High Gloss/Bleached finish in Basswood??

[Kaity]

Hello - I am a new carver and am currently working on a snow bunny carving for my mom for Christmas. I really want to get a bleached surface as well as a glossy finish. Could someone point me in the right direction to get this finish? Is it possible in Basswood or should I try another type of wood?

Should I bleach the wood first, then sanding seal it to get rid of "fuzzy's", then put a gloss stain on??

I'm a total novice and haven't used any of these products before so any help is much appreciated. If you have brand names that would be helpful as well!

Thanks!

[Robson Valley]

I'm not too sure that I understand what you want as a "bleached" finish. But, I'll suggest the following. . . . do this on a big enough scrap to see the effect.
1. Skip the sanding sealer. Paint a thinned out coat of Liquitex Artist Acrylic Titanium White, #1045-432 comes in a 2oz tube. Try a second coat. This might give you the whiteness that you want without masking the wood grain. After each session, clean your brush in hot water, I scrub mine on a bar of soap, also.
2. Brush on a coat of Liquitex Gloss Varnish #6208, 237ml/8 oz bottle. Let this harden up but good.
3. Now a fine sanding. Go easy.
4. Second coat of gloss varnish.

When I'm doing a Raven's beak in western red cedar, I sand first because I'm painting with Artists acrylic black, straight out of the jar. Usually 2 coats. Two coats of the Gloss Varnish and it it as shiny, glossy, bright as I want, even though the real birds' beaks are not quite that glossy.

[Robson Valley]

I meant to add a general point about artists' acrylic paints:

They vary a lot from brand to brand in their consistency, thickness, gooey-ness. I have a 150ml/5oz tube of Stevenson Titanium white, it's the consistency of peanut butter. Interesting to paint impasto with a pallett knife. It's half rolled up so I can't give you a product number. I think that it would be much more difficult to dilute into a wash. I can say that I wanted a solid opaque white to hide the cedar (the flames on the Raven-Stealing-The-Light wall hanging).
The Liquitex was near to useless, maybe 5-6 coats? Two coats with the Stevenson = done.

[Curly Early]

Although I am not qualified to answer your question, I have seen the carvings done that way in Branson. I did a google search and found several types of bleaching solutions to do the job. Their recommendation was to bleach, then a very light coat of shellac, I'd bet clear lacquer would work to hold up the fuzzys to be sanded off. The writer of the article said that the bleaching solution would raise the fuzzies, as you called them. It is attractive in certain situations. Perhaps I should put the address where I read how to bleach wood.
Bleaching Wood, How to Bleach Wood
I hope it helps, it was interesting reading