In response to Eliyahu Shahar's inquiry, graining has been popular for
centuries and described as false graining, faux graining, or by the
formal (French) term, faux bois.  In theory it is simple to do.
Practice and experimentation makes faux bois a bit time consuming until
you get results to your satisfaction.

There are books galore, but I recommend "Professional Painted Finishes"
by Marx and the older book "Graining Ancient and Modern" by William E.
Wall.

To get started, prepare the surface with multiple coats of base color
paint allowing days to cure, then wet sand with 400 then 600 wet and dry
automotive paper until very smooth.  The darker glaze color consisting
of equal parts of color, varnish, and thinner (painters glaze) is then
applied thinly all over the surface and flogged to simulate the "seeds"
of the grain.  Next day when the work is dry,  apply a second darker
glaze all over the surface and using a tool, arrange this glaze while
wet to simulate the grain.  Tools range from stiff-bristle chip brushes,
pipe grainers, and overgrainers, etc., all fancy tools to get the result
of your work looking like the real thing.  Some faux bois, like
crossfire mahogany, require a third glaze with a hue shift to achieve
the mottling found in many woods. This glaze is manipulated commonly
with a mottler brush. Softening of the artwork is desirable and often
necessary in the last two steps, and a good badger brush is best for
this.

So there you have it, a gross over simplification and a somewhat
demeaning description of faux bois!  But this gives you some insight as
to what you can expect to be doing if you want to do this work. The
various steps differ considerably from wood to wood.

I strongly suggest reading the Marx book (videos are available too by
Marx) and do much practice.  Waterborne base coats and the new slower
drying waterborne glazes are simple to use and are replacing the old
time honored oil paints and glazes.  Other videos are available by
Joanne Day, Leonard Pardon, and others.  Aside from mastering the manual
arranging of glazes, glaze composition and color is equally important.

I made a weak attempt at encouraging finishers to use an existing wood
grain as a starting point for embellishment (archive article
2001.09.04.02).  For ordinary straight grain woods, this is not
worthwhile, but for burls and heart cuts that cry out for improvement,
you may want to try your hand at this.

For music box lids, faux marquetry is almost a must.  Faux bois hits
it's stride when it comes to painted marquetry (intarsia maleri).  Here
using automotive striper tapes and friskets or stencils replaces cutting
multiple layers of wood, brass, abalone, etc., with a jewelers saw
Besides you can augment your work with gold, silver, and other metal
leaf where and when appropriate to give absolutely outstanding results.
But mostly the look of fine somewhat colored woods (faux bois, of
course) gets the job done nicely.

Fortunately many B&W patterns for intarsia maleri are available in
Sunset publications and elsewhere.  I remember someone in MBSI had
accumulated lid pictures but I do not remember who.

Remember the integrity of your work can be protected by great modern
clear coats that dispel the notion that nothing compares to the real
McCoy.  On a PBS program several years ago, Prince Charles gave much
importance to the artists engaged in this craft over the last three
centuries by stating their work was prized above the natural materials
because it is a form of art.  Think of this as you struggle with your
samples. Although I've worked in this field for years, I've learned to
take a hat in hand approach to the work of others.  Like life,
decorative painting for me is a work in progress.

Bill Maier   (Salt Lake City and Scottsdale AZ)