Yes, you read that correctly...wood not wool. Hubby mentioned the other day that he had read a recipe for weathering/greying wood so I had to try it out. Of course because I'm so precise and everything, I didn't measure or actually bother to read the recipe and opted to wing it.
The deal is, you soak a pad of steel wool in vinegar overnight, remove the pad, dilute the solution with some water, then paint the solution on your wood.
So this is what happened. I tried it out on a piece of oak and a small piece of spalted birch. You can see that the spalted birch definitely turned grey, compared to its non-weathered counterpart. The oak turned.... indigo. OK, that surprised me.
This is what they look like after I hit them with a little beeswax. The indigo looks nearly black now.
Interesting, no? I'm not sure what I'll use this effect on, but it's a nice thing to have in my bag o' tricks.
Since I had the soaked steel wool pad hanging around I decided to wrap it in a piece of linen and throw it in a dye jar with some salt water. I figure eventually it will rust and with luck with make an interesting pattern on the fabric. muahaha....welcome to my laborrrratory.
I'll have the results of my latest dye attempts to show you this week also. Some were pretty cool and some were pretty meh. More on that later.
Have you done any tinkering lately?
8 comments:
Definitely going to try!!! Awesome!!
Oh cool!
aw, I love it when you say "meh", it makes me laugh outloud ! :D I am blown away by the wood color on the wood slice. OMG. You rock !
can't wait to see how that bundle will look like.
I owe you an email. Going away for a couple of hours, but then I will reply.
oxoxox
all the dye experiments i'm seeing lately have me itching to try. despite lacking any space for it, i know it's going to happen soon - all the dye polypores and other fungi i see are calling to me. great experiments on wood that you are doing!
Ooooooh. I love the weathered wood. I could see a nice white line image painted on the indigo slice -fantastic!
you know me and laboratory experiments:)
Very fun. I like the little birch pieces. From my personal experience, the steel wool will rust up pretty quickly. :-)
Wow, what a difference with the beeswax. Such a cool experiment, lisa. Can't wait to see what the rust does to the linen. I love getting a peek into your lovely studio :)
Post a Comment