Is there any hardwood that's naturally blue-tinted?
@memnus lignum vitae sometimes is bluish, but only in places. there's also "bluestained" wood that's been colonized by a certain fungus
@kara I'm hoping for a more consistent blue than that, sadly.
@memnus I have some indigo carmine but I'm very far away right now XD maybe get some copper phthalocyanine from Daniel Smith and make a stain
@memnus maybe get TRANS FAST
http://www.rockler.com/homestead-dry-dyes
I'd love to get trans fast myself, it's taking too long
@memnus one more thought: blue food coloring is most likely to be the triarylmethane dyestuff "Brilliant Blue FCF", which is negatively charged in its usual form. meanwhile the polymers in wood (pectin especially) are likely also to be negatively charged, from carboxylic acid groups
I recommend trying to pretreat the wood with a soak in oxalic acid (available at Rockler) and then soaking in blue dye
@kara if food coloring doesn't work out, I'll go see what Rockler can sell me