Decoupaging a Flask - Sealer type?

I made a birdbath out of a gorgeous piece of african red mahogany. I figured I could seal it with marine grade polyurethane, but it didn’t work, the water still crept under and eventually the moisture and termites destroyed it. I also tried everything in the hardware and marine stores and nothing seemed to work. I don’t know that there is anything that will seal it completely and permanently. But someone else might have a magical solution. Sounds like a neat idea though.

I decoupage often and water based poly is water resistant. It dries into a hard shell. Oil based poly is another option for you but it takes longer to dry (water based will dry in about an hour and oil based will take one day, per coat). Alcohol will not harm either water based or oil based. The other disadvantage of oil based is that if you are covering paper, the oil in the poly will (may) make some oil marks in the paper, whereas water based will not do that.

@rooeytoo I wonder if part of your experience is due to having the piece in sunlight? Did you have the birdbath outside? The wood may have outgassed some moisture which would compromise what seal you accomplished.

@dabbler – this was in the tropics so yes we had nine months of boringly perfect weather when the sun would shine with a vengeance every single day, then 3 months of pouring rain. I actually only sealed the top part, left the rest natural. But it never held water. I was thinking if I try it again, I may fiberglass the pool part, maybe that would work but of course you wouldn’t be able to see the beautiful grain of the wood. The worst part was, I sat it on top of a tree stump for a base and the termites ate it from the bottom up. It was pretty while it lasted though!