "Cabinetree" project. The tree trunk was dyed in a fairly conventional way, blending a few colors with sanding in between.

Brown Sculpture Natural material Wood Twig


When it came time to do the fall representation of Big Leaf Maple leaves, I cut the marquetry with the grains running the way that the leaf 's veins would run, more or less, but all out of maple, almost. I did use a few pieces of Walnut where the leaf curled up and was in shade, but other than that the whole marquetry was the same color. Not too impressive, I agree.

Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Art


That was when the experimenting really got into gear. I decided to try to "watercolor" paint with the dye in a wet on wet style, using artists' brushes and double strength dye mix.

Tartan Table Textile Vision care Eyewear


I started with the lightest color, yellow here, and flooded the piece, allowing it to get quite wet.

Plant Wood Art Tree Natural material


Then I added some green near the base of the center vein to show the last of the summer color hanging on. This was added while the yellow was still wet and allowed to just bleed with the grain. There's lots of room for experimentation here with different techniques, concentrations and solvent mixes. Aniline dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol or a mixture of the two. Further, there are three different alcohols (methyl, ethyl,and isopropyl) that you can use , each with it's own properties. Different combinations will exhibit different "bleed" characteristics.

Plant Tree Wood Table Deciduous


Finally I added the dark decaying color around the edges. This didn't seem to bleed back into the yellow on it's own but after a bit of experimenting I discovered that I could blend it very nicely by re-wetting it. This can be done with water, an alcohol or, as I did here, by dragging a brush dipped in yellow from the yellow out into the burnt sienna. There's lots to play with here.

Wood Wood stain Clay Varnish Hardwood


Plant Leaf Twig Wood Oregon white oak


That about covers what I learned about dyeing in the "Cabinetree" project. It only scratches the surface of the potential for this style and there's lots of room to improve and expand the technique.

Next time I'll go into the new ways I used the technique in "Facets" and show some of the tricks I've learned.

Thanks for checking in and for your interest. I hope I can inspire you to experiment with this stuff. It is a ton of fun.

Paul
Thank you for the amazing journey.
You used colors cautiously and did not over do it, and I like this very much.
Just wondering how will these colors react in time.
Just thinking out laud here about the blues and natural colors, cobalt blue in powder format widely used in Byzantine iconography, mixed with egg and vinegar (ok it will smell bad at first) but it's quite stable, so I was wondering how that technique can be mixed directly onto the wood and blend together with your colors. It worth investigating.
Thanks again
 

Attachments

#4 ·
General Concept

This is the blog that I promised detailing my experiments in what I call "watercolor style" aniline dying. My sincere hope is that it will encourage some of you to jump in and help develop what I think is a huge potential of which I've only scratched the surface.

The idea of hand dyeing pieces of inlay or marquetry came to me because I was frustrated by the limited array of colors available to me in the veneer and solid wood supply to which I have access. I was enjoying the idea of inlay and contemplating more complex marquetry, but as you can see in the examples of my pieces below, I clearly could have created a much better representation if I had more colors in my palate. Colors particularly difficult to come by in wood are greens and blues. These would make oceans, skies, trees, leaves and many other things more lifelike and more vibrant. I know that convention in marquetry is that you use a wide variety of woods and make do with what nature gave you, but I'm not really all that good with rules and besides, I don't have access to a supplier of veneers where I can go and pick through samples looking for the right colors.

These are two of my earliest inlay pieces, done with a router inlay set. They're nice enough but lack, in my mind anyway, an "edge".
Cabinetry Plant Wood Window Wood stain


Wood Rectangle Shelf Bookcase Wood stain


I started by searching the internet for dyeing techniques in marquetry, aniline dyeing techniques, dying inlay etc. and only came up with a couple of suppliers who would sell me pieces of plain light colored wood that had been pressure saturated with some color. That wasn't what I was looking for. Next I bought a set of 12Ă—2 oz. bottles of liquid aniline dye http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Trial-12-Color-Kits-P51C12.aspx and started experimenting.

After some fooling around I decided to give it a go on my "Cabinetree" project. The tree trunk was dyed in a fairly conventional way, blending a few colors with sanding in between.

Brown Sculpture Natural material Wood Twig


When it came time to do the fall representation of Big Leaf Maple leaves, I cut the marquetry with the grains running the way that the leaf 's veins would run, more or less, but all out of maple, almost. I did use a few pieces of Walnut where the leaf curled up and was in shade, but other than that the whole marquetry was the same color. Not too impressive, I agree.

Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Art


That was when the experimenting really got into gear. I decided to try to "watercolor" paint with the dye in a wet on wet style, using artists' brushes and double strength dye mix.

Tartan Table Textile Vision care Eyewear


I started with the lightest color, yellow here, and flooded the piece, allowing it to get quite wet.

Plant Wood Art Tree Natural material


Then I added some green near the base of the center vein to show the last of the summer color hanging on. This was added while the yellow was still wet and allowed to just bleed with the grain. There's lots of room for experimentation here with different techniques, concentrations and solvent mixes. Aniline dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol or a mixture of the two. Further, there are three different alcohols (methyl, ethyl,and isopropyl) that you can use , each with it's own properties. Different combinations will exhibit different "bleed" characteristics.

Plant Tree Wood Table Deciduous


Finally I added the dark decaying color around the edges. This didn't seem to bleed back into the yellow on it's own but after a bit of experimenting I discovered that I could blend it very nicely by re-wetting it. This can be done with water, an alcohol or, as I did here, by dragging a brush dipped in yellow from the yellow out into the burnt sienna. There's lots to play with here.

Wood Wood stain Clay Varnish Hardwood


Plant Leaf Twig Wood Oregon white oak


That about covers what I learned about dyeing in the "Cabinetree" project. It only scratches the surface of the potential for this style and there's lots of room to improve and expand the technique.

Next time I'll go into the new ways I used the technique in "Facets" and show some of the tricks I've learned.

Thanks for checking in and for your interest. I hope I can inspire you to experiment with this stuff. It is a ton of fun.

Paul
Paul,
You really have my imagination working overtime with the whole idea of "watercolor style marquetry". Your work is both innovative and beautiful. Inlaying is something I really enjoy, and the potential of your technique is huge. I want to try something with it on my boxes one of these days. Keep up the great work. Many thanks for sharing your work.
Roger
 

Attachments

#5 ·
General Concept

This is the blog that I promised detailing my experiments in what I call "watercolor style" aniline dying. My sincere hope is that it will encourage some of you to jump in and help develop what I think is a huge potential of which I've only scratched the surface.

The idea of hand dyeing pieces of inlay or marquetry came to me because I was frustrated by the limited array of colors available to me in the veneer and solid wood supply to which I have access. I was enjoying the idea of inlay and contemplating more complex marquetry, but as you can see in the examples of my pieces below, I clearly could have created a much better representation if I had more colors in my palate. Colors particularly difficult to come by in wood are greens and blues. These would make oceans, skies, trees, leaves and many other things more lifelike and more vibrant. I know that convention in marquetry is that you use a wide variety of woods and make do with what nature gave you, but I'm not really all that good with rules and besides, I don't have access to a supplier of veneers where I can go and pick through samples looking for the right colors.

These are two of my earliest inlay pieces, done with a router inlay set. They're nice enough but lack, in my mind anyway, an "edge".
Cabinetry Plant Wood Window Wood stain


Wood Rectangle Shelf Bookcase Wood stain


I started by searching the internet for dyeing techniques in marquetry, aniline dyeing techniques, dying inlay etc. and only came up with a couple of suppliers who would sell me pieces of plain light colored wood that had been pressure saturated with some color. That wasn't what I was looking for. Next I bought a set of 12Ă—2 oz. bottles of liquid aniline dye http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Trial-12-Color-Kits-P51C12.aspx and started experimenting.

After some fooling around I decided to give it a go on my "Cabinetree" project. The tree trunk was dyed in a fairly conventional way, blending a few colors with sanding in between.

Brown Sculpture Natural material Wood Twig


When it came time to do the fall representation of Big Leaf Maple leaves, I cut the marquetry with the grains running the way that the leaf 's veins would run, more or less, but all out of maple, almost. I did use a few pieces of Walnut where the leaf curled up and was in shade, but other than that the whole marquetry was the same color. Not too impressive, I agree.

Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Art


That was when the experimenting really got into gear. I decided to try to "watercolor" paint with the dye in a wet on wet style, using artists' brushes and double strength dye mix.

Tartan Table Textile Vision care Eyewear


I started with the lightest color, yellow here, and flooded the piece, allowing it to get quite wet.

Plant Wood Art Tree Natural material


Then I added some green near the base of the center vein to show the last of the summer color hanging on. This was added while the yellow was still wet and allowed to just bleed with the grain. There's lots of room for experimentation here with different techniques, concentrations and solvent mixes. Aniline dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol or a mixture of the two. Further, there are three different alcohols (methyl, ethyl,and isopropyl) that you can use , each with it's own properties. Different combinations will exhibit different "bleed" characteristics.

Plant Tree Wood Table Deciduous


Finally I added the dark decaying color around the edges. This didn't seem to bleed back into the yellow on it's own but after a bit of experimenting I discovered that I could blend it very nicely by re-wetting it. This can be done with water, an alcohol or, as I did here, by dragging a brush dipped in yellow from the yellow out into the burnt sienna. There's lots to play with here.

Wood Wood stain Clay Varnish Hardwood


Plant Leaf Twig Wood Oregon white oak


That about covers what I learned about dyeing in the "Cabinetree" project. It only scratches the surface of the potential for this style and there's lots of room to improve and expand the technique.

Next time I'll go into the new ways I used the technique in "Facets" and show some of the tricks I've learned.

Thanks for checking in and for your interest. I hope I can inspire you to experiment with this stuff. It is a ton of fun.

Paul
Just came across this posting, Paul-sorry I missed it for so long. Been struggling with color palette myself for some time. Tried a few different techniques, but each seemed doom to deterioration with time. Will definitely do some more experimenting along the lines you suggested.
Have a very happy 2012!
 

Attachments

#6 ·
General Concept

This is the blog that I promised detailing my experiments in what I call "watercolor style" aniline dying. My sincere hope is that it will encourage some of you to jump in and help develop what I think is a huge potential of which I've only scratched the surface.

The idea of hand dyeing pieces of inlay or marquetry came to me because I was frustrated by the limited array of colors available to me in the veneer and solid wood supply to which I have access. I was enjoying the idea of inlay and contemplating more complex marquetry, but as you can see in the examples of my pieces below, I clearly could have created a much better representation if I had more colors in my palate. Colors particularly difficult to come by in wood are greens and blues. These would make oceans, skies, trees, leaves and many other things more lifelike and more vibrant. I know that convention in marquetry is that you use a wide variety of woods and make do with what nature gave you, but I'm not really all that good with rules and besides, I don't have access to a supplier of veneers where I can go and pick through samples looking for the right colors.

These are two of my earliest inlay pieces, done with a router inlay set. They're nice enough but lack, in my mind anyway, an "edge".
Cabinetry Plant Wood Window Wood stain


Wood Rectangle Shelf Bookcase Wood stain


I started by searching the internet for dyeing techniques in marquetry, aniline dyeing techniques, dying inlay etc. and only came up with a couple of suppliers who would sell me pieces of plain light colored wood that had been pressure saturated with some color. That wasn't what I was looking for. Next I bought a set of 12Ă—2 oz. bottles of liquid aniline dye http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Trial-12-Color-Kits-P51C12.aspx and started experimenting.

After some fooling around I decided to give it a go on my "Cabinetree" project. The tree trunk was dyed in a fairly conventional way, blending a few colors with sanding in between.

Brown Sculpture Natural material Wood Twig


When it came time to do the fall representation of Big Leaf Maple leaves, I cut the marquetry with the grains running the way that the leaf 's veins would run, more or less, but all out of maple, almost. I did use a few pieces of Walnut where the leaf curled up and was in shade, but other than that the whole marquetry was the same color. Not too impressive, I agree.

Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Art


That was when the experimenting really got into gear. I decided to try to "watercolor" paint with the dye in a wet on wet style, using artists' brushes and double strength dye mix.

Tartan Table Textile Vision care Eyewear


I started with the lightest color, yellow here, and flooded the piece, allowing it to get quite wet.

Plant Wood Art Tree Natural material


Then I added some green near the base of the center vein to show the last of the summer color hanging on. This was added while the yellow was still wet and allowed to just bleed with the grain. There's lots of room for experimentation here with different techniques, concentrations and solvent mixes. Aniline dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol or a mixture of the two. Further, there are three different alcohols (methyl, ethyl,and isopropyl) that you can use , each with it's own properties. Different combinations will exhibit different "bleed" characteristics.

Plant Tree Wood Table Deciduous


Finally I added the dark decaying color around the edges. This didn't seem to bleed back into the yellow on it's own but after a bit of experimenting I discovered that I could blend it very nicely by re-wetting it. This can be done with water, an alcohol or, as I did here, by dragging a brush dipped in yellow from the yellow out into the burnt sienna. There's lots to play with here.

Wood Wood stain Clay Varnish Hardwood


Plant Leaf Twig Wood Oregon white oak


That about covers what I learned about dyeing in the "Cabinetree" project. It only scratches the surface of the potential for this style and there's lots of room to improve and expand the technique.

Next time I'll go into the new ways I used the technique in "Facets" and show some of the tricks I've learned.

Thanks for checking in and for your interest. I hope I can inspire you to experiment with this stuff. It is a ton of fun.

Paul
Paul,

Your dying of the the leaf project is well done! Great idea and execution! Thank you for sharing!

Your Friend,

Nate
 

Attachments

#7 ·
General Concept

This is the blog that I promised detailing my experiments in what I call "watercolor style" aniline dying. My sincere hope is that it will encourage some of you to jump in and help develop what I think is a huge potential of which I've only scratched the surface.

The idea of hand dyeing pieces of inlay or marquetry came to me because I was frustrated by the limited array of colors available to me in the veneer and solid wood supply to which I have access. I was enjoying the idea of inlay and contemplating more complex marquetry, but as you can see in the examples of my pieces below, I clearly could have created a much better representation if I had more colors in my palate. Colors particularly difficult to come by in wood are greens and blues. These would make oceans, skies, trees, leaves and many other things more lifelike and more vibrant. I know that convention in marquetry is that you use a wide variety of woods and make do with what nature gave you, but I'm not really all that good with rules and besides, I don't have access to a supplier of veneers where I can go and pick through samples looking for the right colors.

These are two of my earliest inlay pieces, done with a router inlay set. They're nice enough but lack, in my mind anyway, an "edge".
Cabinetry Plant Wood Window Wood stain


Wood Rectangle Shelf Bookcase Wood stain


I started by searching the internet for dyeing techniques in marquetry, aniline dyeing techniques, dying inlay etc. and only came up with a couple of suppliers who would sell me pieces of plain light colored wood that had been pressure saturated with some color. That wasn't what I was looking for. Next I bought a set of 12Ă—2 oz. bottles of liquid aniline dye http://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye-Trial-12-Color-Kits-P51C12.aspx and started experimenting.

After some fooling around I decided to give it a go on my "Cabinetree" project. The tree trunk was dyed in a fairly conventional way, blending a few colors with sanding in between.

Brown Sculpture Natural material Wood Twig


When it came time to do the fall representation of Big Leaf Maple leaves, I cut the marquetry with the grains running the way that the leaf 's veins would run, more or less, but all out of maple, almost. I did use a few pieces of Walnut where the leaf curled up and was in shade, but other than that the whole marquetry was the same color. Not too impressive, I agree.

Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Art


That was when the experimenting really got into gear. I decided to try to "watercolor" paint with the dye in a wet on wet style, using artists' brushes and double strength dye mix.

Tartan Table Textile Vision care Eyewear


I started with the lightest color, yellow here, and flooded the piece, allowing it to get quite wet.

Plant Wood Art Tree Natural material


Then I added some green near the base of the center vein to show the last of the summer color hanging on. This was added while the yellow was still wet and allowed to just bleed with the grain. There's lots of room for experimentation here with different techniques, concentrations and solvent mixes. Aniline dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol or a mixture of the two. Further, there are three different alcohols (methyl, ethyl,and isopropyl) that you can use , each with it's own properties. Different combinations will exhibit different "bleed" characteristics.

Plant Tree Wood Table Deciduous


Finally I added the dark decaying color around the edges. This didn't seem to bleed back into the yellow on it's own but after a bit of experimenting I discovered that I could blend it very nicely by re-wetting it. This can be done with water, an alcohol or, as I did here, by dragging a brush dipped in yellow from the yellow out into the burnt sienna. There's lots to play with here.

Wood Wood stain Clay Varnish Hardwood


Plant Leaf Twig Wood Oregon white oak


That about covers what I learned about dyeing in the "Cabinetree" project. It only scratches the surface of the potential for this style and there's lots of room to improve and expand the technique.

Next time I'll go into the new ways I used the technique in "Facets" and show some of the tricks I've learned.

Thanks for checking in and for your interest. I hope I can inspire you to experiment with this stuff. It is a ton of fun.

Paul
Thank you so much for sharing Paul
 

Attachments

#8 ·
New Lessons Learned from "Facets"

The biggest and most dramatic new lesson I learned from the "Facets" project's dyeing was the huge dimensional movement that you can get when you wet out this particular kind of veneer work. The most important thing learned from that experience is that if the pieces fit when you cut them they can be made to fit again, no matter how far out of whack they may seem to have gotten. It's only water and all you have to do is restore their original moisture balance. This can be done with a spray bottle or a hair dryer, depending on which way you have to go. This is well documented here: http://lumberjocks.com/shipwright/blog/20211 so there's no need to go over it again now.

The new area I wanted to experiment with in "Facets" was detailing within a color in a single piece. The big maple leaf on top was the subject. First of all I gave the whole leaf a wash of the shade of green I wanted for background color.

Flower Plant Leaf Tree Twig


Then I applied a darker shade and even some black "wet on dry"to form curled up details in some of the tips and edges. I found that if I held a hair dryer with it's hot air aimed at the brush I could keep a quite bleed free line. I decided to try this after the leaves in "Cabinetree" showed me that I really didn't have to use the walnut bits to show dark edges.

Plant Wood Twig Flowering plant Foot


Here it's about 1/2 done and you can see some of the detail is coming along nicely. Wet on dry lines that follow the grain work quite well even without the dryer.

Table Tableware Dishware Creative arts Soy sauce


In this photo the pieces are assembled into their backgrounds and adhered to their substrates but have suffered from the washing out that resulted from the dimensional stability problem. Now I had to see if the work could be repaired post assembly. I suppose I should explain the caterpillar. When I was double bevel cutting the corner pieces into the leaf center piece, I accidentally made the cut for the larger top right corner in the bottom left. The caterpillar covers most of the boo boo.

Leaf Plant Textile Art Creative arts


He had to be hand cut in and created his own dying challenges.

Textile Writing implement Office supplies Pen Electric blue


Since I wanted to darken the background color anyway, I decided to test the barrier qualities of the glue line with that color before going on to the leaf repairs. The last time I tried this the glue line was CA glue and did not present any barrier at all to dye bleeding. This was a different glue line. Firstly it was urea formaldehyde glue and secondly it had been vacuum bagged, probably giving it a better fill between the pieces. At any rate the glue line held as you can see in this photo. Once I knew this it was just a matter of repeating the previous steps albeit more carefully to re-create the lost detail. The whole process seems to be amazingly forgiving.

Sleeve Wood T-shirt Paint Table tennis racket


I chose to make a butterfly for the lift handle and dyed it with a simple wet on dry system. I discovered later that I could have done the fine detail after the first bit of poly and gotten better lines, but I don't mind this.

Pollinator Butterfly Table Arthropod Tableware


Here's a finished shot of the leaf panels with finish applied. The colors in the piece actually look more vibrant that they do in the photos but the extreme gloss and the many planes make it very hard to photograph.

Amber Art Glass Lamp Rectangle


That's it for this segment. Hope I've cleared up a little more of the mystery here and that some of you will jump in and clear up some more of it.

I'll do one more segment to discuss a few observations and tricks I've learned along the way.

For now Thanks for enduring and let's see some of you dyeing stuff.

Thanks again

Paul
 

Attachments

#9 ·
New Lessons Learned from "Facets"

The biggest and most dramatic new lesson I learned from the "Facets" project's dyeing was the huge dimensional movement that you can get when you wet out this particular kind of veneer work. The most important thing learned from that experience is that if the pieces fit when you cut them they can be made to fit again, no matter how far out of whack they may seem to have gotten. It's only water and all you have to do is restore their original moisture balance. This can be done with a spray bottle or a hair dryer, depending on which way you have to go. This is well documented here: http://lumberjocks.com/shipwright/blog/20211 so there's no need to go over it again now.

The new area I wanted to experiment with in "Facets" was detailing within a color in a single piece. The big maple leaf on top was the subject. First of all I gave the whole leaf a wash of the shade of green I wanted for background color.

Flower Plant Leaf Tree Twig


Then I applied a darker shade and even some black "wet on dry"to form curled up details in some of the tips and edges. I found that if I held a hair dryer with it's hot air aimed at the brush I could keep a quite bleed free line. I decided to try this after the leaves in "Cabinetree" showed me that I really didn't have to use the walnut bits to show dark edges.

Plant Wood Twig Flowering plant Foot


Here it's about 1/2 done and you can see some of the detail is coming along nicely. Wet on dry lines that follow the grain work quite well even without the dryer.

Table Tableware Dishware Creative arts Soy sauce


In this photo the pieces are assembled into their backgrounds and adhered to their substrates but have suffered from the washing out that resulted from the dimensional stability problem. Now I had to see if the work could be repaired post assembly. I suppose I should explain the caterpillar. When I was double bevel cutting the corner pieces into the leaf center piece, I accidentally made the cut for the larger top right corner in the bottom left. The caterpillar covers most of the boo boo.

Leaf Plant Textile Art Creative arts


He had to be hand cut in and created his own dying challenges.

Textile Writing implement Office supplies Pen Electric blue


Since I wanted to darken the background color anyway, I decided to test the barrier qualities of the glue line with that color before going on to the leaf repairs. The last time I tried this the glue line was CA glue and did not present any barrier at all to dye bleeding. This was a different glue line. Firstly it was urea formaldehyde glue and secondly it had been vacuum bagged, probably giving it a better fill between the pieces. At any rate the glue line held as you can see in this photo. Once I knew this it was just a matter of repeating the previous steps albeit more carefully to re-create the lost detail. The whole process seems to be amazingly forgiving.

Sleeve Wood T-shirt Paint Table tennis racket


I chose to make a butterfly for the lift handle and dyed it with a simple wet on dry system. I discovered later that I could have done the fine detail after the first bit of poly and gotten better lines, but I don't mind this.

Pollinator Butterfly Table Arthropod Tableware


Here's a finished shot of the leaf panels with finish applied. The colors in the piece actually look more vibrant that they do in the photos but the extreme gloss and the many planes make it very hard to photograph.

Amber Art Glass Lamp Rectangle


That's it for this segment. Hope I've cleared up a little more of the mystery here and that some of you will jump in and clear up some more of it.

I'll do one more segment to discuss a few observations and tricks I've learned along the way.

For now Thanks for enduring and let's see some of you dyeing stuff.

Thanks again

Paul
That is an outstanding piece. I've been working on shop projects as of late but have some ideas for my next dye project. I will definitely keep your techniques in mind.
 

Attachments

#22 ·
Tips and Tricks I've Learned

Time to wind up this little blog about my venture into hand dyeing marquetry. Most of what's been covered here so far is also covered in the blogs of "Cabinetree" and "Facets". It appears here as a "one stop shop" for the initial stages of development. What remains is to list a few of the tips and tricks I've learned through experimentation, mistakes, etc. to give any of you who want to give this a try a head start.

The first picture shows a number of experiments about the difference between bleed applications and sharp line applications.

1) This is the "wet on wet" bleed that was used in the "Cabinetree" leaves for the residual summer green color. It works very well to create a natural blend and can be altered in it's spreading characteristics by varying the components used for dilution. Obviously as can be seen on most of these examples, the bleed is much more evident down grain.

2) Here the first color has been allowed to dry and the second is applied with as little load on the brush as possible. There is an improvement in clarity of the line but the bleeding still happens. This can be reduced further by directing a hot air stream on the area as you apply the detail.

3) This one shows the same procedure as above but it has had a coat of oil based poly wiped on. The point here is to note that the oil based poly does not smear the water based dye at all.

4) For the best detail of all with no bleed, you can lightly apply an oil based finish over the background before adding the detail. I haven't tried it yet but I think you could repeat this process with successive layers to build up a very detailed picture while still retaining the transparency of the dye.

Brown Handwriting Wood Rectangle Font


The tests above are on soft maple. I've added this one on arbutus to show that in a denser wood, as would be expected, the bleed is less evident.

Brown Handwriting Rectangle Wood Triangle


This one surprised me. It is just a bunch of scrap bits left over from other pieces that I assembled and then sprayed with successive light coats of water based poly. I got no bleeding at all. I think that a horizontal surface may have been a factor and certainly you would not get away with this with a brush or wiping rag.

Wood Gesture Petal Paint Art


Next up, and don't give me grief on the artwork, is a hastily painted butterfly done over the finish described above. You can get as good a line as you care to here but notice that the dye isn't as effective on the non-porous surface. Sanding would probably help.

Brown Pollinator Insect Paint Butterfly


Same piece here with a coat of wipe on poly to show that it still doesn't smudge the water based dye, even when the dye hasn't penetrated anything.

Pollinator Insect Butterfly Arthropod Paint


Well that's it. The "Watercolor Style" dye process in it's infancy (maybe). The sky's the limit here so give it a try and see how you can expand and improve on it and above all keep the rest of us posted.

Thanks for bearing with my ramblings.

Paul
 

Attachments

#23 ·
Toscana, Disassemble, Dye, Re-assemble

The general method of applying the dye is with an artist's brush as seen in the first segment of this blog so I won't go into great detail here. Suffice to say that each piece is done separately in one or more colors allowing the color to flow into the grain. The work area will become colorful so a cover of several layers of paper is a good idea.

Table Tableware Eyewear Vision care Food


The procedure I used here was to first mount the whole piece on clear "Contact" shelf paper face side up and then to remove a few pieces at a time, soak and peel the tape from the surface, dye them, and return them to their places. It is important to work on an adhesive surface like this and to work from the outside in toward the center because the pieces will expand with the water both from tape removal and dye. If the newly dyed pieces were not confined by the pieces around them they could not be made to re-assume their exact positions and you would never get them to fit. It is also important to have some weight to keep the pieces flat. I used acrylic plates.

Wood Art Creative arts Rectangle Flooring


This is a tree in the background by the farmhouse. It first gets a bath of yellow on its sun side, then a dark green on its shady side, then just a line of very dark green on the very edge. You can't see the yellow at the end, but its effect is there.

Art paint Paint Organism Painting Art


Paint Textile Art Creative arts Wood


Wood Natural material Rectangle Font Metal


You can begin to see the effect of the wiggly cutting here.

Gesture Art Font Terrestrial plant Tints and shades


The picture is coming together nicely ........

Leaf Textile Paint Wood Art


........and the work area is becoming more colorful as well. At one point I counted 19 brushes, ten colors and six dilutions of base colors in use.

Paint Paint brush Eyelash Plastic Circle


At last it is all dyed and everything has been forced back into its place. It is amazing how malleable these pieces of wet wood are. I fitted some of the larger pieces (leaves) that were 1/4 inch bigger than their spaces. I just inserted top and bottom and pushed the middle down ….. and they just compress down and fit… snap. That's why the acrylic is there and that's why there are no gaps. You can't believe it until you do it. I should add that I did dry each piece with a hair dryer for some time before assembling but they were still quite swollen.

Plant Painting Art Wall Paint


So I guess you're thinking the fun is over for this time. ....... Wrong! ...... The fun part hasn't even started yet.
Next up is to get this whole thing mounted and finished without any sanding and without making the dye bleed and without losing the shape and integrity of the assembly.
Sounds easy when you say it that way.
How I managed that next time (yes, it is already just about finished).

Thanks for looking

Paul
 

Attachments

#24 ·
Toscana, Disassemble, Dye, Re-assemble

The general method of applying the dye is with an artist's brush as seen in the first segment of this blog so I won't go into great detail here. Suffice to say that each piece is done separately in one or more colors allowing the color to flow into the grain. The work area will become colorful so a cover of several layers of paper is a good idea.

Table Tableware Eyewear Vision care Food


The procedure I used here was to first mount the whole piece on clear "Contact" shelf paper face side up and then to remove a few pieces at a time, soak and peel the tape from the surface, dye them, and return them to their places. It is important to work on an adhesive surface like this and to work from the outside in toward the center because the pieces will expand with the water both from tape removal and dye. If the newly dyed pieces were not confined by the pieces around them they could not be made to re-assume their exact positions and you would never get them to fit. It is also important to have some weight to keep the pieces flat. I used acrylic plates.

Wood Art Creative arts Rectangle Flooring


This is a tree in the background by the farmhouse. It first gets a bath of yellow on its sun side, then a dark green on its shady side, then just a line of very dark green on the very edge. You can't see the yellow at the end, but its effect is there.

Art paint Paint Organism Painting Art


Paint Textile Art Creative arts Wood


Wood Natural material Rectangle Font Metal


You can begin to see the effect of the wiggly cutting here.

Gesture Art Font Terrestrial plant Tints and shades


The picture is coming together nicely ........

Leaf Textile Paint Wood Art


........and the work area is becoming more colorful as well. At one point I counted 19 brushes, ten colors and six dilutions of base colors in use.

Paint Paint brush Eyelash Plastic Circle


At last it is all dyed and everything has been forced back into its place. It is amazing how malleable these pieces of wet wood are. I fitted some of the larger pieces (leaves) that were 1/4 inch bigger than their spaces. I just inserted top and bottom and pushed the middle down ….. and they just compress down and fit… snap. That's why the acrylic is there and that's why there are no gaps. You can't believe it until you do it. I should add that I did dry each piece with a hair dryer for some time before assembling but they were still quite swollen.

Plant Painting Art Wall Paint


So I guess you're thinking the fun is over for this time. ....... Wrong! ...... The fun part hasn't even started yet.
Next up is to get this whole thing mounted and finished without any sanding and without making the dye bleed and without losing the shape and integrity of the assembly.
Sounds easy when you say it that way.
How I managed that next time (yes, it is already just about finished).

Thanks for looking

Paul
Wow that really looks great and I can not see any grain lines. Nice picture and you seem to have a knack for drawing too. I always seem to learn something new about marquetry from your blogs, I will wait till you finish this picture and blog, then ask my 300 questions. Love the skill you are displaying.
 

Attachments

#34 ·
Toscana, My most intricate dye job to date

I have done a few dye projects since the last post to this blog but they have been small and not very noteworthy. I did however learn from them and have decided to try something a whole lot more intricate than I've attempted before.

The story begins with new granite countertops for our kitchen and my wife's request for a bit of marquetry for a feature area in the new backsplash. She tried my Chianti tray there and likes it but it's a little too small.

Cabinetry Property Shelf Wood Shelving


She liked the Italian theme but said she would like more of a landscape so off I went to search Google images. This lovely bit of rural Toscana is actually about a rental property near Gaiole in Chianti, a place we have stayed in the past so it became the centerpiece that I would build the picture around.

Sky Plant Ecoregion Natural landscape Land lot


Next I found a generic grapevine graphic that I could work with …....

Branch Plant Twig Font Pattern


...and made a quick sketch.

Slope Tree Drawing Technical drawing Line art


Then I imported the sketch to Inkscape and came up with a cutting pattern.

Map Rectangle Wood World Font


As you can see it is quite large to cut on the chevalet with a saw frame only 18" deep. It hardly looks cutable but with a little ingenuity and a few different start holes it was finally cut down into pieces that could be handled more easily.

Wood Flooring Gas Engineering Machine


Wood Aircraft Monoplane Aviation Airplane


Rectangle Wood Art Font Pattern


World Rectangle Wood Art Creative arts


Wood Creative arts Rectangle Art Font


Wood Rectangle Twig Art Pattern


With the cutting well underway, this is a good time to break off. Next up will be finishing the cutting and assembling the monochrome marquetry. This whole picture will be from one (jointed) piece of 1/16" maple. All color will be added by "watercolor dyeing".

Thanks for coming along on the ride. I'm having lots of fun with this and it presents all kinds of probl …. er … opportunities so it should be fun.

Questions, comments critiques
as always are welcome.

Paul
 

Attachments

#35 ·
Toscana, My most intricate dye job to date

I have done a few dye projects since the last post to this blog but they have been small and not very noteworthy. I did however learn from them and have decided to try something a whole lot more intricate than I've attempted before.

The story begins with new granite countertops for our kitchen and my wife's request for a bit of marquetry for a feature area in the new backsplash. She tried my Chianti tray there and likes it but it's a little too small.

Cabinetry Property Shelf Wood Shelving


She liked the Italian theme but said she would like more of a landscape so off I went to search Google images. This lovely bit of rural Toscana is actually about a rental property near Gaiole in Chianti, a place we have stayed in the past so it became the centerpiece that I would build the picture around.

Sky Plant Ecoregion Natural landscape Land lot


Next I found a generic grapevine graphic that I could work with …....

Branch Plant Twig Font Pattern


...and made a quick sketch.

Slope Tree Drawing Technical drawing Line art


Then I imported the sketch to Inkscape and came up with a cutting pattern.

Map Rectangle Wood World Font


As you can see it is quite large to cut on the chevalet with a saw frame only 18" deep. It hardly looks cutable but with a little ingenuity and a few different start holes it was finally cut down into pieces that could be handled more easily.

Wood Flooring Gas Engineering Machine


Wood Aircraft Monoplane Aviation Airplane


Rectangle Wood Art Font Pattern


World Rectangle Wood Art Creative arts


Wood Creative arts Rectangle Art Font


Wood Rectangle Twig Art Pattern


With the cutting well underway, this is a good time to break off. Next up will be finishing the cutting and assembling the monochrome marquetry. This whole picture will be from one (jointed) piece of 1/16" maple. All color will be added by "watercolor dyeing".

Thanks for coming along on the ride. I'm having lots of fun with this and it presents all kinds of probl …. er … opportunities so it should be fun.

Questions, comments critiques
as always are welcome.

Paul
I like the way you made the landscape manageable with the arch Paul. I will be watching closely to see how you do the dye work and the results. Judging by your past work, it will be beautiful. I can't wait to get started with marquetry again with summer coming to an end and with all of our house and garden work done. It still may take awhile as I have to make a few improvements to my shop first.
 

Attachments

#50 ·
Toscana, cutting and assembly

As this blog is supposed to be about hand dyeing and not marquetry, I'll try to cover the cutting and assembly as quickly as I can. The method here is like Boulle style except that there is ultimately only one layer. I say ultimately because for the initial few cuts there were overlapped pieces. Due to the size of the piece it was necessary to use five pieces of maple veneer to accommodate it and in the initial cuts these were overlapped to avoid unnecessary joints in the picture. The discard pieces can be seen in the photos in the previous blog entry but to save you looking back, here's an example. The pieces above and below the cut are overlaps that have been pulled out.

World Wood Rectangle Font Flooring


The packets, after removing the overlaps, are composed of one layer of 1/16" maple and two layers of 1/8" plywood (top and bottom). The cutting will leave kerf gaps but they will close up when the water in the dye swells the pieces. On to the cutting. In this one the arch and everything outside it are cut. The remaining packets have been placed in their eventual position. A you can see the face side of the maple is reenforced with veneer tape. I used it because it must be removed before dyeing and it requires less wetting of the veneer to remove veneer tape than the usual newspaper and HHG.

Brown World Wood Rectangle Paint


The grapes were interesting. I had to number them to keep track.

Rectangle Textile Art Plant Creative arts


In marquetry precise line following is usually top of mind and the main focus of any cut. Here I took the opportunity to cut many of the lines "wiggly" and just use them as general guides resulting in a less rigid looking landscape. It was like skipping class. I felt quite guilty.

Wood Engineering Art Circle Machine

Textile Rectangle Wood Flooring Floor


Here everything is cut except the grapevines in the left foreground which have been redrawn to (I hope) make them better suggest green vegetation.

Rectangle Wood World Art Tints and shades


Sorry I don't have a better picture but this is the whole piece, cut and assembled, seen from the back

Brown Wood Artifact Beige Rectangle


After all this boring reading about all this boring cutting I guess you deserve a little peek at the next segment which will be where it gets interesting and a little more colorful.

Rectangle Wood Branch Paint Twig


That's it for today. Next up, dyeing …... or dieing if it goes sideways. :)

Thanks for looking in.

Paul
 

Attachments

#51 ·
Toscana, cutting and assembly

As this blog is supposed to be about hand dyeing and not marquetry, I'll try to cover the cutting and assembly as quickly as I can. The method here is like Boulle style except that there is ultimately only one layer. I say ultimately because for the initial few cuts there were overlapped pieces. Due to the size of the piece it was necessary to use five pieces of maple veneer to accommodate it and in the initial cuts these were overlapped to avoid unnecessary joints in the picture. The discard pieces can be seen in the photos in the previous blog entry but to save you looking back, here's an example. The pieces above and below the cut are overlaps that have been pulled out.

World Wood Rectangle Font Flooring


The packets, after removing the overlaps, are composed of one layer of 1/16" maple and two layers of 1/8" plywood (top and bottom). The cutting will leave kerf gaps but they will close up when the water in the dye swells the pieces. On to the cutting. In this one the arch and everything outside it are cut. The remaining packets have been placed in their eventual position. A you can see the face side of the maple is reenforced with veneer tape. I used it because it must be removed before dyeing and it requires less wetting of the veneer to remove veneer tape than the usual newspaper and HHG.

Brown World Wood Rectangle Paint


The grapes were interesting. I had to number them to keep track.

Rectangle Textile Art Plant Creative arts


In marquetry precise line following is usually top of mind and the main focus of any cut. Here I took the opportunity to cut many of the lines "wiggly" and just use them as general guides resulting in a less rigid looking landscape. It was like skipping class. I felt quite guilty.

Wood Engineering Art Circle Machine

Textile Rectangle Wood Flooring Floor


Here everything is cut except the grapevines in the left foreground which have been redrawn to (I hope) make them better suggest green vegetation.

Rectangle Wood World Art Tints and shades


Sorry I don't have a better picture but this is the whole piece, cut and assembled, seen from the back

Brown Wood Artifact Beige Rectangle


After all this boring reading about all this boring cutting I guess you deserve a little peek at the next segment which will be where it gets interesting and a little more colorful.

Rectangle Wood Branch Paint Twig


That's it for today. Next up, dyeing …... or dieing if it goes sideways. :)

Thanks for looking in.

Paul
As Elvis would say: "uh-huh-huh, a-huh-huh, oh-yea"
 

Attachments

#60 ·
Flip, Flop, and Press ... protecting the dye.

Warning: boring content. ............ This is technical junk about a sequence of events that will interest people who want to try this technique. Others may fall asleep.

The marquetry and dyeing are done so the next step is to mount the assembly on a substrate, right?
Not so much. First and foremost the very fragile surface dye must be sealed to prevent its being abraded or smeared in the mounting process. To make things just a little trickier the Contact paper that it is currently mounted on is not sticky enough to keep all the bigger pieces flat without weights to help and you can't have weights on top when you're sealing it.

So the next step was to tape over the face side with medium tack tape, strong enough to hold the pieces briefly but not so strong as to pull dyed fibers off the surface.

World Wood Urban design Art Rectangle


All taped and turned over, the Contact paper peals very easily, hardly pulling any little pieces up with it … but a few of course. Now I can replace it with the same medium tack tape and remove the front tape. Flip ...... flop …
When the front tape is off I can press the assembly to improve the tack of this back side tape.

Aside: Here's the thing, from an artistic point of view both my wife and I really liked the incidental dye job on the back (one of us liked it better than the front … 'nuf said)

Plant World Wood Art Building

Green World Leaf Rectangle Textile


With the pieces now securely mounted on the back side it is safe to spray a coat or two of oil based poly on the dyed surface to protect it from moisture.

Green Textile Plant Wood Rectangle


And flipping one more time, the front is laid on another sheet of Contact (low tack) paper and the back tape is removed. this is a little tricky as the tape is much better stuck than the Contact, but eventually I got all the little fence posts and grape vine bits stuck back where they belonged and I could proceed to pressing onto the final substrate.

Plant World Wood Rectangle Art


Plant Textile Paint Creative arts Rectangle


Once out of the press I coated the whole piece with a good protective (and leveling) coat of epoxy.
(Shiny isn't it?)

Plant Paint Art Creative arts Rectangle


From here on it's just a matter of sanding the epoxy flat and finishing with a couple of coats of spray
semi-gloss poly and cutting the edges to final shape.

There may be an easier way to do this but I thought the processes through and am happy that I came up with a sequence that worked. It may seem like a lot of steps but each one has a good reason behind it.

That's it. Ill post the project shortly

Thanks for looking in.

Paul
 

Attachments

#61 ·
Flip, Flop, and Press ... protecting the dye.

Warning: boring content. ............ This is technical junk about a sequence of events that will interest people who want to try this technique. Others may fall asleep.

The marquetry and dyeing are done so the next step is to mount the assembly on a substrate, right?
Not so much. First and foremost the very fragile surface dye must be sealed to prevent its being abraded or smeared in the mounting process. To make things just a little trickier the Contact paper that it is currently mounted on is not sticky enough to keep all the bigger pieces flat without weights to help and you can't have weights on top when you're sealing it.

So the next step was to tape over the face side with medium tack tape, strong enough to hold the pieces briefly but not so strong as to pull dyed fibers off the surface.

World Wood Urban design Art Rectangle


All taped and turned over, the Contact paper peals very easily, hardly pulling any little pieces up with it … but a few of course. Now I can replace it with the same medium tack tape and remove the front tape. Flip ...... flop …
When the front tape is off I can press the assembly to improve the tack of this back side tape.

Aside: Here's the thing, from an artistic point of view both my wife and I really liked the incidental dye job on the back (one of us liked it better than the front … 'nuf said)

Plant World Wood Art Building

Green World Leaf Rectangle Textile


With the pieces now securely mounted on the back side it is safe to spray a coat or two of oil based poly on the dyed surface to protect it from moisture.

Green Textile Plant Wood Rectangle


And flipping one more time, the front is laid on another sheet of Contact (low tack) paper and the back tape is removed. this is a little tricky as the tape is much better stuck than the Contact, but eventually I got all the little fence posts and grape vine bits stuck back where they belonged and I could proceed to pressing onto the final substrate.

Plant World Wood Rectangle Art


Plant Textile Paint Creative arts Rectangle


Once out of the press I coated the whole piece with a good protective (and leveling) coat of epoxy.
(Shiny isn't it?)

Plant Paint Art Creative arts Rectangle


From here on it's just a matter of sanding the epoxy flat and finishing with a couple of coats of spray
semi-gloss poly and cutting the edges to final shape.

There may be an easier way to do this but I thought the processes through and am happy that I came up with a sequence that worked. It may seem like a lot of steps but each one has a good reason behind it.

That's it. Ill post the project shortly

Thanks for looking in.

Paul
Another great follow-along Blog Paul, the final product is excellent!
I really liked the incidental image on the back too…
 

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