BrrlRacerJunkie Report post Posted December 4, 2014 Good morning everyone! So I was wondering how you go about getting your tooled design one color and the rest of the leather another color without completely messing up your entire project? ha! I'm guessing one would use a resist of some sort and then do you just very carefuly dye around the tooled design? I really want to learn how to do this. I've researched the forums here and found examples people have posted out of their own work but never found a definitive explanation as to how this look is achieved. I have attached a picture of some spur straps a tack maker created that are the exact look I'm going for. They are an absolute beautiful piece of work and I would love to be able to achieve that two tone color effect in my own work. Thanks for your time everyone and hope you are all doing well!! I'm sure many of you are very busy getting Christmas orders together!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Blea Report post Posted December 4, 2014 Good morning! In this particular case it looks like they have dyed the background and border areas and it is fairly simple to do if you have a steady hand. First I would put a resist (Wyosheen or Clear Lac or the like) on the tooled parts with a small brush. Then I would take a dark dye and dye the background areas and untooled areas around the carving with another small brush. You will need to be careful on this step because the dye will bleed away from where you touch the brush to the leather, and you will want to be careful with how close you put the brush to your carving. If your not careful it will bleed up onto the carving and probably ruin the piece. Your best bet would be to make a small test piece and practice background dyeing until you get a feel for how much the dye will bleed. If you don't have your brush loaded with dye when you put it to leather you won't get too much bleeding and it's pretty easy to control, but a little practice beforehand won't hurt. Hope this helps, Bob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrrlRacerJunkie Report post Posted December 4, 2014 Good morning! In this particular case it looks like they have dyed the background and border areas and it is fairly simple to do if you have a steady hand. First I would put a resist (Wyosheen or Clear Lac or the like) on the tooled parts with a small brush. Then I would take a dark dye and dye the background areas and untooled areas around the carving with another small brush. You will need to be careful on this step because the dye will bleed away from where you touch the brush to the leather, and you will want to be careful with how close you put the brush to your carving. If your not careful it will bleed up onto the carving and probably ruin the piece. Your best bet would be to make a small test piece and practice background dyeing until you get a feel for how much the dye will bleed. If you don't have your brush loaded with dye when you put it to leather you won't get too much bleeding and it's pretty easy to control, but a little practice beforehand won't hurt. Hope this helps, Bob That does help! Thank you so much Bob! I was wondering if was something that was going to just require a steady hand. Now, do you think the tooled area itself has been dyed? Or is that just the natural color of the leather? If it has been dyed, do you recommend dyeing the tooled area first, applying a finish like Clear Lac, and then dyeing the background and untooled areas? Thanks again! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oltoot Report post Posted December 4, 2014 Unfortunately no silver bullet, just careful work. BTW, you canget a hint as to the order of work by looking at the photo. 1)Tool design on a slightly oversize piece of leather 2) Dye entire piece. 3) Buckstitch 4) cut to final size 5) sew, edge and finish. Buckstitching and final cutting may be reversed Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrrlRacerJunkie Report post Posted December 4, 2014 Unfortunately no silver bullet, just careful work. BTW, you canget a hint as to the order of work by looking at the photo. 1)Tool design on a slightly oversize piece of leather 2) Dye entire piece. 3) Buckstitch 4) cut to final size 5) sew, edge and finish. Buckstitching and final cutting may be reversed Thanks so much! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Blea Report post Posted December 4, 2014 They may have dyed the tooled area but my guess is that the overall piece was antiqued after all the dyeing was done. My guess is the leather color you are seeing in the tooled area is just the natural color of the leather after they oiled it. When I carve something I oil it after carving which darkens the leather. For something like this I would probably dye the background/border areas first then oil, so I probably wouldn't put the resist on the tooling until after I did the dyeing, so change that around from what I said in the first post. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrrlRacerJunkie Report post Posted December 4, 2014 They may have dyed the tooled area but my guess is that the overall piece was antiqued after all the dyeing was done. My guess is the leather color you are seeing in the tooled area is just the natural color of the leather after they oiled it. When I carve something I oil it after carving which darkens the leather. For something like this I would probably dye the background/border areas first then oil, so I probably wouldn't put the resist on the tooling until after I did the dyeing, so change that around from what I said in the first post. haha, okay! So carve, dye background/border, oil, apply resist to tooled area, then apply antique if preferred. Okay, now I may at some point want to add some acrylic color to certain parts of my tooled design. And I've always heard that oil and acrylic paint on leather don't get along too well so should I apply my oil to the back of my leather project if I plan to add some paint. Or if I apply a light coat of oil and allow it to really soak in, would my paint still adhere? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Blea Report post Posted December 4, 2014 I don't have a lot of experience with acrylic paints but from the very little work I've done it didn't seem to be a problem to oil first then paint. I put a very light coating of oil on a project and I let it dry / soak / disperse (whichever is the right term) at least overnight and often for 24 hours. Once that happens you don't notice the leather being any different except a little darker. It certainly doesn't seem oily. However, I don't have a lot of experience and maybe someone here that works with acrylic more can answer that question. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrrlRacerJunkie Report post Posted December 4, 2014 I don't have a lot of experience with acrylic paints but from the very little work I've done it didn't seem to be a problem to oil first then paint. I put a very light coating of oil on a project and I let it dry / soak / disperse (whichever is the right term) at least overnight and often for 24 hours. Once that happens you don't notice the leather being any different except a little darker. It certainly doesn't seem oily. However, I don't have a lot of experience and maybe someone here that works with acrylic more can answer that question. No problem! Thank you for all the advice you've given me, I greatly appreciate it! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
