No dyes or tints of any kind were added to the stone. The image was brought to life (so to speak) using 3 different lacquers and 4 different varnishes, slowly over several days. The colors are as they appear in the soft shadow of an early afternoon on 28 January 2008, and its photograph was taken in the NE corner of the garden, where it resides next to my mother's headstone beneath which is a golden urn with some of her depository's ashes.