Adding a touch of colour

Well here's a piece I have particularly enjoyed making. I had a small piece of tulip wood in my store and just felt a need to do something with it. I had heard that tulip is quite an easy wood to work with and that it takes a finish very well. 

Right at the outset I was giving a lot of thought to what I wanted the end result to look like, whereas I mostly just go with the flow and see what my internal creative imp wants to make given the constraints of the material I am working with. I decided in advance that it would be interesting to make a piece that embodied a bit of contrast, so one way of doing this would be to create a slightly exaggerated rim which could hold a colour or pattern that might be echoed elsewhere in the bowl. Once I had finished the actual turning and sanding, I gave the bowl a couple of coats of sanding sealer followed by an acrylic matt lacquer.

It still looked like a plain bowl! 

I have a set of  Chestnut Products spirit dyes and decided to see if I could apply a technique that was once the go-to option for interior designers; rag rolling. There was a time a few years ago when every interior design programme on the TV featured an energetic hip and trendy designer doing a makeover of some unsuspecting innocent's home, and it was inevitable that the hallway or lounge would have paint rag rolled onto the walls. Nowadays they just fit bi-fold doors. Quite dramatic, but more difficult to paint over once the designer has gone home. On a large canvas I think rag rolling can be quite overwhelming, but I thought it would work well in this small bowl. I gave it a base coat of yellow, then rag rolled a mid blue over the top. Once that was dry, I did the same with an orange dye, and what do you get when you mix these two colours? Green! I suppose I could have started off with a green dye, but I was experimenting! OK? Anyway, I was really pleased with the result and completed my plan by applying the same technique to the rim, adding that essential contrast. It was finished off with a light coat of gold enhancing wax and a topcoat of food safe gloss wax for a subtle shine.

I I will probably make this available from my space at Past-Times in Wisbech.   If people like it, then I may make more pieces using this technique.

Please let me know what you think.