Phar out finishing techniques

[bradleyheathhays]

I've just begun collaborating with a local artist who wants to make a fairly large mural out of wood. The idea we've come up with is to design impressionistic type pieces based on arranging square wood blocks into the larger image. The plan is to develop different finishing techniques for the blocks to give them different color intensities, contrasts between the grain, and overall color. The blocks will be used as 'pixels' if you will in the larger image, so the smaller the wood block the higher the resolution of the final image. I would imagine the blocks will be between 1 and 2" square. The idea is mine but I'd never be able to do this without an artist. She'll be doing the true 'art' part and I'll just be providing as wide a variety of finishes on these blocks as possible. The wider her variety of wood blocks to choose from the better the end result will be.

So as an example, here's an art piece I found on Etsy. It seems the artist here has either baked or burn treated these pieces. I'm taking this idea as inspiration on how I can vary the finishes on these wood blocks. But I'd like to have as many coloring/finishing options as possible, which is the purpose of writing here.

What I need now are both wood species suggestions and finishing techniques. Just brainstorming so everything's on the table.

I need different wood grain size options. Need both wider and narrower grained species.

Would be nice to have a species where both the fast and slow growth rings take dye stain so they have the same hue.

Need coloring / technique suggestions. I've used General Finishes water based dye stains before so that's one idea for generating color.

Thanks for your ideas.

 

[jttheclockman]

Sounds like an impressive project. As far as woods go I would say whatever wood you choose you want to stay with the same species throughout so it will take stains evenly. If you are going down the color spectrum to whites then you want to stay with your soft maple and or Aspen. holly can become expensive. As far as coloring I had good results years ago staining with Rit powder dyes ( for clothes) So many color choices. I used denatured alcohol as the transferring agent instead of water. Advantage is it dry instantly and just a matter of dipping. Wear gloves. That is important. You can control the color by the amount of dye used but there is a saturation point and no matter how much more you add it will not darken it. I never did try dipping twice so can not speak to that. I used soft maple when I was doing those projects. Whatever you use make sure you do tests ahead of main project.

 

[Alan Morrison]

Shou sugi ban technique may be a possibility.

 

[bradleyheathhays]

jt thanks! so much for the good info. I agree with staying with the same species for coloration. I've had suggestions to search out different wood species for pinks, greens etc that wood naturally carries, but I'm opting to keep the species number down and just learn how to make them the color I want. The alcohol carrier was mentioned to another. Sounds like it's got some advantages for sure.

Question. So you used Soft Maple and Aspen for dying as they don't show a lot of color contrast between the slow and fast growth rings?

Thanks Alan. I'm definitely going to try shou sugi ban for one of the upcoming pieces.

 

[jrista]

Have you considered using oak with ebonizing? You can make your own ebonizing solution, to differing degrees of intensity, and oak having such high tannin content will ebonize very nicely. With a strong solution and multiple coats you can make it almost entirely black, whereas with a weak solution and single coat you would have a lighter reaction. This could give you a nice gradation between the lighter natural color of the oak, and what could ultimately be a nearly entirely black color (although the grain would still show through).