"To follow are garnet thin coats of shellac."
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Don't be afraid to switch to blond shellac if you find the piece getting too dark (I find 3-4 thin coats of garnet get me the color I want). I think shellac was used less in the period than we tend to think, because all of their product was so dark (they didn't have blond/super blond options). When they did use it, they mixed in other resins like sandarach which is much lighter in color. Today we can simply use blond shellacs as necessary.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]This thread is great, some very good advice in it. Regarding alcohol-based dyes over shellac: I have little experience doing this myself, but last summer our Chesapeake chapter brought in expert finisher Bruce Shuettinger as our guest speaker. Bruce demonstrated how he applies color: (1) base coat of shellac; (2) little dixie cups of alcohol into which he mixes dye powder from ~20 color options in his pallet to get the color he's seeking; (3) brush on top of shellac, using same brush technique as he uses for the shellac coats; (4) before the alcohol flashes off, wipe away as much/as little as necessary to blend with adjacent areas (if he's dying just an element of an overall piece, e.g., getting a uniform color across to adjacent boards that are edge glued). Bruce also made same points as Pete does above: use a variety of colors from your pallet (green to reduce the red tint, etc) and build multiple layers/remove in spots to give character and simulate age. I took away that there's no way to get good at this without lots of practice![/font]