Alabaster staining

[don dougan <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>]

Hi Daniel,

Welcome to the list!  I am glad you asked that question.  Polychrome on
stone has long been an issue of fascination for me -- in fact, perhaps
the 3rd or 4th carving I ever did was in Indiana limestone and (long
story short), I found myself with some unintentional brown stains that
were very distracting visually, and penetrated deeper than the half-inch
I was willing to lower the surface.   Anyway, a trip to the doctor later
(long story) I had to apply thin washes of burnt umber artist's oil color
to the surface to disguise the stains or consider the piece a piece of
scrap.  I finished it and it worked (I thought), still looking like stone
but dark brown instead of the natural buff color.  I put it out on
display and my (non-stonecarving) instructor wanted to know who had put
the 'bronze' on display out in front of the school office.  I 'fessed-up
and said it wasn't bronze (never my intent), and then I and the rest of
class were treated to a discussion about truth-to-materials, blah, blah,
blah.

Don't get me wrong -- truth to materials is important . . . but what
about truth to coloring of materials  ;-)  ?  Anyway, I have continued to
color materials (mostly stone, since that is what I work in most of the
time, and have

I have never tried staining alabaster, though I have seen and considered
using dyes made for stone in jewelry/lapidary supply houses.  I
understand the 'costume-jewelry' trade uses them to 'improve the color'
of less-than-perfect hardstones and semiprecious gems.  But I just never
got around to ordering any of these dyes.  As I recall they were packed
in fairly small-size containers.  The last time I remember coming across
it in a catalog was probably ten or fifteen years ago -- I imagine it is
still in use.

However, my use of color has included waxes, spray paint, wood stains,
enamel and artist's oil paints, artist's acrylic, latex house paints,
artist's watercolors, india and artist's inks, wood stain, permanent
'magic' markers, colored pencil, charcoal, chalk/oil pastels, fabric
dyes, as well as the Lithichrome brand paint made for monument work.
There are probably some experimental methods I have forgotten about too .
. ;-).

The one thing I learned is that a little bit of applied color goes a long
way aesthetically in contemporary eyes.  If you use applied colors
remember that some of the colors are fugitive (they fade with time or
exposure to direct light).  I try to use natural color of different
materials (stone, bronze, glass, plastic, gold leaf, etc.), but sometimes
applied color is necessary for the design to work.  When I use it I
usually try to make it obvious to the viewer that I am deliberately
applying color rather than trying to 'fake' something -- i.e. when I
paint it I want the viewer to realize it is painted.  That way I avoid
the issue of the viewer later discovering that the color is not natural
and subsequently feeling 'fooled' by my work (like my undergraduate
instructor was).

I could go on about this subject, but this is already a long answer to
your question.  Try Googling lapidary supply or jewelry supply houses.
Gesswein (sp?) and S'West are two supply houses but I can't remember if
they carried the dyes . . . as I recall the place I was going to buy it
 from was based in California.

Good Carving to You,
Don

http://www.dondougan.homestead.com/indexdd.html