Learning & Experimenting

[asallwey]

I'm finally starting to try my hand, beginning with dyeing a belt cut-off. It is an embossed belt so I thought I would try a two-tone coloring. The light yellow went well as expected. But the Medium Brown filled in most of the embossing - bummer! I had wrapped a thin cloth around a piece of aluminum to try to skim coat the top of the embossing. The mechanics worked fine.

So I learned that embossing does not make a deep enough impression like tooling does. I figured that might happen, but I was hoping ... .

I still have some of the cut-off so I'll try to paint on some resolene in the raised areas, let it dry, then try the dark stain again. It is fun experimenting!

Alex

[WyomingSlick]

Bravo for you. You learn from experimenting on other than finished projects. You have learned that much of leatherwork is unforgiving, and it much better to learn on practice pieces instead of a project that you have invested much time in, only to ruin with a failed attempt at a new technique. Of course, even then you are not safe. Many a leather item has been ruined by experianced leatherworkers who simply got careless with something they had done many times successfully. LOL

[WScott]

I am late to this party, but good for you to experiment.

Seems like some folks want a cookbook spoon fed methodology given to them because they are too busy to work it out themselves.

Sometimes those things that don't work out so well for one application, work great on another project.

Live and learn

[asallwey]

Thanks for the encouragement! I tend to make mountains out of molehills when I start doing something, but it give me some records to fall back on when things don't quite go as planned.

My results have been consistent here. Embossed belts really don't lend themselves to two-tone dyeing (like some of the beautiful work shown on this board) as the embossing just doesn't seem deep enough. My blanks came from three different sources and I assume are typical. I can get some highlights peeking through, but nothing consistent. Resolene did work, however there was too much detail on the belts for me to deal with this way. I'm not an artist and it would take more skill than I have to follow the embossing. It does work to do 1 color then leave some of it exposed (say in the middle) then blend in the sides/border areas with a darker color. This has become my latest strategy.

I also had the bright idea of outlining the embossing. So I cased 1 blank and am in the process of running a tool along the design to create deeper lines for the major lines. This might work, but darn, it is a lot of fine detail work!!! My neck got sore after a while, my eyes got blurry looking through a magnifying lens, my finger were cramping, and it is coming along. Today I'll finish it.

I've got to give all you "Toolers" a heck of a lot of credit! It is not easy to translate designs into leather! My hat's off to you all! I'm just playing at this because I bought a belt buckle and decided to make a belt for it. I've now bought 6 blanks, 3 are unfinished, 2 are done, and 1 was finished and given away. It is challenging so I guess I'll have to watch for more buckles for my belts!

Alex

Edited December 18, 2013 by asallwey