New and Improved!

Now with new Mahoghony flavor!
Test results show that babies care about the quality of the wood in their toys, so I added a touch of class to the disturbingly patriotic baby blocks I made.

Now I just need to stop "improving" the darn things and ship them off to their intended owner!

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detail on newest painting:
still chiseling away at it...

Newest Painting

I thought I would post an honest to god painting so that my blog doesn't look too much like I've just been painting the walls of my house and furniture.

I finished this piece about a month ago, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Its on a wood panel and is about 2.5 feet by 4 feet.
Mostly the paint is watered down acrylic in multiple thin layers, however there are other materials used including ink, pencil, crayon, and glitter :)

I plan on finishing up a companion piece that I started almost a year ago soon, but its no where near completion and right now feels more like a barrier than a path to get into. So we shall see what happens.

More Wood Staining...

So yeah, I've already mentioned how much it pains me to cover over natural wood, so it may come as a surprise that I have another post about doing just that. But I have my reasons.
I've had a coffee table in the works for over half a year now, and I'm getting really close to finally being able to put it together.
It's been a lot more time consuming than I had anticipated, but thats not to say more difficult, although its kinda been that too...

Anyway, I've really been trying to do things the "right" way, making sure I research professional woodworkers on what they do, read directions and spend the money and time (two things I generally try to skimp on when I can).
But it didn't work. Seriously. I won't bore you with all the details into the different types of stains and finishes and sequential layers of sanding and coating I tried, but I'll just say it wasn't working in the way I wanted it to.
So I did it my way. And so far I think it looks great.

I bought a type of stain I've never used before called a "Gel Stain". It is as the name implies, a thick gel consistency until you mix it up a bit, and then it becomes a lot like painting with thick melted chocolate! You paint this on quite thickly, wait three minutes, and then you wipe it off with rags. Maybe I don't need to mention this, but ohmygod does that create a large mess of smelly flammable rags to deal with!
Now I bought this stain because the wood I have is known for being rather unfriendly to traditional stains (Poplar, which I love for its green and purple veining) and I also got a Wood In-Sealer to help let the stain lay down smoothly. But I just wasn't getting a deep color like I wanted, and it really wasn't doing any wonders for the wood either. My beautiful boards I've been cutting, gluing and sanding and SANDing were looking like crap.

So the solution for me? Not to wipe off the gel stain the way they said to. I thinned it down with some Mineral Spirits and painted it on with long careful strokes of a fine brush. I guess its more like a thicker traditional stain at that point. It was leaving a somewhat tacky finish, but I have overcome that with a simple layer of Shellac over the stain.

I have yet to finish all the boards, and I'm leaving the table top for last, so cross your fingers that all keeps going well!
My only complaint would be that it does cover over a lot of the natural beauty of the wood, but I had prepared myself for that inevitability.

Greyson's blocks finally dyed!

So after much deliberation on whether to go ahead with the dyeing of Greyson's wood blocks, I took the plunge and did it!
I love the look of natural wood so much, so it is always hard to make a choice to "finish" wood for me.
So the red is a mix of Kool-Aid powder (Black Cherry and Watermelon), 100% Fruit Juice Concentrate (Pomegranate Cranberry by Old Orchard), and a little Vinegar. The Kool-Aid was not producing a deep enough color for me, so I added the Fruit Juice as both a deeper color but also as a additive to make it more "syrup-ey" giving it a little more substance and stick.

The blue is actually Kool-Aid and a Non-Toxic Watercolor I had. When I added Vinegar as a mordant, oh my god did it stink! Like rotten eggs it did, so I tossed out the first batch and made another without the mordant. It seemed to hold alright, but if you can tell in the bottom photo, both dyes are a little lighter than the finished pictures. I added a light Shellac mixed with Rubbing Alchohol and put it over both colored blocks. The Shellac deepened the color and will protect it from any possible runs of the dye should Greyson slobber all over them - which I assume he will... often.
Not to worry though, the Shellac is non-toxic too! It took me by surprise but Shellac is made from secretions of a beetle and is used in confectionery to coat candies and such. I mean, not that its tastey, or advisable to drink it down with ice cream, but its safe.

I didn't mean to make patriotic blocks in the end (red white and blue) but so be it. I was working on variations of the primary colors, and knew I wanted to keep some of them unfinished. I maybe should have added another color, like green, but it was a difficult task (or expensive to buy the good stuff!) so it is what it is.

They'll be ready to ship off soon!

Greyson's wood blocks, shhhhh, its a secret.

Here are the wood blocks I have been making for Greyson. I had a lot of fun making them, and all that is left to do is to dye them. The best non-toxic dye that I have found for wood is none other than unsweetened Kool-Aid! Fantastic, I'm so happy that they will tasted good, I was concerned.

The container took just as long as the blocks themselves surprisingly enough! But now that I've done it once, it should be easier to do it again, if the need should ever arise. I like how the box can double as a playing platform. A lot of the cooler blocks in my opinion came from actually play testing to see what form would be best for optimum happiness in the field of play.

Research is fun :)
Play on little one!