dvawolk

Hi! These are my first attempts in leaf embossing and block dying. With last one (right) i am very satisfied! Comments and critiques welcomed!

Great! I just needed some practice - for fun, i will post my first few block dyed embossed oak leaves! The progress is really obvious :-) Thanks for the hints and guidelines!

Hi, Kate! I just tried this system for block dyeing and it is just drying by me... The difference is that i pressed oak leaf into vegetable tanned leather. The leaf impression is stunning in detail, but there is very minute shallownes of it - the leaves are a thin thing :-) So when i try to block dye, some surface that is pressed down, is also colored... I am pressing another leaf into leather right now and i will try the following. The leaf will be pressed into wet vegetable tanned leather for about half an hour. After that i will block dye it right away when it will be still wet. ---Is this okay, or is it better to wait for the leather to be dry inside the press? IMO it is harder to dye embossed leaf with wide embossed surfaces, compared to deeply tooled leather. Is there any other suggestion not to paint over the embossed surface, or is the only answer: practice makes perfect :-) ?

Kate, thank you! lacquering leaves is an iteresting idea, but for now i will stick to oak, beech, aspen and simillar hard leaved trees - just to get to know with this skill to some point... thanks also for a link to block dyeing demo. i have just read it and i will write there some questions that appeared just now :-) Klemen

Hi, all! I have a question regarding embossing leaves into leather. I know that it has to be vegetable tanned leather, i use cow or calf leather. I am able to press leaves into leather but the detail in not that good. Should i put more pressure into the leather? Also, i found some great articles (link below) that use leather embossing with dyeing leather afterwards. Here i come to a problem. How can the embossed leather be dyed like this? what color should be used? alcohol based? water based acryl color? http://ny-image3.ets...l.185367367.jpg Thanks for your valuable answers! I am somehow stucked somewhere inside this technique...