Need some finishing advice.
This is the piece. Attachment 268404
When finished it will be mounted an another board with a shallow recess that matches the profile.
I already ruined the first one attempting to stain it. The stain turned out very blotchy and uneven with some areas nearly the original color of the wood and some dark brown. This resulted in most of the details in the relief being obscured.
Material is hard maple. The relief is about 7" across.
I used Minwax Prestain for oil based stains. Applied 2 coats 20 minutes apart after lightly sanding with 500 grit sand paper. At this stage the maple had took on a very faint gold appearance and looked good but lacked contrast.
After letting the prestain sit for about 2 hours I again lightly sanded the piece with 500 grit, brushed it clean and applied 2 coats of Minwax Espresso oil stain. Each coat was applied evenly and then wiped off after about 10 minutes.
After the first coat of stain the problems appeared. The stain did not absorb evenly at all. The 2nd coat just magnified the effect more. I let it sit for a few hours to see if anything would change. It looked like crap. I didn't bother using a clear coat at this point and the piece went into the trash.
Ideally I'd like the recessed areas to be slightly darker than the higher areas. Not sure if the color I was trying to use was just a poor choice being so much darker than the wood. I was going for a rich warm brown but am open to any suggestions that would finish well.