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Before I painted my previous piece, I noticed that the symmetrical design also really looked interesting with just the natural wood tone. So, I decided for this piece to embrace that concept, and use stain instead of paint, hopefully achieving the same symmetrical effect accentuating the natural beauty of the wood.
I started by picking up some MinWax stain touch-up markers to make some samples. The first photo shows some of the color tones I considered. I tried the stains on both bass and balsa wood, and noticed they brought out different qualities so I decided to use both kinds of wood for this project.
Satisfied with the concept, I knew I was going to have to stain a whole bunch more wood and those measly markers weren't going to cut it, so off I went to Lowes to pick some colors. They had a handy stain color chart (2nd photo) there. I picked several colors that brought out various tones of brown, yet were easily to distinguish from each other. To better understand how long to let the various stains saturate the wood before wiping them off, I set up an experiment (photos 3 & 4) to do a comparison. In photo 3, you can see some cute little mini sponge brushes I made by cutting up larger ones and hot-gluing the sponge strips to popsicle sticks. When all of the results had been tabulated, I had scientifically determined a lower limit of "long enough", and upper limit of "not too long". So, I decided to just eyeball it in the end.
I started by picking up some MinWax stain touch-up markers to make some samples. The first photo shows some of the color tones I considered. I tried the stains on both bass and balsa wood, and noticed they brought out different qualities so I decided to use both kinds of wood for this project.
Satisfied with the concept, I knew I was going to have to stain a whole bunch more wood and those measly markers weren't going to cut it, so off I went to Lowes to pick some colors. They had a handy stain color chart (2nd photo) there. I picked several colors that brought out various tones of brown, yet were easily to distinguish from each other. To better understand how long to let the various stains saturate the wood before wiping them off, I set up an experiment (photos 3 & 4) to do a comparison. In photo 3, you can see some cute little mini sponge brushes I made by cutting up larger ones and hot-gluing the sponge strips to popsicle sticks. When all of the results had been tabulated, I had scientifically determined a lower limit of "long enough", and upper limit of "not too long". So, I decided to just eyeball it in the end.
Of the stains I tested, I decided to use five colors, and just the "natural" wood color as a sixth. Now, I had to obtain raw materials, so, using the Internet, I ordered a bunch of "lumber" (first photo, below). I separated them into equal amounts for each color and stained them (photos 2 & 3, below).
At this point, I had a bunch of stained sticks, so it was time to chop them up. To do this, I used the Chopper, and, for the thicker pieces, a neat little "Razor Saw" with an accompanying mitre box (photo 1). The fruits of my labor were small mountains of matchstick sized wood bits, meticulously categorized by thickness and color. (photo 2).
And now the real fun was about to begin. For this piece, I drew my usual grid on the board, but instead of laying down pieces in random places, I started with a column in the middle and slowly worked my way outward. Since I was using wood glue to affix the pieces, it was going to be a real hassle to fix any errors, so I figured this approach would allow all the pieces to fit as tightly and neatly as possible. You can see the progression below. In all, it took about two months to fill the entire face of the board.
When I got to the edges, I decided to mitre-cut all of the corners so that the pieces maintained continuity between the front the sides (photos 2 & 3). Good thing I had that handy little mitre box (photo 1).
I also extended the concept to the top and bottom of the piece as well (photo 4), which was a bit more tricky because the pieces required were too large to cut in my mitre box. I ended up buying and staining some larger pieces of wood, and, in some cases, creating a veneer (photo 5) to enhance the illusion of continuity along the top and bottom.
In the end, my work area had turned into a bit of a disaster (photo 6).
I also extended the concept to the top and bottom of the piece as well (photo 4), which was a bit more tricky because the pieces required were too large to cut in my mitre box. I ended up buying and staining some larger pieces of wood, and, in some cases, creating a veneer (photo 5) to enhance the illusion of continuity along the top and bottom.
In the end, my work area had turned into a bit of a disaster (photo 6).
This kind of gross looking thing evolved as I used a paint can lid for my "glue palette". I found that it was a lot more efficient to squeeze a glob of glue on the lid and then apply little bits of glue from there using a thin stick, instead of opening the glue bottle every time I need a drop. The glue dries reasonably fast, though, and inevitably some would be left behind. Eventually, small "wells" started to form in places where I kept putting glue. They look like weird alien pods to me.
I finished up this piece by brushing on three separate coats of polyurethane (photo 1). That gave it a beautiful gloss and exaggerated the wood grain, as I'd hoped it would. You can see various angles of the finished products in the remaining photos.
