Staining Wood-the fruit platter-color

Hi Everyone,

Well, I've been thinking about what to do with the platter and I decided against staining it to an English oak color. The platter is made out of red oak and not white oak and so that color of stain(s) on the surface is going to probably look a little odd. And I don't just want to stain wood and make it browner so I set that idea aside.

That left me with a red oak platter with no surface detail other than the laminated oak strips that it was made out of. Now, if I'm ever to get past just turning wooden bowls and finishing them with varnish then I'm going to have to take a radical turn and start experimenting. So I spent a good deal of time yesterday looking at several books here at home that featured shelving and interior decorating and I spied a photo that had several old fashioned crockery bowls sitting on a shelf. I also thought back to this past winter when I began knitting again.

I used a lot of color in the items I made and I made all sorts of stuff that we had been needing here at home, especially some dish rags I knitted:

I used all sorts of colors to liven up a common kitchen item and it occurred to me that I could and should try this idea with the platter. So I picked up the platter and put it back on the lathe and worked on it.

Here we go:

I wanted to add several colors to the surface of the bowl-a main color with two secondary colors and I wanted to place the secondary colors on the top surface of the platter so it could be seen. I could just paint some round lines on the surface and be done with it but in looking at the surface it seemed to me that it needed some surface detail to help highlight the colors and define the areas where they will be placed so I turned some very flat beads and between the beads I added a narrow fluted area:

I also went and bought several small jars of paint samples-yellow as the main color, and a soft white and deep purple as the secondary colors:

And I applied the yellow to the underside and the top of the platter:

And I applied the white to the fluted area as a base coat (next time I'll use the white paint as a base coat-primer before I apply any colors):

Now I'm going to let this dry and then apply one or two more coats to get a good, deep yellow and white and a smoother paintable surface. I'll do that later today and do another posting to show you how it's going.
Stay tuned,
VW