How To Do These Colors

[DoubleC]

It has to all be the same kind of dye, you can't mix oil dye with water based, but as long as the 'base' is the same you can mix them together.

[shtoink]

If I might be so bold, I highly doubt that any tooling will help this effect. Embossing a little bit, maybe, but in actual Damascus steel there isn't a large gap between the different steels used. I also doubt that this effect is achievable with any real success without the use of an airbrush. Brushing it on by hand and getting the blend of the colors, albeit possible with skilled hands, is going to be very difficult. The transition between the colors will be smoother and more believable, as that is one of the things an airbrush is really good at.

It's debatable what should be used to get this effect, too. You could use acrylic, water color, RIT Dye, or anything other medium. Rather than starting any mild arguments, I'll just leave it like this: Use what best creates the desired result. It will take some time and experimentation. Aside from having it printed directly onto the leather, there just isn't going to be an instant solution. Even if there were someone here who was a master with brushes and paint or an airbrush, they'd probably only be able to point you in the right direction.

If it were me, I'd work my way up to it, but I am kind of weird that way. I still take on projects, now and then, that are outside of my skill level and I regret it every time. It always reminds me that I still have plenty to learn. Also, this isn't exactly an easy task, even for someone with a good deal of experience. I fear that taking on this complex of a project as a beginner is going to a bigger bite than you can chew and you'll end up getting discouraged and abandon the whole thing. I hope you don't see this an me discouraging you, I only want to point out that there needs to be a of of planning and experimentation before moving from one stage to the next. This is, by no means, an easy color effect to create and will take some time to figure out. My suggestion above was only a guess at the process and I am certain there are many steps that I missed as they had never even occurred to me.