Use Of Gold Or Silver On Leather?

[dieseldog]

Greetings Fellow Leathercrafters! As some of you know I am in the process of creating my bible cover. A more complicated venture for me. I will be carving a cross on the front about center or a little above. I would like the cross to be really bright gold color.

To color the cross gold...should I paint it with gold acrylic then fix...or...can I glue on some gold leaf using the light brush technique and then seal with clear acrylic and then Supershene it? I am not sure if gold leaf will wear good on leather and the bending and use of the cover.

Thanks for any suggestions, comments, tips, or maybe a better way to do it...

[Crystal]

I have done both and I think either would work on a Bible cover. The paint may be a little more user friendly. Put it on thinned, and build up layers to get your coverage. If you go with the gold leaf, make sure the leather is dry first. I also did all my other color before applying it. Make sure all the other color is dry. When you brush to burnish it, you are going to get gold leaf over everything, and it takes some patience to get it all removed. You will also get gold leaf stuck to wherever you apply the glue, so becareful with it. I would do several light sealing layers over it- letting each layer dry before adding another. Good luck! And it's never a bad thing to do some test tries first!

Crystal

[dieseldog]

Thanks Crystal, you have convinced me to use the paint instead of goldleaf. After I posted my question I found out that there are some really good acrylic paints such as antiqued gold, bright gold, bright gold with differing size metalflakes, etc, etc, etc. Apparently, these paints are to be applied like you said until you reach the saturation of color you want and then just use a good finish product like Supershene.

I will give that a go and see how it turns out on some scrap. When finally finished I will post some pics.

Thanks again!

[Jazznow]

Do you have a link to those paint? I would be interested too....

Thanks

[dieseldog]

Yes Jazznow...and everyone interested...Here is a link to some acrylics made for leather that are guaranteed not to peel, crack, or rub off...Ckeck them out and come back and give us your thoughts...

http://www.dharmatra...144517-AA.shtml

Also read the (Featured Customer Comment)

Edited January 6, 2013 by dieseldog

[Sylvia]

Just a heads up. The "Silver" angelus paint is NOT a silver but rather a clear with a bunch of pearl. I'm not sure about the gold but I hear the same things as well. People are underpainting with a base color like yellow or grey then putting the "silver" or "gold" over the top.

I found some enamel pens that work ok, but they take forever to dry. They are "Pactra Enamel Pens" I got them at a closeout place and haven't seen any since. You might try something like this http://www.amazon.co...el paint marker

or this...

http://www.amazon.co...el paint marker

Oh and I"ve used these Sharpies too. http://www.walmart.com/ip/14906302?adid=22222222227008505014&wmlspartner=wlpa&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=&wl3=13689268510&wl4=&wl5=pla&veh=sem

Edited January 6, 2013 by Sylvia

[Tiara]

http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1847-AA.shtml

dharma also carries these lumiere and neopaque acrylic fabric paints. They have worked very well for me on leather. I'll check the silver again but recall that a quick test drop appeared silver. The basic gold is golden. Dharma also carries the unmixed pigments, Pearl ex is the brand and the base is sold separately making it easier to mix. There are some really cool hi lighter and color shift pigments. One color on dark and another on light backgrounds. various shades of gold and degree of 'glitter' depending on particle size. A little goes a long way. There are ebay vendors carrying the Pearl ex pigment in individual 3 gram bottles rather than the larger half ounce if you don't need much.

[Tina]

I use metallic colors and manny of them comes out way better on a base of black dye. You will then not need more than 2 (3) layers of the paint and the whole thing looks much cleaner. Make some tests on scrap pieces with your choise of acryllic paints :-)

Edited January 12, 2013 by Tina

[TwinOaks]

Yes, you certainly CAN use gold leaf on leather. No issues of it cracking when flexed, but this piece turned into a wall hanger, so over time, the finish will be more critical.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=43030

[Wishful]

Another source about Gilding Leather: http://www.alleycats...ther/Gilded.htm

Edited January 13, 2013 by Wishful