'Distress' Staining A Washboard.

"I bought Linda new washing machine.  Is she grateful?"

I've had this 'musical' washboard for sometime now.

I like playing it, it's really LOUD.

What I don't like is it's new-looking-ness.

I set about distressing it.

Take six tea bags, boil them in a litre of water and leave the brew to stand over night.

Take a large piece of wire-wool (do not try to clean your fillings with it), put it in a container, then pour in enough malt vinegar to cover it.

I usually have these two potions mixed and ready to use but I seem to have lost the last lot.

I know that when I do eventually locate the jars the one with the super tea brew will probably have grown a really weird mould on it.

I began coating the washboard, first with the tea dye then the wire-wool dye.

After several applications the washboard looked like this:

"I can't tell the difference" I hear you say so I removed the skull and crossbones sticker just for you:

Yep, that's a pretty effective staining method.

All that remains to do is allow it to dry, give it a wax polish and reattach it's bits and pieces.