Food Dye bleed test

Hi all, in this thread I attempted to use food colour with mixed results, so this morning I tried a couple of things.

Logic told me that if the porous wood was already wet, then the dye would be less likely to run bleed or wick into adjacent areas.

The first two stripes on the left were just applied with a very fine brush on the bare wood
Next from the left is stripes were I dampened the wood with clean water.
This was a shock as it had the opposite result to what I expected.
Next stripes are after wetting with Isopropanol Alcohol.
Then I dampened with White Spirit. ( an alternative to paint thinners)Although the lines are thicker ( heavy hand) the edges were much sharper. Next I soaked the end of the blank in the spirit for a couple of minutes and used a tissue to dry it a bit.
As you can, the lines a pretty well defined with no noticeable bleeding.

I will let this spirit dry completely and see if it will now take a CA finish over it.
All of the lines were originally only as wide as those on the right. So the results look promising ( if it will now take a finish ):wink:

You beat me too it. Snooze you loose. I was set to try that, this weekend. Thanks for the post and the test. I'm looking forward to your results. Yea, looks promising...

Looks promising...have you thought about trying to apply a sanding sealer before applying the stripes?

The white spirit looks promising Steve!

John, I was going to try that, but as I want multiple colours right next to each other then I figured that the sealer might also wick a bit and therefore prevent the dye from going into the wood. In my attempts yesterday I found that dye certainly doesn't get past CA and I had to resand areas to make sure the CA was removed before it would accept the dye.

The dye over the spirit might not be penetrated into the wood enough to allow any sanding prior to applying the finish, but that shouldn't be a problem.
I 'think' the spirit is petroleum based and hope it doesn't leave a residue that will prevent CA from going on....
But we'll see soon enough:biggrin:

Mmmm...good news and some bad, I'm afraid:frown:

The good news is that the CA adhered to the spirit coated wood no problem even though there was still the smell of the spirit present. ( therefore not completely dry) I suppose this could be useful in some circumstances.

The bad news is that wood is wood and therefore the results are inconsistant and I wouldn't try and rely on it. While most areas stayed nice and sharp, it would invaribly be spoilt by one or two bleeds that somehow got through. Oh well, it was worth the try

I tried the same with BLO as a barrier, same inconsistancy. :frown:

skiprat said:

I tried the same with BLO as a barrier, same inconsistancy. :frown:

Click to expand...

Did you try a thin CA coat as a barrier, or does the dye just bead on it?

When working with food dyes in coloring B&W pictures, we would add some acetic acid to the dye in order for it to have a better bite into the emulsion (from which the term: "mordant", used in finishing)

So you could look into that.
Also be advised that food colors will fade faster than dyes.

Otherwise, have fun and enjoy exploring (I have a great framed print of a basket of peppers taken at a local market that took a life of it's own when I experimented the technique. Still have it 25 years later)

Regards,

This is one of the great things about the IAP! (IMHO)

Some creativity gets unleashed, others get involved in the process. Before you know it we are all working to develop some new techniques and ideas to further the art..and ourselves.

Koodos to all involved here!!! :star::star::star::star::star:

Skippy, Are you trying to keep the dye from running in general terms (like plain wood), or specifically for use in the lasered blanks?

Just thinking that the lasered/burned lines may provide a little extra barrier. In combination with you other techniques it just may do the trick.
Or what if you also added a cut line alone the edge with a fine razor blade? (Pre dye)

PR_Princess said:

Skippy, Are you trying to keep the dye from running in general terms (like plain wood), or specifically for use in the lasered blanks?

Just thinking that the lasered/burned lines may provide a little extra barrier. In combination with you other techniques it just may do the trick.
Or what if you also added a cut line alone the edge with a fine razor blade? (Pre dye)

Click to expand...

I have done something similar to this. I have used a fine very thin knife to make a line, then I rotate the blank, on the lathe, by hand and using a toothpick apply thin CA to the line. I then use a makeup applicator (little foam brush) and apply either food color or liquid water color and it doesn't bleed across the line. Take a lot of patience and I have to be ready, except for light Micromesh sanding to apply a finish. Otherwise it all gets sanded off.

a cool effect I did was you get the blank almost to finished dimesions then soak the blank in food coloring mixed with some water, between 5 minutes to overnight. Let the blank dry and then sand off alittle to finished blank you get an almost white washed somewhat streaky blank that is fairly consitent. I did it with a pink blank and a plain peice of pine or oak.