Newbie Question - Accuracy Dying Inside Stamped Letters

[bob21804]

OK, I can't be the only one whose had problems with this. I was working on a dog collar for a friend, and stamped in the dog's name using Tandy's 3/8" Ensemble Alphabet Stamps. I wanted to dye the letters a darker brown to contrast the saddle tan strap. I used my new airbrush (I'm an airbrush newbie too) for the base collar and wanted to brush inside the letters. I'm using Eco-flo dyes. The collar was looking pretty good until I tried to dye inside the stamped letters. I tried a tiny brush, and even trimmed the bristles when I started having trouble keeping the dye were I wanted it. In spots the coverage isn't heavy enough to be uniform, and other spots I managed to go outside the edge. Overall, it's not pretty. I tried taking my time, using lots of light, but I ended up feeling like there has to be a better way. so what do you guys and gals do to ensure this type of thing doesn't end up looking like the work of a 3rd grader?

[Martyn]

I find glasses help with fine work of any kind - those cheap magnifying glasses you get off the shelf at a chemist.

[bob21804]

Thanks for the suggestion, Martyn. I do wear glasses and sometimes they don't seem to be enough for up-close work, so I also keep one of those magnifying visors, and magnifier than clamps to my glasses, but sometimes they both seem to blur things more than they helps. I didn't use either of them this time. I also have, out in my garage, one of those larger, lighted magnifiers that I might be able to clamp to my work table. Maybe one of those would have helped this time. I'm also wondering if there are techniques, tips/tricks, particular brushes, or anything else others have used along the way that has helped them improve with this. I've seen a lot of pics here in the forums where people have done beautiful, precise designs with nice straight, clean edges between colors. I certainly need to improve.

Thanks again for your suggestion.

Bob

[stelmackr]

Use an antique dye or that other stuff--Highlighter. Both will make any embossing or cuts darker.

Bob Stelmack

Edited March 21, 2016 by stelmackr

[SamB]

Hi Bob,

Depending on the size of what I want to color, if it's a really tiny space, I find the brushes that women use to make drawings in her fingernails very useful. they're tiny and cheap. Usually I use number "0" to "000", the smallest I've found.

And I try to begin painting in the center of my drawing and then spread the color to the edges!

Sandra

[bob21804]

Bob, thanks for the suggestion, I have used the antiquing dye and highlighter in the past, but wanted to try out my airbrush this time rather than use a dauber or sponge. I'm pretty sure others, many times, use this thing called skill (which I apparently still lack. lol). Really, I do want to develop my skills, and I think it's important keep trying.

Sandra, thank you so much for your suggestion too. I'm definitely going to see if I can pick up a few of those brushes tomorrow after work. I would imagine I can get them from a beauty supply store that's right next to hobby lobby, where I'm already planning to stop tomorrow. And you got me thinking... those women who do that stuff on fingernails do some really detailed work. Maybe I need to go get my nails done and take note. lol. But don't they also use a lot of decals?? Anyway, I think you suggestion is great. Thank you.

Any other thought, or ideas would be great (anybody)

I really appreciate the help I get here. This forum and the people in it, are the best.

Bob

[Martyn]

This is the set you're using right?



Why dont you try running a resist (resolene?) into the stamp depressions using a fine brush, then dying the raised portions also using a fine brush? Then when dry, run more resist over the whole letters before dying/airbrushing the rest of the collar?

Edited March 21, 2016 by Martyn

[penguineer]

If you're using the 3/8" "fancy" set that Martyn has pictured above, I would do the base colour across the whole strap and then follow up with an antique to make the letters pop. Remember to buff well!

To my mind - that fancy set has so little area to work in that I wouldn't consider using a brush.

If you're using the standard block letters (eg http://www.tandyleather.com.au/en/product/craftool-standard-alphabet-sets ), I start with my brush from the centre of the letters. When the dye starts to move to the edges of the letter, leave it alone.

I use a #5 brush for this - the tip is just as pointed as the smaller sizes, but the larger brush carries more dye. Very important to start in the centre and work outwards, gently, as you don't want a large pool of dye to flood the area, fill the edges of the letters and then bleed onto the rest of the job.!!

Once the letters are fully dried, then airbrush(or block dye) over the whole work and seal as normal.

Another option is to use your resist instead of the darker dye so you end up with lighter letters.

Cheers!

Edited March 21, 2016 by penguineer

[Colt W Knight]

I use a small artist brush, dip it ito in the dye, and then dab the brush in the middle of the letter and let the dye flow out to the edges. The stamped edges act like a border so the dye stays within the stamped portion of the leather. I do the same thing when I amoved dying backgrounds in tooling. Just be careful not to drip dye transfering the brush from the dye to the leather

Repeat until you get full coverage

Edited March 21, 2016 by Colt W Knight

[bob21804]

Martyn, Penquineer and Colt, thanks a lot for the additional input. Yes, that is the 3/8' letter set I used. Martyn, I agree that using a resist in the lower depressions and a darker color on the raised areas would look awesome. Unfortunately I'm beyond that point already, and unless I totally remade the strap - which I don't think I'm going to do, I'll have to try that another time - definitely on a practice piece first.

I stopped at Hobby Lobby and a beauty supply store after work and picked up several fine brushes, and touched up what I already started. It does look considerably better, but still not perfect. This collar is for a buddy's dog and he'll be fine with it. (His eyes aren't any better than mine. lol.) I've done a few other items for him and he's been very pleased, even when I could see an issue or two with the final result. Today he told me he wants one more collar after I finish this one. (his 4th)

In this case, I increased my lighting, cleaned the lens on my magnifying visor and wore that, and hit it again with the smaller brushes. I think I'm reasonably satisfied now. Also, I think just being in the right frame of mind and ready to work tiny areas will help me in the future.

Penqineer and Colt, I like the way you both explained your methods, and that's pretty much how I proceeded today. Your descriptions are certainly helpful to me, and I'm sure others reading this thread too. Another thing that helped me was going over the letters two or three times, getting coverage in the tiny spaces that weren't fully covered the first time through.

Thanks again to everybody who gave me advice. I really, really appreciate it.

Bob

Edited March 21, 2016 by bob21804

[JLSleather]

Very small letters can be done with the airbrush, but those particular letters may create more work than they 'solve'. If you're going to use a brush, definitely spend the extra few $$ and get the sable hair brushes.... FAR better than the camel hair or synthetics. And if you flush them out and form a point in them when you're done, they'll last for YEARS.

Using the airbrush for lettering can require a little thought sometimes, but in the end it's MUCH more versatile than stamps.

[JLSleather]

These letters (on a checkbook) were about 1/8" high, black on red background (the customer's logo). This one was done by laying it out on plastic, cutting out the letters like a stencil, airbrush the resulting stencil, THEN cut and bevel the letters.

The outside circle was about 3" across. The lettering inside the circle was about 3/8" high (capitals). After cutting, I still had to touch up the edges of the letters just a bit.

In hindsight, I didn't charge NEARLY enough for that one

Edited March 22, 2016 by JLSleather

[victorl]

Some great ideas in this thread!

Also, it's kind of the opposite of what you're looking for, but another way to highlight your lettering would be block dying which is very easy to do and looks great.

[bob21804]

JSL, I'll check out the sable hair brushes next time I'm in Hobby Lobby. I stop by there quite frequently - love to use those 40% off coupons. Thanks for the suggestion. I imagine that stencil-making was tedious. And the final result would only be as good as the stencil produced. No doubt I'll be trying it sometime.... so much I want to do. I was also checking out a thread ( think in this section of the forums) on using a latex rubber to mask areas. I already plan to pick a bottle of that up during one of my Hobby Lobby visits soon.

Victorl, I watched a Tandy tutorial on block dying a while ago, and did that on a couple items. I do like the way it looks, and that's partly what led me to trying an airbrush, which I just recently bought, and have used only very little so far. At this point, I think I'd use the airbrush rather that the block dying technique, and plan to start out with the most simple techniques (bases, gradients), and only go for the technique's like JSL is showing above, as my airbrushing skills improve. I'm thoroughly enjoying the process of developing all of the many skills involved in this craft. I wish I stuck with it a few years ago when I first started. I'm definitely sticking with it this time.

Victorl, BTW, I like your specialty. I can relate. lol. But's it's gotten much better over the past couple months.

Thanks,

Bob

Edited March 22, 2016 by bob21804

[Boriqua]

I have a fairly steady hand with an airbrush and my Iwata can get to making very fine lines but ... I wouldnt try those letters with an airbrush without a stencil If I am looking for a sharp edge. Now a stencil is great but its a ton of work so were it my project ... YMMV

 

I have 2 methods.

 

One I would lay in my letter color after my overall color was applied and not be overly concerned with how sharp the edges are. Then I would load up my airbrush with a muddied up color that starts with my letter color and get in there with my airbrush and carefully bridge the letter to the surrounding area. Even if I do that misty fade around an object which people seem to love I never go with just two colors but might use three and up to four to make a fade from the darkest to the lightest. The airbrush free hand is gong to have some feathering at the edges. Use it dont fight it. Bridge your letter color to your background.

 

Second way is I cheat some .. Fiebings and tandy have Acrylic antique/highlighter stuff in a variety of colors. Now before you turn up your nose... here is where you get to play artist. Think about what the different antique colors are going to do to a base color when applied over it. I have used saddle tan dye with medium brown antique and yellow dye with mahogany and a dozen other combinations. Pick the color dye you want as your base letter color and lay it in with a fine brush. I have one since my art school days 25 yrs or more old that looks like it only has 5 bristles. Spend the money once and have them for life is true in this case. Dye your overall color then paint in your letters with a base color. After I let it thoroughly dry I spray the whole sucker with resolene. I then let it dry overnight at least. I want that resolene good and hard. Go in with a slightly dampened sponge and the antique you think is going to be awesome on top, wait a few minutes for it to set up and then with a farily damp sponge wipe it off of all the high spots. The leather is porous so the antique will impart color even to the raised portions unless you sealed it to death with say supersheen or lacquer. But that is cool because we want the color of the antique to mess with the color underneath it some. You will have to do a lot of experimenting but I have come to know fairly well how much resolene to spray on to get what amount of undercoat to show through. I can use the same two colors and make it look a bunch of different ways just by varying how many passes of resolene I spray over a design. Most of the time when I see painted letters they have been sealed to death and so the antique is just in the low spots. Cool if that is what you are looking for but I prefer a bit more organic. I like my leather to still look like leather and I find a bit more mottled more pleasing to me.

Truth is though .. be happy for happy accidents and if your not trying to match something just have fun with the colors.

Hope that helps .. as stupid and easy as it sounds it took me years to work it all out to my satisfaction and more importantly be able to reproduce the results consistently.

[johnv474]

I do not use an airbrush but have had some success with stamping the letters, then rolling on Resolene with a rubber roller (no nap), which then serves as a resist for the higher surface only, then using dye and a small brush to dye letters, and then outlining the letter impressions with a Uni-ball 207 pen (the one with the special ink). The ink line helps to make the letters look crisper. There are a range of colors so one can be chosen to minimize/maximize contrast in the outline.