[Ck3]

Hi fellow artists, I restore furniture and we use dyes and pigments in the colouring of repairs. I find dyes gives a very natural colour that blends repairs very well but they are limited in there colour strength.

Pigments by contrast loose the natural qualities of dyes but have more strength in colouring and blinding out repairs.
I find combining the pigments and dyes can produce the best of both worlds.

My question is are there any tips for using pigments that would help reduce a paint like appearance which looks unnatural on polished timber. I realise there are different opacity values for different pigments and maybe the semi opaque ones are better than the opaque ones in terms of looking less paint like.

Given the large variety of different colours with pigments I would love to be able to explore and utilise them more in colouring work.

I realise this may be a little left field of a question but I thought I would ask from one field of work (restoration) to another to see if you have any insights I could benefit from.

Thanks, much appreciated.

 

[John Smith_inFL]

Ck3 - welcome to the forum.
We have two sister sites that are all about woodworking and finishing. I think your question would be better suited there.
Woodworking Talk and also LumberJocks Woodworking Forum

 

[Ck3]

Hi John,
Thanks for the tip, they are very interesting forums. General woodworking and finishing sites don’t tend to do the same type of work ie conservation based whereby repairs are matched in with existing surfaces.

That’s the reason for coming to an watercolour/artist forum as there is much greater knowledge in the use of pigments and their working properties.