Dyeing wood ornaments

[Birdseye Bill]

Does anyone have experience with an inexpensive way to dye some simple ornaments. I would like the wood to show through. The Transtint dyes at Rockler & Amazon are $22 plus shipping for each color and I would like 5 - 6 different colors. Way too much cost for this little project. I was thinking of food coloring but not sure how the color would hold up over time. Other options might be RIT dyes or India Inks. Wood is poplar.

[Steve K]

I have done dyed ornaments for the last three or four years. This ornament was done with aniline dye dissolved in alcohol. The dyes are expensive up front but as near as I can tell shelf life is pretty much forever.



These ornaments are dyed with stamp pad ink I got at a local office supply store.




The only drawback to the ink is available colors are limited.

More aniline dye ornaments.




I've heard of guys using food coloring or the RIT dyes but I have never used either.

[Arlin Eastman]

Bill

I have used Food Dye for the last 5 years since I also can not afford the others and they work pretty good.

Arlin

[Birdseye Bill]

That is some beautiful work. Thanks for sharing and your ideas are good. I have no problem with the long shelf life making it more cost effective to purchase the dyes. I'm just not sure how many applications I will have for them. I'm still experimenting with my woodturning.

FYI for anyone turning ornaments. I just bought 25 fancy, metal hooks to hang your work on the tree for $1 (50% off) at Hobby Lobby. These hooks are a great way to display your beautiful work. They might even be cheaper after Christmas.

[sonofbluegrass]

I have used leather dye. Some are not color fast (in my experience mostly the water based ones). There are also some "sampler packs" available from some online suppliers that may be cheaper (do a search for "woodwork supplies" or "woodwork tools" etc).

[NCPaladin]

You may want to try here for Transtint, $16.40
http://www.veneersupplies.com/categories...6__Stains/

I have only bought the red, yellow, and blue and mixed the other colors from those.

[Steve K]

NCPaladin said:

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You may want to try here for Transtint, $16.40
http://www.veneersupplies.com/categories...6__Stains/

I have only bought the red, yellow, and blue and mixed the other colors from those.

---

Good point on the red, yellow, and blue, those are the only three colors I use as well. Forgot to mention that.

[Birdseye Bill]

Thank you for the tip on buying the 3 primary colors and mixing them to add to the rainbow. Good price, too. The cost of shipping is the deal breaker, though. I'm going to try the RIT dye that I got from Hobby Lobby and will have to grab 2 more colors if it works.

[Rodneywt1180b]

I've used RIT to dye wood with some success. It has the advantage of being available pretty much everywhere.
I'm not sure about long term color fastness though.
Rodney

[Ruler2112]

I've used inkjet printer ink many times in the past & haven't had a problem yet. Multiple layers of dye give you great flexibility.