[Woodcarver] Staining Basswood

[Alex Bisso]

I recently was in a class with Jeff Phares and carved a mountain man bust in
a large piece of clear, very light colored basswood.  It carved very well
but I had a hard time imagining it look good with a natural finish as one
would do with butternut but Jeff had a solution for this.  When his basswood
carvings are ready for a finish, he first dyes them with a transluscent
analine dye.  I do not know a brand name but apparently they are readily
available and come as a powder.  The color he recommended is "caramel".  He
had some "concentrate" that he had made from the powder following the
instructions on the container.  Then he mixed a small amount of the
concentrate with a cup of water (looked like about 2-3 tablespoons)to get
the dye solution to use.  This was painted liberally on the whole carving,
wetting it all thoroughly with the excess then being brushed off.  After
this was done and completely dried, any normal finish could be used.  Jeff
uses some Bartley gel varnish thinned with mineral spirits to the
consistency of linseed oil.  After a couple of coats of this light varnish
mixture and while still wet, color can be added with oil paints using the
gel varnish/mineral spirits solution as a medium to make a wash with the oil
paint.
I actually did not complete and finish my carving at the class so I brought
a small amount of his dye concentrate home to try.  It was a bit scarey to
do but I really do liked the results.  Although I have not yet finished the
sub-base, I posted a photo of the carving on PictureTrail at
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=583547&uid=467059
I did some coloring with oil paints on most of the mountain man (very little
blush added to the face) but all of the carved base is only the dyed
basswood with the Bartley gel varnish finish.  After the varnish/paint was
dried all of the carving was sprayed with deft, semi-gloss finish and a
final finish of Watco satin finishing was (50/50 dark/clear) was used.

Alex Bisso
Billings, MT  59106