How To Dye Leather To Be Marbled / Molted / Antiqued

[leetpuma]

I have always just used oil/ water based dyes out of the bottle and had decent uniform dyes. But as of late a marbled dye that I saw really caught my attention.

This pic is big click it.

Does anyone know how this was done?
Are they chemicals needed to displace the colors at certain points? (Or to force certain colors not to get wiped away?)

Was it a multi layering dyeing process? (I see brown green yellow and maybe a hint of red?)

Did the person somehow sponge various colors down?

Did the person use a dropper to make those rain-drop looking water marks?

Any help would be apprciated!!!

Thanks.

P.S. This came from a blog: http://bookbinderschronicle.blogspot.com/2012/08/custom-portfolio-folder.html
More pics at her blog

Edited August 29, 2014 by leetpuma

[billybopp]

Strangely enough, the same sort of thing came up on here just recently. Check out: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=57852&hl=

It's a variant of paper marbling using leather rather than paper. The short version is water with carrageennan (also known as Irish Moss despite the fact that it's seaweed) or methyl cellulose mixed into it makes a very wet jelly like ... er ... um stuff. Dyes or paints are then dripped onto the surface where they spread out, and sometimes pretty designs dragged through the paint. The paper, fabric, or leather is then carefully laid on top and allowed to float there for a time before being carefully lifted off of the .. er .. stuff.

That's the short version, anyway. I'd tell you more, but I'm just finding out about it myself!

Hope that helps

Bill

[leetpuma]

I repl

Strangely enough, the same sort of thing came up on here just recently. Check out: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=57852&hl=

It's a variant of paper marbling using leather rather than paper. The short version is water with carrageennan (also known as Irish Moss despite the fact that it's seaweed) or methyl cellulose mixed into it makes a very wet jelly like ... er ... um stuff. Dyes or paints are then dripped onto the surface where they spread out, and sometimes pretty designs dragged through the paint. The paper, fabric, or leather is then carefully laid on top and allowed to float there for a time before being carefully lifted off of the .. er .. stuff.

That's the short version, anyway. I'd tell you more, but I'm just finding out about it myself!

Hope that helps

Bill

I replied to you in the other thread. That sounds very much like what is happeneing here.