I tried an oak bowl done black with gold leaf paint on it and wiped the paint off leaving the gold down in the grain. It looked spectacular but was just an old junk bowl so I had envisioned doing this piece using that technique — until I saw how it looked natural and decided to leave it that way. The grain was way too pretty to cover up and the knot going through was a definite plus for the interest value of the piece. I believe this is a piece of pecan wood which we had trimmed off a tree a few years ago and not the oak I had suspected before I took a tool to it. No, I haven’t given up on color, in fact I did another one this weekend with nice shades of green and blue which was rather soothing to look at. I still need to complete the lid and lacquer work on it before posting.