How to Dye Wood

Today was wood dying day. Here's a list of supplies that we used:
- 18ft of 1 x 2 pine ($12.00)
- 6 x 28ml bottles of food coloring (2 red, 2 blue, 2 greed) ($10.00)
- 3 plastic buckets ($3.00)
- 1 Mitre Saw
- 1 Drill
- 1 Handy Husband :)
- 1 plastic table cloth
- Newspaper
- Wire baking racks
- Paper towels
- Rubber gloves

1. My husband set up the mitre saw. The wood clamped on the left side of the picture was the guide to make sure that every piece cut was 1 1/2" wide

2. Here's the bucket of wood

3. I wasn't here while he was drilling holes in the wood, but here is a picture of the drilled wood and I had him drill holes in some popsicle sticks as well while he was at it.

4. Here's the bucket of green dye. I mixed 4 cups of boiling water with 2 bottles of green food coloring. I was happier with the color and how it turned out.

5. Here's the bucket of red dye. I mixed 5 cups of boiling water with 2 bottles of red food coloring. This was the first color I mixed and also the weakest because I added so much water.

6. I mixed 3 cups of boiling water with 2 bottles of blue food coloring. With adding less water, the blue came out stronger than the red and green.

7. Here's a picture of all the wood pieces and popsicle sticks colored.

125 Wood Pieces

40 Popsicle Sticks

Total Duration: 2 hours to cut wood / drill holes; 2 hours to dye all the wood.

Lessons Learned: I didn't really anticipate that the wood would float .... yeah I know, blond moment ;) So for the next time I will need to find something to hold the wood down into the water. I think I'll try to find 1/2" thick wood the next time so the pieces are a little thinner.