Artistic Dying Method

[Chief Filipino]

HI everybody! I am working on a mask and I will be attaching a horn core to it. This core has been out in the elements for awhile and so it has some green tint to it. I want to try to give the mask a similar weathered/aged look to it. I want it to look like the mask itself has been sitting out in the elements along with the horn core. I want to give it a "spalted/mottled" look. I don't want the dye to be dark but just give it a tinting. Does anyone have suggestions about how to achieve this? I don't have an airbrush. The dye I have is a Tandy Leather Eco-Flo water based Forest Green. 

My thoughts:

1. Put some neatsfoot oil spots then dye the piece

2. Put dye in a spot and almost immediately wipe it off

Let me know what you think or if you have done it please let me know how you achieved it and include a picture please. 

Oh I also have some kelly green Cova Color also from Tandy, which is an acrylic paint.... I'm not sure if that would give me the mottled look I want though...

[Tob]

Try watering it down and use a spray bottle.  Set it to spray not stream.  I have thought about using a spray bottle because I have access to one.  For the time being, I can only afford free, so I have to improvise even the cheap things.  

Just another thought, if you get spots, let them sit for a moment or two then wipe.  As always, try on scrap first.  

[Boriqua]

were I playing with that I would want to first mark up the leather. You being from AZ I know there is gravel somewhere near by. I have had wonderful success (sorry no photos) taking a cased piece of leather and putting it face down on the ubiquitous gravel that surrounds my home. Then I take a board .. I have a piece of 12 inch by 2' board in the shed and I put it on the rough side and I stand on it and rock back and forth some. Lift board .. pull up leather and its got some cool very varied indentations.

Next ... water that green down about 3/4 water. I just did a bunch of that same green and it had more pigment than I thought it might. 1/2 will still be pretty dark and you cant come back from dark. I like Tob's idea of using a sprayer because it will come out all spit like and be less uniform than an airbrush.

Now ... I see a fair bit of warmth coming from that horn. In the simplest form adding some red to your green will dull out the green nicely and warm it some. You wont need much red to dull the green so after the initial light green was applied I would use the same sprayer to apply some of the red/ green and maybe 50% water and apply here and there. The dents in your leather will pick up more of the darker dull color and really kick it up some.

[Chief Filipino]

Thank you Tob and Boriqua! I will play around with some scrap first and see what I can come up with. Great ideas! 

[bikermutt07]

Chief, I would like to see pics of the finished product if you don't mind.

My first project had a pebble driveway board involved. I had forgotten about that. It looked pretty cool.

[cjartist]

Be careful adding red to green.  They are complimentary colors and combined will make black.

If you want a spattered look and the spray bottle doesn't do it, dip an old toothbrush in the dye and then pull your thumb over the bristles to create a splatter.  This would provide a more dispersed splatter than a spray bottle which I suspect may saturate it too much.

Love the gravel suggestion for texture.

Edited January 6, 2017 by cjartist
forgot something

[maxdaddy]

I vote for texturizing and antiquing. 

You may be able to use the horn itself to texturize the leather and you may find that this makes for a more consistent look than by graveling it. I can't tell for sure if the surface is aggressive enough to use to impress the texture but you could test it out on scrap.

I sometimes do this when attaching antler to a mug (as a handle) if I want the leather mug texture to be similar to the antler. Just wet the leather and after a few minutes of dry time, randomly roll the horn over the leather applying strong pressure and maintaining the 'grain' of the texture in a common direction. 

Look around and you'll find lots of things that you can use to texturize/age a piece of leather. The picture has some of the texturizers that I use.... Tree bark. Rock. Microphone windscreen. Meat tenderizer mallet. And my favorite texturize trick is the box of weird 'nuts' (one of them is circled) that I got from a guy, years ago, in North Carolina. I don't know what kind of tree they come from, but they lay a nice random/weathered texture down. I look like a kid rolling out play-doh snakes when I use the nuts on a piece... back and forth moving over the piece to get full coverage.

Antiquing will still be needed to get the color and tints to match and to bring out the texture. I would antique the horn with the same dye as the leather, but would test out the technique on a similar piece. 

Good luck and be sure to show us the finished product.

[Chief Filipino]

Here's the finished product! I greatly appreciate everyone's input! I haven't really done the textured leather before but I really like the way it comes out and plan on playing with it in the future! Thank you! 

Well almost finished. I am impatiently waiting for some copper aging solution to arrive so I can age the copper rivets to complete the look. 

[bikermutt07]

Very scary looking mask.

If you don't mind me saying so (and maybe the pictures aren't doing it justice, I don't know) it looks like it needs some brown or rust in there to age it up a little more.

I only say it as a suggestion, because you wanted it to look aged. It looks awesome, but not old.

[Boriqua]

Wow! That came out great. That is probably the best piece I have seen you post up here. Not saying the others weren't nice but this is another step in my opinion. Very nice!

 

Alex