Dyeing veneer info?

[Woodman2k]

I need to dye some white wood veneer in some bright colors for ornaments and was wondering what the best wood would be to use.Holly is mighty expensive to use the way I'm gonna bury it in these items.It will be accent colors so I'm hoping something like poplar will work.I have some transtint dyes I picked up at WC today so if there is a better product to use let me know before I open them.Thanx,
Greg

 

[striker]

Constantines sells colored veneer. Not a wide variety of colors but it might be easier than making your own. http://www.constantines.com/dyedimitation.aspx Stephen

 

[Matt Furjanic]

Hey Greg, One thing you should consider: If you dye your own veneer, you are only dyeing the surface, so if you sand it after dying, you will sand thru the dye. The colored veneer you buy is dyed under high pressure and heat, penetrating all the way thru. Strikers source for dyed veneer is a good one. Matt...

 

[striker]

Matt's comments are spot on. I started down that road several years back. Even bought a yard sale pressure cooker thinking I could "infuse" the dye through the veneer strips (maple). I ended up with a pot of blue egg noodles. Possibly, they could have been dried and flattened but I was over it at that point.

Stephen

 

[Woodman2k]

Matt and Stephen,
Thanx for the info,checked out Constantine's and they might have something i can use. I am experimenting with somw ideas for next Christmas and I don't need as much as there minimum.I'm going to check out some doll house / hobby lumber today as it is much cheaper and the quantity's are much less.I never thought about the dyeing process being done under pressure to get total penetration.For what I'm going to do ,very little is going to be visible from the outside so I may try to dye the edges of the sheets and see how that works.I need to pick up a curved veneer saw also so we'll see what develops.
Thanx,Greg