Should I antique or leave it be

[MADMAX22]

Hey guys Im using Tina's pattern to do a day planner type thing and just to experiment with it a little bit.

I tooled then dyed the project so far with feibings dark brown, then went over it with a lightly with a cotton ball filled piece of cotton shirt that was dipped in feibings black dye. It ended up not having the diversity in color that I had hoped for because I did this same technique with a earlier project and used feibings tan as the undercoat, it made the tooling really stand out.

But this project has a nice old look to it with a dark and slightly lighter browns that show up (its hard to see in the picture). I kind of like it but at the same time think I would like more contrast.

So your opinions just finish it as is and seal it up or go ahead and try antiqueing it just to see how it will turn out.

Thanks for your input.

[rdb]

I would just finish. it looks good, now.

I have the fear that the deep bevels would just look like fat lines of dark, instead of a highlight effect. (I hope I made sense)

[azrider]

I think it looks pretty good now. I would be worried about making the whole thing too dark with antique.

[TimKleffner]

MM22

I like your tooling and your project! Looks great. I see that you have a stitch line in place. My feelings are that do all your dying and finishing and antiquing before you put a stitch line down. What happens is that the antique will clump up in your stitch line and had you used a light thread, you would have a discolored thread, which WILL be U G L Y.

Your doing nice work. keep a progression going ... tooling, dying , oiling, lacquer [or other finish], then antique then Fiebings Tan-Kote.

Have you thought about a reversed antique? If you dye dark, antique with a light product. When I tool a black project [basket weave or tooled] at times I have black and a touch of white acrylic paint that I thin abit with Tan-Kote. Gives the tooling a ghost shadow. Some customers like it some don't ... I buy a good acrylic paint at Micheal's or Hobby Lobby. I have one tube of white. and several other colors ie... dark red , midnight blue.

Tool a piece on scrap and give it a whirl. Kind of fun to play!

Happy Tooling

Tim

[Luke Hatley]

I you had did the Day Planner in a very light color then you could have antiqued it.

but with the dark color you would not have got the contrast you are looking for.

[MADMAX22]

Thanks for the input guys. I understand what everyone is getting at and Ill leave it be. Ill be sure to post some shots when Im finished.