dyeing wood for marquetry

For dying all the way through you’ll want to look into vacuum infusion. Here's a great website for learning how to do it.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

Julian – I looked at the article and video on Joe’s site, but don’t grasp the process. What part does the vacuum play in the dye penetrating the wood? Is the vacuum on one side and the dye on the other? I could be completely dense here.

Steve.

Wood is porous.
By immersing the wood into the dye solution and then attaching the vacuum it will draw the dye solution into the pores as the vacuum sucks the air out of the wood.
Obviously, the more porous the wood, like balsa, or the thinner the slice, the more the dye will be infused into the wood.

If your leaves are small enough you can put them in a pint or quart jar, without the lid, and put that inside a gallon pickle jar. Attach your vacuum to the pickle jar and wait a day or so.

Or you can buy white veneer and just let is soak in a green solution (diluted food coloring) for about 30 seconds
Or you can buy green veneer. Paul Schurch sells green veneer.

Lee.

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

You can do a search for alowood it comes in several colors, Rockler used to carry it. It is real wood but colored all the way through.

-- Tom D

thanks for all the info, since I don’t have a vacuum pump I’ll try looking for green veneer

tom

-- tom

You can also get dyed veener at B&B rare woods

-- Billp

One tip I read from a very good woodworker is to use Rit dye.
I have not tried it, but it makes sense.

-- MISSION FURNITURE-My mission is to build furniture