Hello everyone,
First time project (other than some practice stuff) and first time posting.
I decided to craft a book cover for a 2018 daily planner for my wife. I had already purchased this prefabricated book cover so I thought I would do this for a first project. So here's what I did, right or wrong :-)
Did not clean the leather.
Cased & tooled.
Applied a light coat of Olive Oil
Rest a day
Stained the tooling on the front
Rest a day
Applied 1 coat of Super Sheen over the entire front of the cover. So most of the project never received dye/stain directly.
Rest a day
Applied another coat of Super Sheen over the entire front of the cover.
Rest a day
Applied a thick coat of Eco-Flo Saddle Tan Gel Antique (Could have been previously frozen). Applied with a dauber for some reason, should have sponged it on apparently. Had a little streaking (see picture)
Rest a day
Applied coat of Aussie Conditioner
I was happy with the results even though the project came out partially orange... see picture. Maybe it's orange because the gel froze?
Let sit for 4 to 5 days and liked the results
Read a post here that said a person should dye any parts of a project you can see. I could see the inner, unfinished flesh side of the cover so I decided to dye the inside. So I grab some Bison Brown Eco-Flo water dye and add a bunch of water to it. Proceed to apply the dye with a sponge but it wasn't picking up the color very well on the flesh side to I end up adding too much dye... because it bled through!
Surprisingly I did not cuss or moan or throw anything. I beat myself up mentally for feeling the necessity to follow all the advice I read! Note to self, don't feel the necessity to follow all the advice! Don't experiment on finished projects! Listen to inner self say "I could bleed through, nah!"
Came here for advice on fixing my mistake
Need advice or ideas of what you guys would do to hide the mistake.
Please feel free to offer advice on the workflow I used to complete the project! This is project number one:-) All advice would be helpful at this juncture in my novice leather career:-)
Thanks in advance everyone!
Mark