[Woodcarver] Staining Basswood

[mary jo tiger]

Dear Alex,Your" mountain man" is great as were all of your carvings.I'll 
coping your suggestion and see if I can find the product here.As far as your 
fishing trip all I can do is envy you.We just return from our trip to Utah 
and the GreenRiver,it was very beautiful and a great trip but didn't get 
fish like yours.I'm GREEN with envy.Take care.Mary jo

>From: "Alex Bisso" <albisso at bresnan.net>
>Reply-To: albisso at bresnan.net,"[Woodcarver]" <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
>To: "[Woodcarver]" <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
>Subject: RE: [Woodcarver]  Staining Basswood
>Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 10:43:57 -0600
>
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>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
>
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