dying leather dark with lighter highlights

[hidepounder]

Yeah, possibly. I tried that too. Didn't really like the way it looked. It looked painted on and the antique on bare leather can look terrible. Bean's saddle looks like copper paint to me, the way it shines, but you could be right. Might just be the lighting of the photo reflecting off the finish. Pretty hard to get that solid of black color with antigue alone, though. There is some black dye or paint on the flower centers.

I can see it better with the close up photo...I think your right. And I agree about antiqueing without a resist...dangerous! If you talk to Rick I'd like to know what he did. I did some experimenting using copper leaf for highlights a while back. It looked real good, especially in flower centers! it was tedious though and not durable enough. Hadn't considered copper paint until this thread. Interesting idea!

Bob

[Go2Tex]

I can see it better with the close up photo...I think your right. And I agree about antiqueing without a resist...dangerous! If you talk to Rick I'd like to know what he did. I did some experimenting using copper leaf for highlights a while back. It looked real good, especially in flower centers! it was tedious though and not durable enough. Hadn't considered copper paint until this thread. Interesting idea!

Bob

Tedious ain't the word for it...... and I figure anything Rick did was a lot more work and a bit too unpredictable to be a practical solution at this point. I have a feeling what he did was started out with a black saddle and decided it needed some pizaz so he put the copper on and then went back and sprayed some black on the flower centers and leaves. Don't know, just a hunch.........

[DaveT]

I once did a similar technique, by accident. I used a coat of acrylic antique, applied in the normal manner, let it dry, then used a very SLIGHTLY damp cloth to buff off the highlights. Ok, I was trying to remove the streaks, but the effect was similar and turned out pretty cool.

Dave T.

[Go2Tex]

I once did a similar technique, by accident. I used a coat of acrylic antique, applied in the normal manner, let it dry, then used a very SLIGHTLY damp cloth to buff off the highlights. Ok, I was trying to remove the streaks, but the effect was similar and turned out pretty cool.

Dave T.

The problem is, sometimes that works and sometimes it don't. Sometimes you just get dark with no highlights. It depends on the leather.

[wintermte]

The copper is acrylic and is supposed to be pretty tough, flexible, won't rub off, etc. Same with the acrylic antique. Now, it will come off with lacquor thinner, deglazer, probably other solvents, like you might pick up off the road if it was exposed on the back of a bike. So, maybe you might want to spray it with saddle lac or something like that.

Resist is applied with a soft cloth or damp sponge that is kept flat so that you just hit the high points of the carving or stamping. You want the antique to get down into the nooks and crannies, background, cuts, so you don't want the resist to get down in there. Or, you could use a brush and carefully paint the copper on the areas you want it on. It's hard, I found to keep from getting too much copper, then you have to go back and cover it with black again.

The copper and black looks good, but you should also try bronze and black, especially with brass hardware. Sweet....

So I tried this, and I am very happy with the way that it turned out. I ended up going with the copper and black. What I did was just do a dry brushing over the carving details with the copper paint to get the effect. I also ended up doing it over the lace.

Thanks for you help figuring this out.

I posted some pics in the "Show Off" section, but here is one of the pics of the bag.

[KcKenny]

I know I'm a bit late on this thread, but that copper/black sure would look great on a western style holster and belt.