Building Bass no. 5

Everything is coming together now.

 I finished sanding and details on the varnish and separated the two parts to dry and cure. It will be strange not to be able to work on the bass but at least I have the tailpiece to do. And plenty of other tidying and reorganising and repair work.

 This is how lovely the bass looked after sanding and before the coating which just makes it look wet and shiny and difficult to photograph. I think I'm happy with the colour saturation, transparency and texture and will only do one layer of coating. The varnish feels good and I don't want it to end up being too glazed and losing the wood feel. 

 I sanded and worked in some more dirt and then did another layer of varnish with extra brown and red. Then I brushed away some of the new varnish in places it would naturally wear and I really like the effect. It's not the kind of antiquing that creates damage but rather brings out life and the natural richness and beauty of the wood. I thought it might need more colour tomorrow as well, but right now I'm really happy with it. So maybe we'll go straight to the coating tomorrow.

 I managed 2 layers of colour today. Sunbathing And then a little dirt treatment which looks so nice.

 In the morning I rubbed some colour into the spruce to get more contrast between the summer and winter grain, and lightly sanded the rest. This time I started with a dark brown colour which I plan to warm up in subsequent layers. In the afternoon I did some subtle shading and details. Taking pictures of varnish is very deceptive. From one angle the bass looks very dark, but if you look by the window light, it really isn't that dark.