Thread: UNICORN

A tad more done today getting towards the finishing stage .some finishing needs tidying up
heres the progressunicorn 003.JPGunicorn 002.JPG

I do this regularly with shellac. Bleached shellac has no colour so you can add a drop or two of ordinary paint tint to it to achieve whatever colour you want. I usually dilute the base shellac to about one third of its normal consistency so that that it acts as a sanding sealer but with just a bit of colour. Sand between coats, repeat coats till you achieve the colour intensity you are after.

A word of caution... This process gives you a coloured film which is perfectly transparent. Thus the natural colour of the wood you are working with plays a factor here. I once used a blue tint over some Jelutong which has a slightly yellow colour. Instead of the blue tint I was after, the result was a greenish auqua-marine from the merging of the colour from the tint and wood.

Below is a photo of the result. I used bleached shellac for the face and jumper, ordinary shellac for the beard and hair (gives a golden honey colour) and a blue-tinted bleached shellac for the hat and coat. 'Blue' was not what I got due to the natural colour of the wood but it worked out ok.



For your guy, you may want to experiment on a bit of scrap with colour intensity and level of shellac dilution.

Love the result so far by the way.... has the beginnings of a fantastic chess set....

Looking good Cobalt, I think once you have done all the pieces and have them strategically placed on a wall the story will unfold nicely.
As for lifting the grain, I find Danish oil pretty good if you want to keep the natural colour but as Whittling said, best experiment with a few finishes on some scrap first.

thanks for the input guys ,much appericated
never thought about shellac.
Have been messing about with a thin water based varnish and artist inks.waiting to see the samples when dry.
As i will be using a few colours i wll have to seal the wood 1st i think and mask of the area .
but need to do a few more sample pieces before i go any further with the idea
I use danish oil for my hiking poles its good stuff

thanks for the input

One more point I forgot to mention earlier... Be careful about sealing with a water based varnish and subsequently using an oil on the top of it. In my experience the oil reacts with the varnish and it can turn the resultant finish into a sticky quagmire which has to SCRAPED off (you can't even sand it) and the whole thing done again.

thanks for the post
The hiking pole looks great ,
Been messing about with artist inks it works okay on top of varnish .am trying to see what happens when mixed with varnish . also trying mixing food colour with a water based varnish
want to get the peice sealed to prvent dirt getting into the wood. will be staring the next piece, when i have several done will paint some scenes in water colour then mount them on the wall in the study
I like the effects of the shellac suprising what difference the bleached shellac makes , didnt think there would be much difference

a touch more done on the unicorn not finished yet . suprised how stong white ink is and nead to tone it back to white ,i thought that this would show the grain without testing ,totally wrong again. should know better
unicorn 003.JPG

another member from alice through the looking glass on the way just the head will attach it to the body as i wantedthe head at a angle .Needs tidying up now but will do most of that when i attach it to the body

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getting towards the end of this on just needs cleaning up before appyling the ink/varnish mix.
dodo6 007.JPG

getting near the finish with the dodo
dodo8 001.JPGdodo8 002.JPG

finished the unicorn put its buttons on
next the queen of hartsunicorn9 002.JPGunicorn9 005.JPGunicorn9 007.JPG