DIY Spirit Dye?

[Trauma]

Hi All,

I was reading Shorts' topic about saving a dye job on a holster: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3154 , when TwinOaks made a comment on using Charcoal and Sake to make up a dye.

I prefer the look of spirit dyed leather over Acryllic paints (i'm still learning how to use the paints), but am finding different colours, such as purples and greens hard to come buy.

What I'm wondering is, would it be possible to transfer this into other colours using an ethanol base and artist's pigment?

Would any sort of strong pigment be useful?

I imagine methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) would be ok to use?

[TwinOaks]

In the good ol' days.....

Nah, way before then. Dyes used to be made with a combination of plant extracts, soils, minerals, and animal secretions. I'm sure that there's a way to do it. Kinda like purple used to be made from rotting snails. Humans have just found a quicker and easier way to produce these things in a factory.

I'm not sure which alcohol to suggest- my sake comment (I think) was made in jest- but hey it might work. Sure would be a good excuse for getting some sake to experiment with.

Use web based search engines to look up ancient leather coloring techniques. I don't remember the URL, but I found one that actually had transcribed the old english / archaic english straight to the screen- funky spellings and all. It laid out how to tan a hide, and color it with natural ingredients to get the basic colors. After that, it's all color wheel practice. Keep this in mind though- our modern chemical colors are MUCH more colorfast than something like elderberry juice. The natural colors faded quickly when exposed to a lot of UV.

Mike

Edited July 11, 2008 by TwinOaks

[cem]

I've made my own dye using Rit (in Australia it's marked as something else on the outer box but has Rit on it on the actual satchet)clothes dye and methylated spirits it's also explained a bit here http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...pic=1423&hl

I make purple and blues this way as those colours are difficult to get where I am, I will probably make other colours as well when I run out of what I have got. It's not hard just a bit of trial and error to get the shade you want to begin with then add more metho to get lighter shades.

This is how I do it

Put satchet of Rit (33 grams) into glass jar (jam,vegemite size), pour a bit of boiling hot water into jar so Rit dissolves then add metho (this makes up about 1/2 a jar if you want a dark shade to begin with)

Don't be too concerned if not all of the Rit dissolves I usually drain the first batch off and start again with whats left this will make a 1/2 to 3/4 shade depending on what didn't dissolve the first time.

Clair

[Timd]

It's ironic that this thread appeared today, I was thinking the same thing. I was leafing through this catalog at work and found this:http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe...h=Aniline%20Dye Sure sounds like good ol' spirit dye to me! Anyone ever use this? I think I'm going to pick a color and try it.

[Trauma]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, the dye+boiling water+metho sounds like a good place to start.

I'm going to try it as soon as I get some time, will post with my results and let you know how I went :D

[Merlyn]

denatured alcohol, and there are dye pigments available at goodsjapan on ebay, sells from japan, but i've heard good things about them....and they include a WIDE variety of colors

Edited November 2, 2011 by Merlyn