Painting Leather Query

[mm30688]

Hi,

I am a fashion design student working in London. At the moment I am working on my senior collection, and have some painted leather 'space print' details on some of the clothes and have some questions on how to go about it. I already tried a test garment to see what happened and the effect looked great, but I found that the leather had become very stiff and difficult to move in, it also began to crack and peel off like crazy when placed under too much movement/stress. Obviously its because I used the wrong material to paint it with so i just wondered if you could give your suggestions on how to fix these problems. Here's a link to a picture of the sample. http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/156672_523883918136_286500655_1233667_4978544_n.jpg

Here's how I painted it, firstly to create grip for the paint I painted on a floor grit paint (it has sand in the paint), i then painted the stars by dipping a pin prick in white emulsion, then to create the coloured gas clouds I used various eyeshadows, I fixed these with hairspray. Finally i used an all purpose polyurethane varnish to seal everything.

I'm going to be using thin nappa leather for the details to keep bulk down. Any things like basecoats, paints, lacquers or techniques you could reccomend to keep it flexible and not bulky would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[dirtclod]

I use regular craft paint when i do paint on leather and finish with reselone from Fiebings. If your going use nappa leather i don't what you would use as a finish sense it's not smooth kind of like a suede if were talking about the same thing.

Just guessing i would say the varnish and hair spray is what caused the leather to be so stiff and caused the finish to crack. All that being said i never have tried anything like what you did either. Good luck on your project.

[walletman]

Hi try this link hope it helps

http://www.fatbuddha...s+Leather+Paint

[jimmy eng]

Do you have to use leather? A none stretch panne velvet or that fabric that's flocked all over and resembles 'peach fuzz' would be good too. You could also try airbrushing in acrylic.