Dyeing Ginkgo

[Ben Darrah]

I am turning a piece of Ginkgo and the wood is pretty plain. Has anyone ever dyed Ginkgo before? Was thinking it might blotch like pine due to the texture. I don't have much experience dyeing wood though.

Thanks
Ben

[Chip Sutherland]

Ugh....I have no experience with ginkgo. Do you have any scrap material other than shavings to play around with? If it behaves like pine then you either paint it or you work with the texture as it presents itself.

Sand to 220 and start with your darkest dye, apply let it dry then sand it back lightly with 220. See how it takes the dye. I use a bottle of DNA to spray it back wet which gives me a better idea of what the finished color will look like....then either dye again with the same color or do with the next darkest color and repeat but sand with your next highest grit. Repeat as needed. I usually take mine to 1200 grit touching up colors as needed. If it gets ugly you can always sand back down with lower grits to remove lots of the dye but you will never get rid of it all unless you get back out you tools.

You are really into playing around mode. With pine, I know that the growth rings are denser and have a brownish hue. They don't take dye worth a darn. So I would not be likely to use blue too much because (to my eye) it is not very pleasing with the growth rings. I tend to stay in the red-orange-yellow color ranges so the growth rings become accents. So I would do a couple passes with red starting with a diluted solution then work out then adjust the intensity when I see how the wood takes the dye.

I have both TransTint and Artisan dyes. I think what I have will last me a lifetime so I'll work with what I have. There are better dyes available. I bought primary colors R-Y-B and mix to get the other colors needed project by project.

[Ben Darrah]

Thanks Chip, I appreciate the advise. If it comes out OK, I'll post some photos.

[Mike Cruz]

I have a Gingko growing on my property...planted by the previous owners. It is supposedly some sort of "spiritual/zen" tree. I don't "think" it will turn like pine...especially not as sappy. It might very well be quite plain, though...based on the limbs I've had to cut off of it. I think they grow much slower than pines. So, I also don't believe you will be dealing with the large growth rings as with pine.

Bottom line is that all woods are different. Turn it. What you come up with is a turning...made of Gingko. Someone (maybe a buyer) will appreciate that. If you keep it for yourself, Google Gingko and find out more about the spiritual side of the tree...it might give you some good karma for creating something from that which is passing. Or it might forever curse you for messing with that tree...even if it was dead/dying!!! I have no idea. :D

[Garth Sheane]

Hi folks,
First post on this forum, though I've been reading it for awhile. I had a problem with dyeing until I started started immersing the whole piece in dye (I use fabric dye). It seemed to get rid of the blotching problem. You might try that approach.
Garth

[Mike Cruz]

Welcome, Garth!

And neat idea with dunking in fabric dye. I don't know enough about dyeing to know about fabric dye on wood...but if you say it works, it works!

[Sid Matheny]

Rit die works well most of the time and here is a little info on it.

http://www.ritdye.com/dyeing-techniques/wood-wicker

Sid

[Ben Darrah]

Thanks guys, had to put the piece on the shelf for awhile to get some Christmas projects done. I will post the results when I get back to it.


Ben