Sunburst Dyeing/distressed Dyeing

[Mattox]

Ive been trying to immitate the Dyeing on the belt in the pic. Is that airbrush? Any help would be more than helpful! Thanks in advance!

[lightingale]

I'm fairly certain this is Block dying. You wrap a cloth around a wooden block and run that lightly on the leather so the dye gets on the raised parts, and not the depressions. It could be they tilted the block a bit over repeated applications on the outside of the belt to get that gradient effect. It also looks like they might have scraped off some of the dye.

Someone else might have a better idea what they did.

[HellfireJack]

It looks to me like it was done using some resists. You don't necessarily need an airbrush to do it.

It was probably done in several stages using different strength resists. It looks like they first died the interior of the letters and then used a heavy resist on the letters outline and parts of the flower and dry sponged it on down the center of the belt as well. Then they probably dry sponged a lighter resist down a wider path down the center as well and died the entire belt in several stages with progressively stronger shades of color..

Tandy's Leathercraftlibrary.com has a set of 5 or 6 videos by Tony Laer on dying and coloring that includes creating similar effects using resists and other techniques. It's 9.99 a month and can be easily cancelled at any time.

[Chad Von Lind]

The black inside the lettering appears to have been painted in with a brush.

If you're referring to the sunburst affect, I've achieved this by dying my product with a medium brown, and then getting a darker edge by dipping a rag into my dark brown dye and using a circular motion going along the outside edge while feathering it in.

[J Allen]

It is block dyed.

Wrapping a piece of t-shirt over a block of wood. (I use a 2X2 cut at 3 inches in length) Apply the dye to the cloth and then lightly move the block along the item. On belts you can either do each side separate or you can cheat a bit by slightly bending the edges in by hand and then dying. Dont fold it, just make a bit of a cup along the center. This will allow the block to ride the edges more. Afterwards I like to take a bit of tshirt material and wet it the same color as the dye. I let the t shirt dry with the die on it and then apply a bit of neatsfoot oil to the tshirt rag. with a light touch I "buff" the item with the rag. It will move a bit of the surface dye around and with the dye on the rag darken areas and show more high/low spots. After all this is done I buff the item completely. Then dye the letters and oil it again if needed. Seal the belt and wear it.

[Mattox]

Thanks!!