Fiddlegirl89 Report post Posted December 30, 2010 Hi! I have a friend who wants a guitar strap, with a name on it, and I have never stamped leather before! From what I've read, I need to dampen the leather, then stamp, but then what? Do I need a dye to fill in the letters, or will it show up well enough without a dye? I was planning on saddle soaping the whole thing (I'm putting an edge braid on the strap) so will that darken the imprint of the stamps sufficiently? I'm just really lost as to how to stamp...my stamp set will be here in a few days (just ordered it) so I can practice then, but I do need to order dye if that's something I am going to have to have. Thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iamasmith Report post Posted December 30, 2010 (edited) Hi! I have a friend who wants a guitar strap, with a name on it, and I have never stamped leather before! From what I've read, I need to dampen the leather, then stamp, but then what? Do I need a dye to fill in the letters, or will it show up well enough without a dye? I was planning on saddle soaping the whole thing (I'm putting an edge braid on the strap) so will that darken the imprint of the stamps sufficiently? I'm just really lost as to how to stamp...my stamp set will be here in a few days (just ordered it) so I can practice then, but I do need to order dye if that's something I am going to have to have. Thanks! Welcome, and as you can see, I'm a brand new learner too Good luck with the project, and I would love to see the results. My only observation is one that I thought out and that is that letters are probably very hard to do nicely unless using letter stamps or irregular lettering that isn't a specific font. The only reason that I am surmising this to be the case is that if you take a look at any work that has even single letters the eye picks out irregularities in the font very, very easily indeed. I think if I was going to do letters I would get a stamp set for the font that I was working in if I wasn't going to try to do a stylised version where the adherence to the font wasn't too important. You have a question about colouring also. There are many dies around and it's quite probable that from a distance the design won't show up without being dyed but then again it's probably going to run over a shoulder anyway. You are learning like I am. Quite probably your friend has no idea what they will get. I suggest do some mock ups on pieces of scrap leather and see what they like ^^ The advantage that I have is that for the moment I only have myself to please so good luck Edited December 30, 2010 by iamasmith Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fiddlegirl89 Report post Posted January 1, 2011 Thank you for the response! I am getting letter stamps, so that should make that part a little easier. I also found a bottle of dye in my stash (I should keep better inventory!) so I have that to use if I need it. I think I should only accept orders for projects I have prior experience in doing! This is a little nerve-wracking!!! Thanks again! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iamasmith Report post Posted January 1, 2011 Thank you for the response! I am getting letter stamps, so that should make that part a little easier. I also found a bottle of dye in my stash (I should keep better inventory!) so I have that to use if I need it. I think I should only accept orders for projects I have prior experience in doing! This is a little nerve-wracking!!! Thanks again! I also see there's a dedicated area for Guitar Straps http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=96 (in case you hadn't noticed it). Folks there may be able to help with some of the other things such as choosing leather and design Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
