March - San Diego Woodturners

San Diego Woodturners Page 10 March 2011
February Demo - Joe Fleming - Coloring Wood
“Coloring Wood Is Not Weird”
Notes on Demonstration by Joe Fleming
Work Safely: when using colors, always protect
yourself, especially your eyes and hands.
Turning a beautiful wood vessel provides great satisfaction,
but the ability to embellish the artwork with
color allows the artist to create unique and wonderful
art pieces.
During his presentation, Joe demonstrated a number
of techniques to color wood, using paint, stain, dye,
and ink, including bleaching and lacquer finishing.
He talked about the tools necessary, coloring media,
wood considerations, surface preparation, technical
issues, and top coats. Joe also demonstrated the
creation of a glossy, glassy lacquer finish.
Here are notes on the presentation highlights:
The handout is available on the San Diego Woodturners
website, under Techniques & Tips, and is
titled Coloring Wood With Dyes. While you are
there, Joe has at least six other article of interest:
• Rules for Creating Good Forms
• Tips on turning Small Vessels
• Coloring Wood With Dyes
• Sharpening Your Woodturning Tools
• Eccentric Circles
• Turning a Calabash Bowl
In 1999, Joe joined the San Diego Woodturners and
we quickly became aware of his woodworking skills
acquired over a lifetime of wood working with his
dad in Iowa. The special interest in woodturning
was quite by accident. Joe volunteered for a Church
Committee that would build, you guessed it, a new
Church. Jim Leary, then a member of the San Diego
Woodturners, was also on the committee and the rest
is woodturning history.
Joe learned additional woodworking skills from
classes, trying to attend one per year dealing with
artistic development. He also learned from some of
the best in coloring:
• John Jordon – ink soak
• Michael Hosaluk – acrylic paint
• Jimmy Clewes – all around woodturning
• Bin Pho – air brushing with transparent
paints
• Don Deery – coloring wood
• and our own Ken Haines – pyrography and
colors
As the title states: coloring wood is not weird.
Colors can even out the wood grain and cover up the
outer, lighter sapwood. Using Pyrography (woodburning)
can help control the colors from bleeding
into unwanted areas. Additionally, bleaching
removes the color from wood, leaving it shades of
white.
Colors are available in different mediums:
• Dye – pure color; will not hide grain
• Paint – contains the most solids to cover up
wood
• Stain – similar to paint, but with less solids
Some of the materials mentioned in the presentation
are listed below:
• Bleach – two part from Home Depot
• Prismacolor colored pencils and markers
available online
• Liquidtex Professional Grade Acrylic heavy
bodied acrylic paints – Michael’s
• Liquidtex Basics Value Series Acrylic lower
bodied paints – Michael’s
• Golden acrylic paints; transparent and blendable;
used by Bin Pho
• Basic brand acrylics from Michael’s
• Grex Private Stock Color System – designed
for wood; grexusa.com
• Master Lacquer at Rockler’s – heavy bodied
and requires only a few layers.
(Continued on page 11)