As with the Six Foot Fiddle, the Red Fiddle will have a sugar seal as the ground coat. Why? Well, it's non-toxic, easy to apply and makes the wood grain "pop" in a most satisfactory way. Learning from the mistakes of last time, the ground formula for this fiddle is 1/2 cup tap water, 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 2 tsp honey and two black tea bags, simmered on the stove for an hour or so.
Here she is in the white (note how dark the ground mixture is - you almost can't even see it on the dark rug) -
And here she is in process -
What a difference, eh? The black tea was added in the hope that it would darken the surface overall with a slight reddish tint. Pretty close! The sugar seal is brushed on while still warm with a foam brush. The mixture is quite thin and goes on very evenly with little effort. Here you can see how dark the mixture is -
Held up to the light it has a reddish tint, whereas the ground for the SFF was much more brown. Final results after one coat -
The picture makes the belly look streaky, but it's really quite even with the dark grain lines popping -
I've elected to varnish with the fingerboard on (as some people believe the Masters did) simply because the fingerboard is very nicely fitted and is glued on very well - why make more work if you don't have to, right? It's easy enough to get a small brush under the FB, so it should work out just fine.
Here she is in the white (note how dark the ground mixture is - you almost can't even see it on the dark rug) -
How 'bout adding a little Doryman blood to the mix? I'm sure he wouldn't mind donating for art's sake.
ReplyDeleteI always feel bad throwing out beet juice. Seems like it should be used as some kind of dye.
I've never heard of the sugar stain. Looking good!
Wait just a darn minute! Is this a vampire blog?
ReplyDeleteAhem. Doryman will not be donating any blood at this time, as you might have guessed :-) Besides, everyone knows that the blood goes in the varnish...
ReplyDeleteBeet juice is not light fast - it turns a nasty shade of brown.
The sugar seal is actually quite an old idea and worked great for the blonde fiddle. I love the way it makes the grain pop.
I like the color a lot and the more color you can get on thing at an early stage, the better.
ReplyDeleteBut one question: The photos are of the fiddle after the sugar seal has dried or is it still wet?
Anders - The ground is still wet in the photos. It has mostly dried by now, but we are still at 100% humidity here so everything dries very slowly...
ReplyDeleteHas the color changed during the drying or does it keep its warm tone?
ReplyDelete100% Rh... Thats scary. I´m glad to know that you have plenty of boats around.
Here, its so dry that I cant open the windows in my workshop. It drops below 30% Rh.
The color is so far the same. I hope to get another coat on it this week and will post more pictures. We've had a couple of drier days which is hopefully a sign that Spring is arriving.
ReplyDelete