Home Made Wood Stain and Photo Transfers (Part 2)

Hey, Everyone! As promised in my earlier post, (Home Made Wood Stain and Photo Transfers (Part1), I will show you how I managed to figure out why the homemade wood stain kept turning a rusty brown colour. After testing different black teas to determine which would leave the most tannins in the wood, I went with Tetley Tea's Orange Pekoe. In the image below, I first used the original tea I had started out with, Twinning's Breakfast Tea. Then I brushed the steel wool/vinegar solution on top. The results were the rusty brown colour on the right side of the photo. Then, I used the Tetley tea, which was clearly darker and then brushed the steel wool/vinegar solution and it turned out beautifully, as you can see on the left side of the wood plank. 

 Since it turned out so nicely, I decided to test it on a few pieces of wood to be sure that I had solved the issue. 

 After painting the plank with an off-white acrylic paint, it was ready for the photo transfer. Below, is the final product, one of my sister's wedding photos. 

 And after adding some wire to the back, it's all ready to be hung on the wall! 

 To give you more of an idea of the variances you can get with homemade wood stain, I did this test piece below. At the top, is the wood with a few coats of black tea on it's own. It turned the wood into a beautiful weathered grey. To get this look, I used very little water, with lots of tea to have more tannins. In the middle, I did one layer of the black tea, let it dry, and then I added one layer of the steel wool/vinegar solution. After it dried, I added on many layers of the black tea, and I think it looks gorgeous! And on the very bottom, I did the black tea, then one layer of steel wool/vinegar solution and then only a couple of layers of the black tea, so it would be lighter than the one above. There are so many varying looks that this home made wood stain can do, so be careful to remember how you did it the first time so you can get the same results again. 

*The wood I use in the photo above for my test piece is pine :)