This piece of Maple Burr is the epitomy of why I colour figured white woods.

I knew I something special was going to happen before I started the colouring process because I could see the amount of beautiful figure there was in the wood. I created the 'windows' so that the natural colour of the Maple Burr can be easily seen, I started by first sketching out their positions, I wanted to be able to see at least three from any angle. The next stage is to 'V' carve the outline of each rectangle and apply a resist in the groove to stop any stain bleeding into the area. With my colouring process I don't apply the stains in specific areas, the entire surface apart from the rectangles is covered with stain, once the stain is dry the piece is sanded evenly all over then another layer of stain is applied, dried and sanded with the next grit. In total this is done five times working from 120 grit thru 180, 240, 320 and finishing with 400 grit with a layer of stain between each sanding, not always five different colours, some only have two with multiple layers of one colour then a single layer of another. When the colouring process was finished I then had to carve and sand each rectangle so they were slightly domed. The piece was sprayed with three coats of an industrial grade waterborne lacquer and a week or so later, once the lacquer has cured the piece is burnished to get a high gloss finish that really emphasises the chatoyance of the figure. However, I prefer the 'Windows' to be satin, so they were all sanded with 400 grit taking them back to satin. The English Boxwood lid has the normal 12tpi handcut thread ensuring a secure closure.

I don't usually give my pieces titles but in this case I felt it deservered one.