Question on dyeing.

[Tophee]

   Hello, I just started doin some basic leather projects middle of last month. Bought a little $30 kit off amazon, bought some leather on sale online from Tandy. I started just making little keychain fobs. Just cutting em out, no designs at first just cut, dye, burnish and finish. I recently bought 2 brass leather stamps because I figured itd be easier to do that first than learning to carve patterns for now. I wet the leather, stamp the leather than proceed to dye it. Issue is, and sorry ahead of time I know this is a very beginner and maybe and obvious fix, but the pattern when I dye it is not visible after dying. What are some ways some of you stamp or emboss patterns in leather that make the pattern still noticeable but also able to get a good color on the leather? I was thinking not dying it at all, but the leather I use is very pale, I was thinking buying a much lighter color (I was useing Fiebings Moccasin Brown and Resolene as the top coat). I tried stamping another piece and using a fine paint brush to paint around the pattern and the stamped part not dyed but it looks visually weird. Thank you ahead of time for your answers. Also any other advice yall wanna give a beginner is welcome even if its not on this topic thank you.

[Mablung]

Do you mean there’s not much contrast that highlights the stamp?

[SUP]

You need to do antiquing. That is where you dye the leather one color, apply a resist and then apply an antiquing paste, which is essentially a darker dye. You rub in the antiquing dye so that it gets into the stamped parts and shows it up clearly.. Search for 'antiquing' on this forum. you will find plenty of threads providing specific instructions. 

If you don't want to go down that route, you can just apply neatsfoot oil or coconut oil (both lightly) and keep the leather pieces in the sun. That darkens the leather beautifully and the stamped patterns might be clear as well.

Edited April 15, 2024 by SUP

[Tophee]

2 hours ago, Mablung said:

Do you mean there’s not much contrast that highlights the stamp?

Yes

[Tophee]

2 hours ago, SUP said:

You need to do antiquing. That is where you dye the leather one color, apply a resist and then apply an antiquing paste, which is essentially a darker dye. You rub in the antiquing dye so that it gets into the stamped parts and shows it up clearly.. Search for 'antiquing' on this forum. you will find plenty of threads providing specific instructions. 

If you don't want to go down that route, you can just apply neatsfoot oil or coconut oil (both lightly) and keep the leather pieces in the sun. That darkens the leather beautifully and the stamped patterns might be clear as well.

Ill give it a search. Dyeing the leather atm just blends the stamp in with the rest so you cannot really see the stamped part unless you look at it from an angle. Wouldn't antiquing it just make it all blend to gether even more after dyeing the whole piece of leather?

[Tophee]

Maybe a picture will better describe what I am referring too since I am bad with words. The dye is dark so it pretty much blends everything in together, the stamp and all. I did try to not dye the stamp and paint brush around it. But did not look so good.

[Mablung]

51 minutes ago, Tophee said:

Ill give it a search. Dyeing the leather atm just blends the stamp in with the rest so you cannot really see the stamped part unless you look at it from an angle. Wouldn't antiquing it just make it all blend to gether even more after dyeing the whole piece of leather?

Antiquing is done after dyeing. 
 

There are a bunch of really helpful threads on here about everything dyeing and antiquing. Some people will do an overall background dye, then dye just the stamped/tooled area with another dye. Others use antique paste or even Sharpie markers. It depends on the look you want.

Antique paste can be a bit messy and involves some extra steps, but it does give a nice look to certain things. Have fun learning and experimenting with all this.

Look up The Leather Element videos Weaver Leathercraft puts on YouTube. The guy who presents them, Chuck Dorsett, has a couple on antiquing that I’ve found very helpful. 

Edited April 15, 2024 by Mablung

[NatesLeatherGds]

Oh - you're using a very dark dye -- often (not always) a lighter dye and you can see the contrast as well, if you apply it in certain ways, the deeper grooves/carving can take a bit more dye in sometimes and be just a bit darker than the rest. ymmv.

[Tophee]

3 minutes ago, NatesLeatherGds said:

Oh - you're using a very dark dye -- often (not always) a lighter dye and you can see the contrast as well, if you apply it in certain ways, the deeper grooves/carving can take a bit more dye in sometimes and be just a bit darker than the rest. ymmv.

Yeah, when choosing the first dye I was gonna buy I liked how this looked. But after getting the stamps and trying it, it didnt look as well. As suggested by Mablung and Sup I will look into antiqueing and also probably get a lighter dye. I am assuming this kind of dark dye I got would not be suited for what I am currently going for.

[Mablung]

5 minutes ago, Tophee said:

Yeah, when choosing the first dye I was gonna buy I liked how this looked. But after getting the stamps and trying it, it didnt look as well. As suggested by Mablung and Sup I will look into antiqueing and also probably get a lighter dye. I am assuming this kind of dark dye I got would not be suited for what I am currently going for.

If you want the stamp impressions to be more obviously visible due to contrast, a lighter dye will certainly help. Darker dyes are more forgiving of the application of multiple layers to cover streaks, blots, and other mistakes, but a great part of that depends on your application method, too. 
 

Leatherwork offers innumerable rabbit holes, of which this is only one. Welcome to the hobby!