I had an idea for my next "stoppered bottle" that involves a specific "color scheme". The plan was to dye the form itself with a light "translucent" shade of the desired color and then do the lid/finial with a much deeper shade of the same color. But as I began to get into this piece of maple burl, the natural colors that emerged are pretty nice. And there is enough subtile variation that I'm afraid that even a light, translucent dye might kill the different tones. So now I'm trying to decide whether i should proceed with "the plan" or just leave this au natural. I have to decide soon because the lid/finial would probably not be made out of the same material I would use if I color it. Decisions, decisions…


Here are some pics of the piece on the lathe. Still a lot of shaping to do and these are crappy, blurry cell phone pics. But even these show the colors in the wood pretty well.

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