Colouring Balsa Wood?

[Exeson]

Well, I am busy with a project to make a charm necklace for a friend, and one of my ideas was to carve a charm or two out of balsa wood.

One of these charms would be a disc that has a relief on one side, basically a pattern carved into it. Now what I want to know is it would be nice to be able to color it so that the relief stands out better, and also so that it looks slightly more rustic and worn.

I was thinking perhaos some sort of dark red/brown chalk or dust that can be rubbed into the charm that would color the recesses? If I remember correctly there was something like that that was used on ivory carvings.

The only problem is that they charm will be worn, so i would preferably not be something that can rub off.

Any ideas my fellow playgrounders?

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

I think wood stain/paint and some sort of lacquer or finish would be your best bet.

[Astrella]

You could use acrylics and then use drybrushing to accentuate the relief. You'd have to use a varnish coat though to prevent the paint from rubbing off.