Need Help, Black Dye Wicking Onto Yellow Background

[tboyce]

I'm hoping some seasoned pros can provide me with some ideas here. My Son-In-Law has requested a Batman guitar strap and I've tried several times to get the logo down. The problem I seem to be having is I use a backgrounder on the yellow portion of the logo and that seems to give me good definition raising the Bat symbol up high. I have no problem when I dye the yellow portion but, when I go to dye the black portion, I can't seem to keep the dye from wicking into the yellow portion.

I'd really like to get a crisp separation between the two colors...any ideas? That latex thing seemed to be the ticket until I read it would not be good for dyed leather

Thanks in advance

[Troy Burch]

When painting always start at the top or the raised parts, I presume it's the same for dyes.

[billybopp]

Dyes can really wick through leather, so the best thing to do is use a smallish brush for border areas, then do NOT put the brush too close to that border until much of the dye is off the brush. Only then go near the border area to minimize the amount of dye that will be wicked where you don't want it.

Hope that helps

Bill

[Northmount]

Depends somewhat on the type of dye (solvent) you use. Slightly dampening the leather seems to help with both spirit and water based dyes. Since the leather is slightly damp, there is less wicking action.

Another alternative is to apply a finish ... Like an acrylic and use a spirit based dye that will penetrate into the finish, but not bleed into the leather. It is a little harder to get a nice even colour, but if you build it up slowly with diluted dye, you can even it out fairly well. If you are going to do it this way, you need to practice on scrap to get the colour and feel that you want.

Tom

[alyshae]

I have a Stohlman guide to dyeing, and when doing multi-tone pieces he suggets having a piece of scrap available and always going dye - touch to scrap - apply to piece. This allows the first "burst" of dye to go on the scrap. There was also a post on here some time ago where a fellow said he had accidentally left a little dish of dye uncovered overnight, and it thickened on him. He used it anyway and found out that it was great for small areas - the thickness reduced the spread.

[Gump]

You can try the pro waterstain as it is thick and doesn't bleed easily. I have had good luck with Tandys pro waterstain, using it undiluted and brushing it on like paint. Remove excess with damp rag. Gump