Struggling with antique

[hanzosbm]

I'm working on my first real leather working project and I've come to the antiquing step and I'm a bit concerned. I have a sample piece that I've been working on to test out each step before I move on to the real piece.

Antiquing the sample today, it came out looking more dirty than defined like I wanted. In the picture of the sample (the two crests), I had applied 2 coats of paint, then applied Tan Kote using a piece of sheep wool (big mistake, fibers got everywhere) and let it dry overnight. Then, applied Fiebings mahogany antique and immediately wiped it off with paper towels. The good news is that even with hard wiping, the paint stayed put. The bad news is, it came out looking dirty. I tried some more Tan Kote and it helped a bit, but it also dragged more of the antique out of the cuts and smeared it around. I tried a q-tip dipped on Tan Kote and that helped. The crest on the right, I even tried painting back over some of the white. As you can see in the samples, I was playing around with texturing the background and on the final piece, I decided not to. Given the bottom right portion of the sample is smooth and looks the best, that is the most representative of the final product, but I'm still a little worried.

I really wanted to use the antique to better define the work I did (and cover up tiny mistakes in painting) but I'm worried about how it's going to look. 

Did I do something wrong? Any other steps I should try? Would a darker antique be better for defining, or would it look even worse?

I've also included a picture of the actual piece as reference. I still need to do a few more coats of paint, so disregard any areas where I didn't get down into the fine details.

[Tequila]

This should help, DG does great work

 

[hanzosbm]

On 7/16/2022 at 2:50 PM, Tequila said:

This should help, DG does great work

 

Thank you!  I'll definitely keep this in mind.  In retrospect, I don't think I let the antique sit long enough before wiping with the Tan Kote, meaning it probably smeared wet antique more than it cleaned off what was on the surface.

One other thought I had; how do you typically choose your color of antique?  I went with Mahogany (the lightest color they had) because I was scared of going too dramatic.  But looking back on the sample, I think that was a mistake.  The antique is close to the color of the base leather, so rather than helping the details stand out, it looks like the paint is missing in places.  Should I go with a darker antique so as to look more intentional?

[Tequila]

I found that thinking of it like shoe polish helped me get my head around how to do it.  The longer you let the antique sit the drier it will get, it won’t make it any darker since the Tan Kote is acting like a resist, so I usually let it sit 20-30 minutes before wiping off.  When you do wipe it off it’s going to look cloudy (muddy as DG calls it in the video), but once you reapply the Tan Kote it’ll look much better. 

I would go darker, the antique is meant to enhance the cuts, if it’s the same color as the leather you won’t see it. 

For fun try some neutral antique mixed with paint, you’ll have to play with it to get the color the way you want and the drying time is a lot longer, but you can get some nice effects. 

[Chipster99]

Very nice work! Try medium or dark brown. It’ll make a big difference. You’re right - the mahogany is too light.