Stained Woods: Art by Tina Hanagan, Bloomington, IN

I don’t usually start staining w/o a solid design in mind, but thought I’d try it on this one.  It makes sense, since I’m working with someone elses’ work.  They need to happily co-exist…or something.  It also gave me a chance to see how my latest stain purchases work with the older ones.   So, I latched on to the best part or two of my sketches and went to work.  I’m using a rather warped piece of pine that is both too long and too narrow — but close enough for testing and sampling.

There’s my trusty bone folder.  It’s that flat, plastic bookmark-looking thing at the top next to the tape.  I use it to burnish the edges of the tape.  The stain likes to spread everywhere if I’m not careful. Yes, I run the bone folder over ever single edge of tape.  Carefully.  I can always tell when I’m too tired to work, because I’ll miss an edge and end up with stain seeping into the next part of the work.  Which means more effort in the long run.  Best to be conscientious in the first place.