How To Achieve This Dyeing Technique?

[veedub3]

During the holidays my business is pretty slow and will not pick up until after the new year so I thought this would be a great time to start my first project. I am interested in this color technique and wanted to know if this is achieved with an airbrush or can it be achieved by hand? The dye I am working with is mahogany pro oil dye and I want the inside lighter than the edges. Would I simply add more coats to the outer edges or go with a darker color on the outer edge all together? Would the pro oil dye be the right dye for what I am trying to do?

Thanks in advance your your help,

Karina

[veedub3]

I attached the image in my initial post but it is not showing up. I will search to see how to add the image then post it here again. Sorry not the easiest forum to figure out.

[veedub3]

OK got it, here is the image I was referring to.

Thanks,

Karina

[JLSleather]

There are probably hundreds of ways to get that effect. But, from the photos, and a rough guess, I'd say that was done with at least two colors (and possibly a third) and applied with a sponge.

[veedub3]

Thanks for the reply, I am not looking for the exact effect in the picture, my question is about the technique to achieve this look. I am making a bag and the dye I am using is mahogany. I want the outer edges of the bag darker than the center of the bag, my question is do I simply add more coats of mahogany to the edges or should it be a different color all together for example black. Also I am using Fiebings pro oil dye, is this the right die to achieve this look?

Thanks,

Karina

[Chief31794]

You can achieve that look with feibings oil dyes, I would use an air gun or a sprayer system of some type, I would thin the dyes to different shades, for example if I cut the main color by diluting it 10:1 (10 parts denatured alcohol to 1 part dye), then I would probably try cutting the edge color by about 5:1 making it darker. I would spray the entire project with the 10:1, let it dry and then spray the edges with the 5:1 or whatever area I wanted darker. I would test the colors and the technique on scrap before I put the dye to the actual project. Can be done with a sponge as well, just not quite as much control.

Hope that helps, I'm sure others will have alternative solutions,

Chief

[veedub3]

Thank you very much Chief for the information, exactly what I was looking for. I guess I will pickup an airbrush kit at harbor freight tomorrow and test out on scrap leather as suggested.

Thanks again,

Karina

[GlenH]

Go to Springfield Leather's video page (http://springfieldleather.com/content/321/Videos%2525252525253A-Helpful-Hints/) and look for the one called staining leather. He shows you how he gets that look.

[tnawrot2]

I used to use this technique years ago when I made a lot of geometric design belts, it is called dry block dyeing. Take a 6" piece of 2x2, wrap an old cotton t-shirt around it, staple it to the wood. Put some dye in a pan, lightly put some dye on the block, rub the block on some cardboard to get most of the dye off, you might want to tilt the block so you take more off one side than another. Try the block on some cardboard to see the pattern, once you have it like you want, use it on the leather. You want to keep the dryer end of the block in the direction you want less dye, and go in linear strokes.

[JJs Leatherworks]

Not sure the vintage of the picture, but this really looks like a sample of the 'nature tanned' leather that was very popular for all types of projects in the 70's. The leather came in the gold/light brown color that is in the middle of the project, and you could die the edges with any oil dye color to highlight. Using either a sponge or block, starting from the edges and as the applicator dried, moving towards the middle, provided the shading like is shown in the picture. On items that were tooled/stamped, when the dye was applied with this method, all of the depressed areas stayed the natural leather color. Often wish this type of leather was still available.

Anyone else remember working with this type of leather? Anyone else remember the 70's?