Acrylic & Oil Dye / Finishing

[Harag]

Hi all

Just getting into the world of leather working, I'm looking at making medievial bags, pouchers, book covers etc. At the moment I've placed an order for some basic carving tools as I'm looking at learning carving/tooling first as I currently don't have a lot of room for going into item making just yet (and to spread the cost of setup over a few months). With my order I've ordered some blank "bookmark" leathers about 1.5 x 9 inch in size as these were on 1/2 price offer (still waiting for the full order to arrive). I was just going to use the bookmarks to practice tooling on, but now I've thought about painting them with a brush and acrylic dye. I'm not an artist and never done anything like this before so it's a big leap into the unknown for me.

1. Casing / tooling

2. Arcylic Dye

3. Oil Dye

4. Finishes

From the above list I understand #1 but 2-3 I have some questions on if I may.

I'm going to buy a kit of acrylic dyes - 11 colours in the kit and some "resolene" - http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/acrylic_pack.htm - so my first question is

1. After tooling, when painting the bookmarks do I paint the edges and the back as well, eg to colour them "green" or whatever colour?

2. After painting I then apply "resolene" to it. do I apply this all over, even if I haven't painted the back (depending on answer to 1). And do I wait for the initial paint to completely dry?

3. Now bookmarks are very small, but if I did some small tooling on a large piece of leather say for a bag then when I apply the oil dye to the leather, do I go over the acrylic dye with this or around it all? or do I apply oil dye (even the tooled) first then paint on the acrylic colours over the oil dye

4. Finishes, what are the basic steps for finishing.. a) case & carve, apply oil dye c) finishes? - They seems to be different finishes - http://www.leprevo.co.uk/finishes.htm

Any tips, advice, links will be much appreciated

Many thanks

[Jaymack]

Good question. I don't know the answer, but I've been dyeing firsm and then acrylic paint. I then resolene, and antique. i go over the acrylic paint again just to highlight the areas that have darkenend, and finally spray on fiebings finish.

[Matt S]

Are these mediaeval style bags supposed to be historically/period correct?

[Harag]

Yes and no... for things like LARP (live action role playing) mainly.

[Matt S]

Well I hope it goes without saying that acrylic paints and, to a lesser extent Fiebing's oil dyes, aren't period correct.

[Harag]

Agree, at the moment I'm just playing around with tooling bookmarks to see what I can do, so the painting isn't just for bags. It's all a learning experience.