Creative and Innovative Ways of Enhancing and Decorating

Bamboo, Wood, and Metal Products

Enhancing our finished products make their appearance more attractive,

parts are protected, and well-refined. It also makes our product more
interesting to the user.
Decorating finished products made from bamboo, wood and metal comes
in so many ways, method or techniques depending on the kind of
materials you used. Enhancing also involves your creativeness and
innovativeness. These two should be accompanied by any chosen
methods to make your work successful.
1. Lathe – is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of
rotation to perform various operations such as sanding, drilling,
deformation, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to
create an object with symmetry about that axis.
2. Gouge – a form of chisel, a wood working tool
3. Flocker – a cylinder made of plastic or cardboard where fibers are
deposited for flocking technique.
4. Gold leaf – gold in the form of very thin sheets, often used to cover
objects such as decorative details in a project.
5. Adhesive size – is a glue designed specifically for working with metal
leaf or foil.
6. Grain of wood – is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or lines
that naturally appear in lumber.

Steps on Enhancing Wood and Bamboo Products

A. Wood Turning
1. Prepare all materials needed. These includes wood, wood lathe and
basic
turning tools like parting tools, gouge, skewed chisel and scrapper.
2. Set-up of your lathe on the area that is easy to clean up from wood
chips
and dust and well-lighted.
3. Make a sketch of the design you want on a sheet of paper.
4. Make marking of center points on your stock. This is done by drawing a
line from one corner to opposite corner of a square or rectangular stock.
The
center is the point that lines intersect.
5. Mount the wood by placing its center on the headstock of the lathe
spur.
6. Slide the tailstock center spur to the center of the other end of the
wood to
lock it.
7. Secure wood between the center by turning the handle on the tailstock
center, then drive the wood blank into the spurn of the headstock.
8. Set the tool rest near the center of the work piece as close as possible,
without hitting the wood when it is turning.
9. Start the lathe on low speed.
10. Start turning your wood, with the use of large gouge to rough out and
round off the piece.
11. Use of parting tools and calipers. Set these tools to the depth of cuts
that
you need.
12. Use skewed chisel to make an angle or design your stock.
13. After you turned your piece to the design you want, polish it with
sandpaper while it is still mounted. Begin with 180 grit and finish with
360-grit or higher sandpaper.
14. Cut the end of the wood that is attached to the headstock with fine-
toothed
hand saw.
B. Pyrography
1. Prepare your preferred and refined blank such as wood or bamboo.
2. Make your design.
3. Transfer your design by tracing, use of cut out or a freehand drawing
onto
the prepared blank.
4. Use a skew tip soldering gun to burn the outline on your project.
5. After outlining, use soldering gun with broad foot tip for shading or
filling
your design.
6. Apply stains or oils to bring out the design and to enhance your project.
C. Hand Carving
1. Decide what you want to carve by choosing what type of carving you
want:
whittling, relief carving, carving in the round, or chip carving
2. Make a drawing or a plan. It is very important before you start your
project.
3. Prepare your materials such as a piece of wood that suites to what you
want to carve, carving tools and design.
4. Transfer your design to the wood by using a pencil to lightly sketch the
intended cuts and gouges before picking up any of your tools.
5. Rough out. This to remove as much wood as possible until you visualize
the basic shape of the piece.
6. Modeling. Remove excess material as possible until the overall form of
the
piece develops.
7. Detailing. This is to add details to the carving once the overall form is
completed by using smaller tools.
8. You need to apply wood finish to your carving to protect it from
moisture,
oils, dirt, and other debris.
D. Flocking
1. Put masking tape on outside edges to keep it from any unwanted drips
or
areas you don’t want to flock.
2. Load the mini-flocker with the fibers but do not fill the tube completely.
Put
the tube back together and set it aside.
3. Brush an adhesive on the areas to be flocked. It should be done quickly
so
that it will not dry before adding the fibers.
4. Start pumping the fibers in the flocker right on the wet adhesive. Use
storage container when doing this. Fibers that do not make it onto the
adhesive can be collected and reused to another project.
5. Remove masking tape and let it dry for 24 hours
6. Use soft brush to whip away any loose fibers in your project.
E. Inlaying
1. Prepare your tools and materials before you start.
2. Draw and create a design on a separate, individual pieces. Plan of what
colors or materials you want each piece to be.
3. Cut your design using hand tools such as chisel, coping saw or a sharp
knife.
4. Determine the location of your piece where you wanted it to inlay and
trace
its outline.
5. Cut the outline of the piece using a knife. Do it until you reach the
desired
depth.
6. Check from time to time if the two materials are fit when the piece is
inserted.
7. If you are now sure to its fit, put a right amount of glue to the materials.
Apply pressure by clamping until the glue is dry.
8. Finish it by applying finishing materials to add accent and protection to
your project.
F. Gilding
1. Preparing of object
a. Sand the surface until it is smooth
b. Cover with masking tape the areas you do not want to gild.
c. Apply primer to the object and let it dry.
d. Apply the gilding or adhesive size with paint brush.
e. Wait for 30 minutes to make the sizer become tacky.
2. Applying of gold leaf
a. Cut the gold leaf into smaller pieces to make it easier to apply.
b. Remove the leaf from the backing paper and lay on the surface of
the
object.
c. Burnish the gold leaf with dry brush or your fingers.
d. Smooth the leaf by putting tissue paper backing on top of the leaf
to
avoid tearing. Use your index finger to burnish the leaf and remove
any
air pockets.
e. Use gilder’s brush to make the leaf to stick to the object
completely and
smoothly.
f. Check if there are any holes or parts not covered with gold leaf.
Cover it with small bits of leaf.
g. Seal the gold leaf by applying an acrylic topcoat. This will protect
the leaf from damage.
G. Staining
1. Choose wood stains and wood conditioner that are compatible or with
same base. Example, water-based stain to water-based conditioner.
2. Sand the wood going in the direction of the grain with 120 grit
sandpaper until flaws removed. Repeat with 220 grit sandpaper.
3. Apply conditioner on the surface and let it set for 15 minutes.
4. Wipe away excess wood conditioner with clean rag.
5. Before applying a stain, sand again the wood with 220 grit sandpaper
or higher in the direction of the grain. Remove the dust with clean cloth or
rag.
6. Apply stain with the use of rag or brush. Wait for 15 minutes then wipe
excess stain.
7. Apply second coat of stain if needed, then let it dry for four hours.
8. After the stain dried, apply first coating of protective finishing coat.
9. After the first coating fully dries, lightly sand your project with 220 grit
sandpaper. Wipe away dust with clean cloth.
[Link] second coat and let it dry completely.

H. Painting
A. Preparing project for painting
1. Check your project for any holes, scratches, or cracks.
2. Put fillers or wood putty for the areas that is needed. Wait until it dries
and harden completely.
3. Start sanding your project with rough coarse sandpaper, 80 to 100-grit
sandpaper. Sanding should be in the direction of the grain of wood.
4. Finish sanding with fine sandpaper.
5. Clean your project from any dust or wood residue after sanding.
6. Apply primer or base paint on your project. Primer helps paint achieve
a uniform looks on a project. The most common base-paint for wood is flat
white enamel.
B. Painting the project
1. Choose the kind of paint you want to use; flat, semi-gloss, or gloss
paint.
2. Load your paint brush with paint using a paint bucket or a tray.
3. Start painting on the top part moving downward.
4. Make sure that all sides were painted. Wait until it dry.
5. Repeat painting if needed until you reach the desired outcome of your
project.