What a difference

stain can make!

I purchased three colors of Weavers Stain months ago, but did I use it?  No, it's been waiting for me, so yesterday it was time to try it out on some of my baskets.  First, I stained some scraps of reed, making color swatches of a sort, to give me an idea of the true stain colors, as well as samples with two coats and coats of two different colors.  Boy, was I surprised!  When I ordered maple, oak and walnut, I thought they'd be shaded from light to dark, walnut being the darkest, but I was wrong and maple actually came out darker.  The stain can be found on many basket making supply websites, but this one has more information on the ordering page.  Anyways, here are my resulting baskets.

Oak stain used on my Quatrafoil Garden Basket.

Bountiful Garden Basket stained with Walnut Weavers Stain:

Another designer's Garden Basket, stained first with maple (too orangy for me), and then with walnut to tone it down, but not darken it too much.

Basket for Janice, also stained with Walnut:

If you'd like to see how they looked before staining, click on the "basket weaving" link on the right hand side of my blog, or here.