Need An Experienced Eye

[Paulr]

I just started doing some leather carving and could use some advice. I'm not looking at the construction of this as a whole just the carving and dyeing.

http://media-cache-e...2483ad68d42.jpg

It looks like the whole back ground area in this was gone over with a background tool. Am i right in guessing this? What would be my best option for the yellow parts on this? When i was looking at yellows at tandy and online the all looked too yellow or like they are not doing much more then adding a slight yellow tint to the leather. Any advice would be a great help. Like i said not trying to make the armor its self. I just like how the designs turned out on them.

[immiketoo]

Yep, its backgrounded. The yellow Fiebings makes can give you that color with some help. The finish or mixing the dye would work. Angelus might make that exact color too.

[shtoink]

I would be inclined to think that it may have been laser engraved with the consistency of the background texture. Also looking at the very precise symmetry and curvature on the outside of the design, it looks computer controlled. If you follow that up with looking at the areas that are beveled within the pattern, there is some inconsistency to the curves and the level of beveling. It's subtle, but still not quite the same as the exterior of the pattern. Specifically the spirals near the top of each leg.

The texture of the background looks like the grain was removed from the surface, but it does not look like it was done by hand sanding or a dremel type tool.

Taking all that into account, it looks like it was most likely laser engraved with other aspects added in afterwards. This isn't to say that there aren't those who could pull this off, just that it was the most likely.

[Paulr]

thank you. i had never looked at angelus dyes before. I have only used fiebings and eco-flow. Are they comparable to fiebings? might be worth a try.

If it was laser engraved do you think that doing large areas with a background tool are going to end up looking odd? i Have never tried it on a large space like that.

[Cyberthrasher]

Maybe it's my sceen or something, but I see Saddle Tan there. Actually, I've even done one that was "yellow" full strength that came out like that with a little oil.

[mikesmith648]

It does not look dyed to me , but more like the saddle tan antique like Cyber said

[Cyberthrasher]

My photo kind of sucks, but this is the layered yellow I did. Piled it on nice and thick because I was out of Saddle Tan at the time. This is the Pro Oil Dye.

[dragonspit]

_{Agree with cyberthrasher. this looks like to me the "yellow" is standard veg tan, if this is older, that could simply be natural color ages, and it will do that. Could be staddle tan as well, if not ages leather. You would apply the saddle tan on the raised area, you would put a protective coat on that, then you would dye the background. I dont agree that this is digitally applied or lasered, I have seen plenty of folks here that are plenty good enough to get that look by hand. my opinion only.}

[Paulr]

so you think its just the saddle tan dye or saddle tan with yellow dye over top? That guitar strap looks great. Is it just multiple layers of yellow to make it darker? Sorry for all the questions i just have no experience with anything outside of one flat color. Thanks for the help.

[Cyberthrasher]

yeah, I'd say it's just saddle tan. You'd have to experiment to get the right color since it may be thinned a bit. The guitar strap is a few coats of straight yellow, which happened to make it dark like saddle tan.