What Are The Different Dyes And Colors Used For?

[jsb]

Hi everybody,

as an almost newbie in leatherwork I am not really sure what all the different dyes and colors are used for and how. For example, at Tandy they have Eco Flo Leather Dye and Eco Flo Cova Color, Gel Antique and Hi-Lite Stain and All-in-One Stain and Finish and ...

To me, that is kind of overwhelming and I don´t know which one I should use for what purpose and/or what are the differences ...

Could anybody help me here and give me some first ideas about coloring tooled leather, about finish and all that stuff?

Thanks a lot ... if I know what to order, I can finally get started again

Julia

[Vianeth]

There are some great books out there on coloring leather, I think one is by Cova Color and one by Al Stohlman.

Buy some cheap dye for practicing and as you gain experience and $ buy the Professional Oil Dyes by Fiebing's.

Dyes are used to change the color of leather.. makes pretty colors... pretty self explanatory!

If you go to Tandy's Leather website they have free videos somewhere at the bottom, just look through them all.

You'll also need to buy wool daubers to apply dyes.

[jsb]

There are some great books out there on coloring leather, I think one is by Cova Color and one by Al Stohlman.

Buy some cheap dye for practicing and as you gain experience and $ buy the Professional Oil Dyes by Fiebing's.

Dyes are used to change the color of leather.. makes pretty colors... pretty self explanatory!

If you go to Tandy's Leather website they have free videos somewhere at the bottom, just look through them all.

You'll also need to buy wool daubers to apply dyes.

Thank you, Vianeth. I will check out the videos on Tandy's website. Of course dyes are used to change the color ... ;-) As you said, that is self explanatory. I was just wondering what are the differences between what is called dyes and acrylics and all the other "colors" ...

However, I think I start getting the idea. Thanks again!

[ClayB]

Way back when this forum was just getting started I did a demo on a few different coloring techniques. It was before the eco flow colors came out so obviously they aren't included in the samples. It would be fun to do a few more sample carvings and use some of the new colors on them. Here's a link to that topic. There are so many different things you can do with all the different colors and a lot of it just takes a lot of experimenting to see what you like and what works for you.

[Sylvia]

Hi everybody,

as an almost newbie in leatherwork I am not really sure what all the different dyes and colors are used for and how. For example, at Tandy they have Eco Flo Leather Dye and Eco Flo Cova Color, Gel Antique and Hi-Lite Stain and All-in-One Stain and Finish and ...

To me, that is kind of overwhelming and I don´t know which one I should use for what purpose and/or what are the differences ...

Could anybody help me here and give me some first ideas about coloring tooled leather, about finish and all that stuff?

Thanks a lot ... if I know what to order, I can finally get started again

Julia

HI Julia:

I understand your confusion because I've recently gone through this myself. From what I gather, Eco Flo is a non toxic Dye which provides a transparent color to the leather. As you apply successive layers the color gets deeper and more rich. Eco Cova is an Opaque color that is basically an acrylic paint. Antique Gel is used to give a well worn or old look to the leather and Hi-lite is similar to the antique but is designed to settle into the cut carving and cut work to bring emphasis to the work. I've not read anything about the All in One but I think that is pretty self explanatory.

Fiebings and Angelus both have "spirit dyes" that are considered toxic. Oil dye, (Pro Dye) I gather, not only dyes the leather but the oil helps to ensure that the leather softens.

If you are looking to get a few colors and are trying to save some $$ I would go to http://www.dharmatrading.com and search for Angelus. They are the least expensive that I have found after about a month of searching. It's funny because I searched and searched for leather dye and it wasn't until I had the brilliant idea to try to mix dyes from my Fiber Reactive Fabric Dyes and sought to learn how from Dharma... that I found the least expensive source for leather dyes. LOL Dharma has a pretty good selection and if you buy more than (5) 3oz bottles they are 2.89 each. They have the acrylic leather "paints" too.

Sylvia