My creative passion has created my business – Dream Forest Studios. Dream Forest Studios prides itself on being a custom wood studio which is driven by a balance of my creative passion for fine craftsmanship and client satisfaction. Fine furniture pieces, properly cared for, last generations.
My current project is to build an entertainment unit which matches an existing wall unit. The unit itself was made from a pickled red oak. Pickling works very well on large open pored woods like oak, ash and chestnut.
However, if I ever caught someone pickling the VERY rare and treasured chestnut, they would find themselves with a rather sore hand after I smacked it with my dead-blow mallet.
Typically, a pigment is dispersed in a solvent, and the pigment lodges itself into the pores of the wood. Oak, I believe is an underrated wood. It’s warm natural tones, and grain structure can be accentuated using multiple techniques. Depending on how it has been milled, and finished, can make some outstanding furniture pieces.
The trouble with the unit I was color matching was that due to its age, and being in direct sunlight, the existing color had faded. All newly milled red oak has a very pleasing reddish brown tinge to it that is naturally darker than the wall unit already in place.
Another challenging point is that my shop lighting is primarily fluorescent. This adds an entirely new dimension to the details. Fluorescent lighting adds a greenish / blue tint to all of the colors mixed and applied. So, I’ve found that a color that looked absolutely wonderful in the shop often times, stared back mockingly at me in my client’s sun-light living room.
After multiple pieces were cut for sampling, and chemically treated, and two not-so-productive color matching appointments had come and gone, the third time was the charm.