Hand Dyed Veneers for Wood
Hand dyed wood veneer used on the Yellow Construct coffee table
I’ve always enjoyed using colour in my work and it has become part of my signature style, incorporating coloured veneers to add contrast and form to a design.
Using a unique technique, I’ve developed and perfected a process of hand-dying veneers and now produce all the coloured veneers for my work in-house. The key part of hand dying veneer is getting the dye to penetrate all the way through - if you don’t the colour disappears as the work is sanded prior to finishing, a very disappointing and frustrating moment! Although the veneers are only 0.7mm thick, their cellular structure makes this quite difficult to achieve, but there are ways around it.
A simple and effective way to colour veneers on a small scale is to steep them for a long period in a spirit-based wood dye. Overnight may be sufficient in some species such as sycamore or maple, but others, like oak, may take a little longer.
My process uses an advanced pressure system that can dye a batch of veneers in about 20 minutes, obviously a great advantage from a production viewpoint. It gives me complete control over the process and the ability to dye veneers on a consistent and repeatable basis. I can also dye a range of tones and shades for colours which greatly expands the design potential when considering the material – currently I have over 200 colours and shades in my collection.
Spirit-based dyes give the veneers a chromatic and translucent appearance, allowing the full beauty of the natural grain patterns to shine through, making each piece of veneer unique and distinctive. When lacquered, they become vibrant, lustrous and intense, adding to the dramatic nature of my work.
The range and style of the hand-dyed veneers I produce are truly unique and not available elsewhere, I use them to design and make one-off, bespoke and limited-edition boxes and pieces of furniture.
Stacks of dyed veneer ready for use
Translucent dyed veneers with grain patterns showing through the colours
Dyed colours and tones
Selecting dyed veneers for a design