Angelus Chocolate Dye Gone Wrong-Newbie

[kayrunp]

Hello, I am a newbie to the craft. I am learning from books and videos. I just dyed my first project and it didn't quite turn out right. I first did the lemon and water solution to get anything unwanted out, I then followed with Angelus chocolate spirit dye. Now I don't know what might have gone wrong. The results is a bluish purple black. The dye has a violet color to it, I don't see how a chocolate color could come from this. I checked the label three times and it says chocolate. the veg tan soaked it up and I coated it until it was even, it didn't spread well. I think i definitely put too much on, but i was wondering if i should have oiled it before or something to get the dye to go on better? it has some really matte spots and then some metallic spots and some streaky spots. The color is definitely a bluish soft black.

any help appreciated.

[Scary Leatherworks]

Hello, I am a newbie to the craft. I am learning from books and videos. I just dyed my first project and it didn't quite turn out right. I first did the lemon and water solution to get anything unwanted out, I then followed with Angelus chocolate spirit dye. Now I don't know what might have gone wrong. The results is a bluish purple black. The dye has a violet color to it, I don't see how a chocolate color could come from this. I checked the label three times and it says chocolate. the veg tan soaked it up and I coated it until it was even, it didn't spread well. I think i definitely put too much on, but i was wondering if i should have oiled it before or something to get the dye to go on better? it has some really matte spots and then some metallic spots and some streaky spots. The color is definitely a bluish soft black.

any help appreciated.

Angelus chocolate dye is VERY dark, much darker than Fiebings. Did you try it on leather without the lemon

[kayrunp]

no, I will try it on the next piece without the lemon. I am really surprised on how it lacks any warm tones. Also, could the patchiness be because of the quality of the hide, I notice the hide has a lot of spots that come out when I oil it, I am using a cheap hide to learn with.

Do you think with the lemon I dried it out too much and the hide just sucked up all the dye?

[Tina]

I Love Angelus dye and I to have the choklad at home. There is a few things with using it...

First make sure you have a good container of reduser (dentures alcohol works too), I know just a few colors that you can use just out of the bottle without diluting it first (red, yellow+???).

All Angelus dyes are very pigment strong and most of them need to be deluted (which means they last longer=very economical). Ontop of that differnt hides takes the dye differntly, ontop you can also have different parts of the hide take the dye differently so Always try out an example first. I suspect this goes with all good quallity dyes nevermind the brand.

If you use something else than recomended as a cleaner I would always make a sample piece first. Angelus have their own cleaner too.

Good luck//Tina

Edited December 22, 2011 by Tina

[JLSleather]

Angelus spirit dye? I thought the Angelus line was water-based (??). I've been thinking about trying them for a LONG time, but if they have a spirit version it might just get me going ...

[Tina]

Angelus spirit dye? I thought the Angelus line was water-based (??). I've been thinking about trying them for a LONG time, but if they have a spirit version it might just get me going ...

You must think of their waterbased acryllic leather paints? The only dye I have seen (or heard of) is the spirit dye :-)

http://turtlefeathers.net/text/angelus/dye.html = the sprit dye

http://turtlefeathers.net/text/product-index.html =the page with all the links to the rest of their line

[JLSleather]

I'll look at it again. Yer the man, Tina ... er ... well ....

[cem]

It's most likely the lemon juice I had the same problem with one of the other browns turning a strange colour after using lemon juice as a cleaner, I no longer use Angelus though developed a sensitiviity to the smell of them which caused migraines so sold them and switched to Craftsha waterbased. So I'm not able to suggest an alternative but like Tina wrote possibly look into the Angulus cleaner.

Clair

[Sylvia]

Angelus spirit dye? I thought the Angelus line was water-based (??). I've been thinking about trying them for a LONG time, but if they have a spirit version it might just get me going ...

Yes, the dye is spirit dye. Has wonderful stuff like denatured ethyl alcohol, and Glycol Ether.

If you get your Angelus Dye from http://www.dharmatrading.com you can get the 3oz bottles for 2.89 per bottle if you get more than 5 bottles. They have the "paints" too.

Also your first order gets a free gift... check the main page for that. ) It's the least expensive place I've found. I think it cost me just over $11 to ship it UPS to me from Cali to Idaho.

[Colt Hammerless]

kayrunp, I think that's just what Angelus Chocolate looks like. I haven't made anything with it yet, but I've done some samples on some scrap, and it is very violet. I don't believe I cleaned the leather, but if I did it would have been with denatured alcohol, so I don't think it's the lemon juice. I was expecting a lot more brown to it, as I'm sure you were. It's always a good idea to test on scrap before doing the whole project. You could probably still put some dark brown on it if you don't like it as it is now.

Colt Hammerless

[cem]

I never really used the chocolate only for the colour chart I made here http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=27141&st=0&p=171056&hl=+angelus%20+dye%20+chart&fromsearch=1entry171056 and Colt Hammerless looks to be spot on it does seem to have a violet look to it so you probably haven't done anything wrong. I went over my notes and I had trouble with the honey turning a strange colour but the leather I used also had some problems with some other things as I used it up so now I can't be sure if it was the lemon juice or the actual leather. The dark brown in the Angelus line might be closer to the shade you seem to be after.

Cheers,

Clair

[kayrunp]

Thanks for your help. I did a test with the alcohol dilution and the color is so violet. The final piece came out this blue black, with the over dyeing and all the flaws in the hide turning a metallic shade it has an industrial look of an uneven blue black. I used the blue jean spirit dye with the dilution and got a great blue, i also cased it before dying and that helped a lot. I sealed the original piece with the leather balm and atom paste, it helped even out the dye job, but boy it shows every scratch or mark from just being lifted on and off a table top. Is that the finish or the quality of the hide that makes it so markable? I am also working on a project with the red dye, I wet it, dyed it, olive oiled it and then used the leather balm/atom wax. I am pulling off extreme amounts of red from it. Can I put the satin sheen eco flo on top of the leather balm/atom wax?

posted that first leather project: