Ammonia fuming progress

So far my ammonia fuming experiment seems to be a success. I placed my bench in a cardboard box with a glass pie plate that had a few ounces of aqueous ammonia (28% concentration - household ammonia is about 5%) and left it overnight. Now the bench is sitting outside (under shelter, because it is raining) to let off any ammonia fumes.

In the photograph with the bench is a piece of wood leftover from building the bench; it is the same color as the bench was originally. The color of the fumed wood is more gray and duller. It is definitely different from how it looked yesterday.

Next will be a little bit of sanding and then the shellac. This will be my first time making my own shellac. I saw it done once, years ago, and now I am going to try it. I have to wait until it stops raining because I work outside in my backyard (I don't have anyplace indoors to work). Unfortunately it is supposed to rain for the next week so my next update on this project may be a while.