Oooo, pretty colours!

I have been wanting to add some colour to my woodturning for quite some time.  I've dabbled with various dyes in the past and while I have liked the results (as have my clients), my experiments were not what I wanted.  There are loads of woodturners using all manner of dyes and while there are varying levels of expertise and skill involved, the end results often look very much the same (and more importantly, not what I wanted).  I have seen some work being finished with milk paint (both flat-work and turned wood) and knew this was the direction I wanted to explore.

This past Christmas I put milk paint on my Santa wish-list and the jolly old elf came through.  This is a photo of some of my recent work (all from 2012) and it shows some of the colouring I've been working on.  The picture itself was inspired by a recent photo by Tib Shaw which was posted on The World of Woodturners website.  Also, I need to give thanks to Sarah Gunn (@sarahgunnstyle on Twitter).  Her recent post, Tangerine Tango over on YummyMummyClub.ca was just the kick in the pants at the perfect time to get me rolling.

Milk paint has been used as a wood finish for centuries.  It is made up of milk protein, lime, earth pigments and mixed with water.  The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company developed their colour palette by matching the colours found in variousl historical buildings throughout New England and this was a good fit with what I wanted to create.  The results I got from the milk paint, topcoated with walnut oil were EXACTLY what I was looking for.

Look at the depth of this blue!  This wooden salad bowl was finished with 2 coats of milk paint and two coats of walnut oil and then it was buffef.  I love that paint is not a 100% flat, uniform colour.  There are variations of intensity (probably because I am a terrible painter) and texture of the paint, giving it a warm, slow, country feel.  Perfect for my tastes and I will be creating a lot more pieces with milk paint in the future.  Now, we wait and see what my customers think of it. :)

Thanks for stopping by.