Touch of Color

[Steve Schlumpf]

Maple hollow form, 7 ¼” diameter x 3 ½” high x 1/8” thick. Color is from a mix of red, yellow and green powdered RIT dyes, sanded to 600 grit and has several coats of wipe-on gloss poly.


185796 185798 185797 185794 185795 185793

As always, your opinions, comments and critiques are welcome!

Thanks for looking!

[John Keeton]

Steve, the color on this one really popped with the WOP!!!! Great form - one of my favorites of your SW adaptations. Fantastic piece! It seems very well balanced and the color variations on endgrain and facegrain really add a lot of interest.

[Michael James]

Nice one Steve. My sister actually 'threw' a pot that shape many moons ago, but with a larger opening. I've been debating whether to copy it or not. I like the color and as usual the finish is 1st rate! Thanks for posting, keem em coming.
mj

[Art Manansala]

Beautiful, just gorgeous. Hard believe you get that finish with WOP. The color is also very natural and I love the form.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Great got Steve. What do you call that color? Love the finish.

Quinn

[Jon Prouty]

Hi Steve,

Usually the SW forms do nothing for me... I think living in Arizona has turned me off to all things southwest. However.... this one I really like. The color and finish have a contemporary look to me and I really really like it. I can only imagine there are a few dozen coats of WOP to achieve such a deep finish. Great great great!

Jon

[Michael E. Thompson]

Love your finish Steve. Normally I don't like widest part of the form toward the bottom, but this really catches my eye.

[Darren Jamieson]

Great looking hollow form Steve, I love the color. I just started my fisrst hollow form last night and I can only hope that it looks half that nice when done.

[Dan Forman]

This is lovely, like the variation with the lower shoulder, the dye job and finish are first rate.

Dan

[David DeCristoforo]

"...the color on this one really popped with the WOP..."

Pop with the WOP.... I like that! I would not have guessed this was maple from the pics. The color says "mahogany". If there was an award for making maple look like mahogany, this would take it hands down!

[George Babij]

Hi Steve, Nice, Very Nice work. Like the color. The dyes, do you mix with water and dip the bowls, or do you brush or wipe on? I have a fair bit of maple that is very plain, so this would be a great option.
Again, Nice Work.
Take Care
George

[Mark Hubl]

Really a sweet one Steve. I find this form to be quite appealing. I think you did a really nice job on the belt line curve. You do a great job with the dyes, the color is very warm and the finish is oh so deep. Way to go on the pics as well, shiny is such a pain to shoot. Keep them coming.

[Jon Nuckles]

I like the form and the finish. How do you hold the piece while you apply the WOP? I struggle to finish all at once and avoid fingerprints, or finish in sections and avoid lap marks.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Steve this is a great looking piece, that color is fantastic. As someone said above I would not have guessed this was maple, very nice job on this!

[Bob Bergstrom]

That is an awesome color. As double "D" said it looks like mahogany. Beautiful depth. Thanks for sharing and all that you do for us.

[Rick Markham]

I like it Steve, you're getting super good with your dyeing, something I haven't experimented much with yet. Red, Yellow and Green... Someone has been studying color theory ;) Double D nailed it, you did such a good job on the color and dye job I never would have thought it was Maple. I'm going to have to grab some Rit dye next time I am at the store, just for some experimentation!

[Jim Adkins]

Oh My Gosh Steve, You nailed ths one. Beautiful form, finish & on & on & on.
very nice shape, finish and everything about it is SW. Thanks

[bob svoboda]

Really nice, Steve. The color is marvelous. Thanks for sharing.

[Ron Stadler]

Nice clean hf Steve, finish is superb and great job on the dye work.

[Roger Chandler]

First class all the way Steve. I would have to say that along with the dye job and the WOP that surface preparation had a lot to do with how much this form took the finish and came to look so smooth. Sometimes pictures do not show texture on a finish like the eye does, but this one really looks like you had the form sanded to near perfection before any embellishment was even introduced.

After the "purple passion" and some of your other works, I think we have a new name for our chief moderator..............."dye master" has a nice ring to it! :cool::D You certainly do a masterful job with this technique!

[Paul Douglass]

That is very pretty, Steve.

[Scott Hackler]

Very very nice Steve. I love the color and finish you achieved.

[Curt Fuller]

Red + Yellow = Orange, throw in a little green to knock some of the edge off the orange and you get mahogany. Amazing! That really is a nice color job. A beautiful form too. And as always, the SS standard of excellence on the WOP.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone - I really appreciate it!

George - here are a couple of links to how I apply dye. Hope it helps!
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?121497-Hollow-Form-Color-Experiment&highlight=
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?121669-Finished-Product-of-HF-Color-Experiment&highlight=

Jon - I am sure that everyone has a method of applying finish that works for them - all I do is insert index finger of my left hand into the HF opening, then coat the top of the HF with poly - using a folded up section of paper towel.. I then invert the HF and place on a stand that I made and then finish applying poly to the rest of the form. The stand consists of nothing more than a couple of 2x4 cutoffs glued together for use as a base and about 12" of 1" dowel inserted into the 2x4s - ends up looking like an inverted T. Simply place the HF onto the dowel and you have hands-free access to the HF. Works great and didn't break the bank!

[Cathy Schaewe]

Beautiful. I would never guess there was green in there.

[Rich Aldrich]

Steve - Nice piece. Good form and the finish is great.

[Brian Effinger]

Very nice, and a flawless finish. Well done. :)

[Bernie Weishapl]

Steve another fine vase and I do love the color. Something about the color and form really jumps at me. Finish is great.

[Steve Vaughan]

I like that. Beautiful color, great shape, love the neck on it.

[Baxter Smith]

Very well done in all respects!

[Jon Lanier]

I like this. I concur that it look more like a mahogany of sorts. It is dyed the same color inside?

[Mike Cruz]

Beautiful color and finish. Very pretty piece. Steve, not sure how the color came out on film as compared to in person, but on a screen, that color looks very similar to padauk. Does it is person as well?

[Steve Schlumpf]

Mike - what you see here is what the piece looks like in real life. I haven't been around exotic woods very much - so have no idea if this matches anything out there. This was just a color that I wanted that fit in with my idea of the desert southwest.

Jon - the piece was dyed inside as well but is much lighter in color as it only received one coat of dye. The outside has at least 3 to 4 coats to give it depth.

Thanks again for all the kind words everyone!

[Michelle Rich]

This sure stands out & demands it's due. What color!

[Tony De Masi]

Another beautiful piece Steve. Looks very nicely balanced and I love the color and finish on this one. And "Pop from WOP". Looks like we have another woodturning term too.

[George Babij]

Thanks Steve, That helps alot.
George

[steven carter]

Very nice HF Steve! The color would fit right in with some of the buttes in the southwest. The form grows on me the more I look at it.

[Ray Bell]

Beautiful Steve. When you say a mix, do you mean you mixed these colors all at once and then applied, or did you apply the colors one at a time?

[Steve Schlumpf]

Ray - the colors were actually mixed first - then applied. I don't remember exact numbers but believe I coated it 4 times to get the darker color.

[Russell Eaton]

Looks like you scored another winner Steve, That is a beauty!

[Rob Cunningham]

Another nice one Steve. A really nice color and flawless form and finish.

[Ray Bell]

Ray - the colors were actually mixed first - then applied. I don't remember exact numbers but believe I coated it 4 times to get the darker color.

Thanks Steve, I'm headed to the local market for some Rit dye:)

[Marc Himes]

Beautiful form and finish. The color is very rich. Well done as usual; great piece.

Marc

[Larry Dice]

Great looking hollow form. My ? is how did you mix your dye, and did it take a while to complete the desired color look, ( did you have to sand after each coat)?

[Steve Schlumpf]

Larry,

I have a number of lidded butter containers that are used to hold dyes. All dyes are mixed with DNA because it dries faster and doesn't raise the grain as much as water. This time around, blended some already mixed dyes to get the color that I wanted. Because the form was sanded to 600 grit, it does not grab the color as fast as when only sanded to 320. The end color could then be contolled by the number of times the dye was applied . The piece was not sanded during the dying process but did wipe it down with a clean cloth dampened with DNA. That helps to blend areas or lighten areas - depending on what you want.

Once the form was totally dry, it was rubbed down (burnished) with a clean cloth and gloss poly applied.