Multiple coats of Transtint Dyes

[Brian Kent]

I am sure this has been discussed before, but I can't find it.

I am doing my first Transtint Dye experiment on curly maple. I applied a wash coat of black and sanded most of it away. I want to build up color coats now.

Should I put anything between the layers? Dewaxed Shellac, WTF, Lacquer spray, or nothing. I do know I can add color to the finish coats to.

Thanks in advance.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

I think that if you put anything on between layers - you've sealed the wood and no more dye will penetrate.

maybe you could dye an area - then put a layer of shellac (or etc) to "mask" that area off from other dyes...

[Steve Schlumpf]

Brian - a few years ago I posted about how I dyed forms. Not sure if you can gain anything from them but here are the links:
Hollow Form Color Experiment
Finished Product of HF Color-Experiment

I still have this hollow form and the color today is just as vivid as when it was created! Have fun and be sure to post your results!

[robert baccus]

Steve's piece came out very nice. I would suggest trying sanding 80-90% of a given color before adding another. You get a more exaggerated pattern of dyes. This is a procedure that cries out for more experimentation--I an always surprised at the results.

[Bob Bergstrom]

I made a color board from a 10" x 24" piece of fiddled maple. Dyed four 2 1/2" wide strips in black,red,yellow and blue. Then I applied the same colores down across the horizontal colorers. It gave me a good chart of what dyes look like when one color is applied over another. Any bleeding over a line just gives some indication of three would look like. I did sand some of the black layer before applying others over it.

[Brian Kent]

Yes Steve Schlumpf, that helps very much!