Bring out the color in snakeskin?

[Almostpighunter]

Hey all! I have a quick question that may be a bit of a repeat; however, my searches didn't turn up anything up. I have some dried copperhead skins and am doing smaller designs on bows to extend the number that I can do with this EXTREMELY limited resource. Dried the skins have a tan/brown/black color to them while many of the finished bows that I see here have that beautiful orange contrast that I am looking for.

I applied a skin to one bow and, although the pattern is beautiful, I couldn't seem to figure out how to make that wonderful orange color come out. I experimented with applying the skin over light, medium and dark stained wood, but that only served to reveal the pattern in greater or lesser detail as opposed to bringing out the color. I have done several rattlesnake skins on bows and never really run into this. Can anyone give me a head's up as to what I might be able to do?

Thanks!

[Pat B]

It could just be a color variance. I have seen copperhead skins(and the copperhead itself) with colors varying from a very pale tan/orange to almost red/dark brown. I never color my bows under the skins. I like the natural look just fine, no matter how light of bright they are.

[NTD]

I think the trend for copperheads is to put them on Osage...I can see why there'd be no need to stain that   I would imagine white woods however wouldn't compliment the copperheads nearly as well and can see how a stain there might be a good thing.