Painting with dye

[Ian]

I'm about to tackle something I've never done, so what better place to ask before I proceed?

The job is a tooled motorcycle seat. The customer wants a leperachaun (sp?) carved in from a picture he provided. The picture is one from the artwork on his custom paint job and is all various shades of green with details in black. Since I don't like the look of painted leather, I'm going to do it in dye. The background is going to be brown, so no room for covering up errors or bleed. This was my idea. To get the various shades, I would use just one color green, but thin it to varying degrees - i.e. start with a 30/70 dye to alcohol mix for the base color, and then add dye to acheive the darker shades and finally do the detail in black. Now, I would need to mask it to spray the background color.

Would frisket hold tight to the surface being masked so there is no bleed? Would the swivel knife cuts around the picture provide a moat (?) to prevent the dye from bleeding under the frisket? Is there a better way to mask the design than frisket?

I'd really like to get this right the first time so any suggestions would be more than appreciated.

Thanks

Ian

[CitizenKate]

Hi Ian,

I presume you're airbrushing your colors? I use a number of different ways of masking my artwork for spraying dyes. One is to use liquid latex. I posted a photo demo on how to do that here.

Another method is to get some of those Avery (or generic brand is fine too) full-page sized labels. Print your artwork on the label, use a Xacto knife to cut out the shape you want to mask, then stick it to the leather. It goes on and off with little problem, and since this material is somewhat absorbent, it prevents bleeding over the edges. You can use a modeling tool to manicure the edges of the mask into your cut lines to help prevent any overspray from drifting underneath.

You don't want to spray the dye too heavily; work in multiple light passes until you have the color you want.

Cut lines do help stop the spread of dye on the leather, but you still want to go in light passes.

Your strategy of starting with lighter shades and going to darker is good.

Hope this helps.

Kate

[Ian]

Thanks Kate, Liquid latex sound like an excellent way to go. I've used it on other molding projects. Would I have to use any kind of release agent, or does it peel off easily?

Thanks for taking the time to reply

Ian

[CitizenKate]

Nope, it peels off easily and leaves nothing behind. The more coats you use, the easier it is to peel off. I used 2 coats for my demo, and it all came off just as easily as you see in the photos.

Can't wait to see the results!

Kate

[Ian]

Kate, I missed that link in your reply - that clock face is amazing - those corner pieces are as immaculate as they come. I'm definitely going the latex route.

Thanks again

Ian