Laser Printing On Veggie Tanned Leather

[Dwight]

Maybe some or even all of you already know this, . . . I just learned how to do it.

Want a full color image from a photo put on your flat piece of veggie tan????

1. Get a piece of waxed paper from the kitchen, . . . cut it to 8 1/2 by 11 size. Flatten it out and put it in your printer. It worked very well in my Epson 1100 wide format printer, . . . printing portrait.

2. Find the image you want to use, . . . I did mine on Microsoft Publisher. Reverse the image if there is printing on it or anything else that would need to be reversed.

3. Print onto the waxed paper.

4. VERY CAREFULLY lay the waxed paper where you want it on the leather. YOU ONLY GET ONE CHANCE. If you try to move it at all, . . . it WILL smear.

5. Holding it so it cannot move, . . . gently stroke it with the edge of a credit card, . . . left / right / up / down.

6. Remove the wax paper, . . . count to 10, . . . it is dry.

I haven't taken it any further than this, . . . having so much fun so far, . . . but maybe someone else can add to this and make the process more complete.

May God bless,

Dwight

[veedub3]

Any pics? I would be curious as to how vivid the image is and will it hold up or fade. Epson uses a really great pigment ink in their machines, but over time they still have been know to fade.

Karina

[Dwight]

This is not a very good picture, . . . my apologies, . . . and it IS THE RAW piece of leather with the image on it.

Notice down around 4 o'clock on it, . . . I smudged it slightly getting the thing laid down, . . .

But the colors are 80% or so vivid, . . . I'm thinking a sealer of some kind will make this thing a keeper.

Anyway, . . . take a whack at it, . . . see what you all come up with, . . . I'm kinda excited about it.

(edited to say that the fuzziness is the picture's fault, . . . the actual image is in the 80 / 90 % crisp region, . . . very presentable in my estimation)

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited February 4, 2015 by Dwight

[Carrieanna1172]

This is a great way to transfer a pattern also works on wood etc but if you have a laser jet instead of an inkjet printer

You can use heat , an iron will transfer it

One note though be extra careful if you are burning over it the fumes can be toxic

One more thing I have done if you can't get your wax paper thru use a glue stick to glue it to thicker paper or card stock

Some printers are finicky

[veedub3]

I will have to put this on my "to try list". In my other business as an Apparel Decorator (Embroidery, Screen Printing, Dye Sublimation, Heatpress VInyl, Rhinestones, etc.) I use an Epson 1400 and a OKi laser printer, and over time - they always fade even when I set the ink with my heat press, but maybe a top finish on the leather will prevent that. One of these days when things slow down for me I will get around to testing it out.

Thanks for sharing,

Karina

[Carrieanna1172]

Ok update I have done the laser jet pattern transfer on other material

And it works but I just tried it on leathe and not so much ?

So before anyone goes and ruins a perfectly good piece of leather

There may be a way to do it but it didn't work for me ?

[cem]

I will have to put this on my "to try list". In my other business as an Apparel Decorator (Embroidery, Screen Printing, Dye Sublimation, Heatpress VInyl, Rhinestones, etc.) I use an Epson 1400 and a OKi laser printer, and over time - they always fade even when I set the ink with my heat press, but maybe a top finish on the leather will prevent that. One of these days when things slow down for me I will get around to testing it out.

Thanks for sharing,

Karina

The Epson 1400 uses Claria ink which is dye based, Epson put in an UV additive but it's not as lightfast as a true pigment ink such as the Ultrachrome. I used to use an Epson 7900 and at times it's bigger brother the 9900 which use the Ultrachrome and we had no fading problems on the posters that used to hang in the shop windows over a few summers. I also did some window sill testing of it on some leather and it held up really well. That's the only thing I miss from my previous job getting to use the cool printers.

I would maybe look into seeing if you could change to using the Ultrachome once your Claria ink runs out as it's definitely nice stuff to use. I know you couldn't with the old dye printers but they they may of changed the print heads they use now.

Leatheroo did some experimenting a few years ago with acetone http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=30822&hl I gave it ago as well but my laser printer has long since died so I haven't tried it since, was fun to try though.

[glockanator]

How to transfer an inkjet photo to wood | Mere Mini:

Here is a good quick video on this. Steve uses it on wood but the same. Concept apples to lleather.

[TeufelMacht]

I have messed around a little doing laser transfers on veg tan using acetone. Print the image reversed onto standard paper with a laser printer. Lay it on the leather, toner side down. Get some acetone on a rag and rub it thoroughly on the back side of the paper, pull the paper off and let it dry. This will not work if you are using alcohol based dye.

[Tempestleather]

I might recommend spraying acetone instead of rubbing it. In my case no matter how long I waited the ink from my inkjet smeared a little bit. JMO.