Painting question

[rljohn56]

These is my Christmas project for family. 14 of them! I’m pretty much done with all the staining, but wanted the group’s opinion on painting two items. I was thinking about painting the bow red and the smaller fireplace flame yellow or just leave them as is. I highly regard your opinions on this! Thanks, Ray

[Hudson River Rick]

@rljohn56WOW!  GREAT WORK, Ray.  I say paint the bow a bright RED, in my opinion only, (and we all know how much that is worth), it could only make your Christmas gift that much more appealing.  Thanks for sharing. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Rick

[Wichman]

Excellent work! A touch of color would enhance the piece.

[Mike Crosa]

Agree about the red and the yellow.  Regardless a great piece of work.

[rjweb]

Great piece, I would paint the bow red nothing else, RJ

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Very nice piece and am sure will be well received. The painting thing becomes tricky because where do you really want to stop. You can do the packages. You can do the green on the wreath and so on. If it is a wood scrollsawn project it might be best to leave it as such. But agree painting the ribbon can enhance it some. Very nice and have a Merry Christmas. 

[kmmcrafts]

I think adding some color will enhance the very well scrolled piece.. Seems many people outside of woodworkers don't care as much for the plain ol wood grain and textures like many of the people that work with wood do.. I used to have a hard time adding color, but now that I have done some paint work onto my scroll sawn stuff I actually think it enhances the piece.. so that said I'd go for it.. 

[ChelCass]

They look beautiful as it.  If you choose to paint the wreath, just paint the outline and use a subdue red so it blends in but also stand out softly. 

[Peter N White]

Great piece to me the bow stands out as is maybe flame only.Merry Xmas to all.

[MarieC]

I really like it.  I think because the background is green, a bit of red on the bow would be nice.  I do like the yellow flame....with out it, I maybe would have missed it.  Really nicely done!

[barb.j.enders]

Very nice.

If you do want to add colour, yes, the bow made red.  Instead of painting, I would just take a red sharpie and draw on the top of the bow.

[daveww1]

very nice job but it needs some color

[BadBob]

Color highlights can add to the visual appeal even for a hard-core wood guy like me.

[Bill WIlson]

I'm kinda with JT on this.  Gotta be careful when painting something like this, because it may not blend as nicely as you want.

I'd be inclined to use dye instead of paint.  The dye will still allow the look of the wood to show through, so the contrast won't be quite as stark.  I'd probably only do the ribbon on the wreath and leave the fireplace flame as is.  Afterall, there are flames on the candles as well.  If you do one, should you do all?  You see the slippery slope you can end up on.

[rljohn56]

I want to thank everyone for replying. Everyone have an awesome Merry Christmas! I will show the final edition when finished.

[BadBob]

It might be better painted before assembly.

[rljohn56]

These are just 2 of the 14 finished projects i had asked about painting. Not perfect by any means, but the family loved them! Merry Christmas everyone!

[JJB]

I agree with Bill. Dye is definitely the way to go. You can make the color as intense or as pale as you want. Plus, as he said, the woodgrain shows through accents the color nicely.

[Hudson River Rick]

@rljohn56 Great job, the color puts it way over the top.  Thanks for sharing.

Rick

[barb.j.enders]

perfectly painted.  those are great.

[Scrappile]

Awesome painting!  

[ChelCass]

Excellent painting.  You did just enough.  Remember you can also use acrylic paint watered down to get a stain like effect.