Wheel covering

[dougs]

Good morning,

I am in the process of covering my 32" stainless wheel with ringbolt hitching to be followed by 3 legged turks heads at the spokes. The material is #48 3 strand cotton twine.

My question is should I leave it untreated and let it collect a patina or should i attempt a coating of some sort when complete. It has been sugeested that varnish would work.

I am also wondering what additional treatment I might apply to the kingspoke. I had thought that its turks head could be made of dyed twine but that won't mean much in the dark.

Thanks for any thoughts