That is the way I finish most of my planes too. I sometimes paint the silkspan and other times I dye it.
I have found that you can print any design or lettering right onto the dyed silkspan but the colors of the ink run. Not the black though. I just tape the silkspan to a sheet of printer paper and run it through the printer. I have been told that dying silkspan with tea gives it the proper muslin look. I usually use rit dyes. Navy blue works well. I bet ,just staining the raw balsa and then doping it would look very natural too.