How to dye like this?

[Vo1lok]

Hi! First of all - sorry for my english, i know it's bad

So, today i saw a nice carved leather wallets, with freaking amazing dying technique. Now i can't sleep because i need to know how to get these colours. I think its not spirit dyes, seems like water based or acrylic used with some snain ot acrylic gel (i dont know), but, its so vintage, and lean, yes, its looks old, but clean. Do you have any ideas, or maybe you know this technique? Maybe you can give some advise of dye brand?..God, that's make me mad...

[Mattsbagger]

Just a guess. Using acrylic paint and really thin dye. Probably antique gel too. I'm thinking there are many different layers going on here.

[NVLeatherWorx]

The full color elements are either done with acrylic leather paint or even hand painted using standard spirit dyes.  If it is done with spirit dyes then you have to seal it to create a "resist" against any other coloring that will be applied over it.  Once your detail color work (and resist) have properly dried you then apply an antique over the top of everything to get your final "overall" color.  Could be the lower quality water-based antiques or even a the spirit based Fiebing's Antique pastes, they both will do the trick but be aware that the water-based antiques are typically much darker and may not ultimately be what you are looking for.  The Fiebing's Antique paste can be blended with their spirit dyes to create custom hues/colors without causing any negative effect to full color elements because you only use a little bit of it.

There are books written on the topics of how to do just about every coloring technique you can think of and they are an investment (very little one by the way) that should not be passed up.

[gigi]

I use similar background/matting tool for 'pebbled' impressions: mine are  'Hide Crafter' brand (PA003,4,5).

I would guess among other techniques used here (resisting, antiquing) is also something like this: a piece of cloth wrapped on a small wood block, dip one side in dye (water based or other), remove the excess. Wipe some areas with this (only the top layer will be colored). (I am talking about the first photo, the brown on the black wallet).

[Vo1lok]

Upd.

Seems like now we know the technique of coloring. Now can somebody tell what dyes or stains are used on these wallets? I have compared with Tandy's Pro Stains colors chart, and it looks similar. And the most important thing, that they have a white color. So there are two questions:

1. Were the Tandy's Pro stains used on these wallets or maybe other stains (or dyes)?

2. What antiquing liquds were used on these projects?

[Vo1lok]

21 hours ago, gigi said:

I would guess among other techniques used here (resisting, antiquing) is also something like this: a piece of cloth wrapped on a small wood block, dip one side in dye (water based or other), remove the excess. Wipe some areas with this (only the top layer will be colored). (I am talking about the first photo, the brown on the black wallet).

I think color that's you talking about (light brown on black), was getting with sandpaper, because of specific "scratches".

[gigi]

Could be: never tried that, seems more difficult to stop with sanding at one specific layer using sandpaper. Wiping leaves some marks also.  You can try both, please post the result. 

[NVLeatherWorx]

5 hours ago, Vo1lok said:

Upd.

Seems like now we know the technique of coloring. Now can somebody tell what dyes or stains are used on these wallets? I have compared with Tandy's Pro Stains colors chart, and it looks similar. And the most important thing, that they have a white color. So there are two questions:

1. Were the Tandy's Pro stains used on these wallets or maybe other stains (or dyes)?

2. What antiquing liquds were used on these projects?

The Pro Water Stains would cover over any of the acrylic colors as they are more of a dye than a stain, regardless of how they sound like they can be used.  I test every new product that comes out onto the market to see if it a viable option to replace others and the tests with these products when used with resisting and acrylics were terrible.  I pretty much laid out the entire process used here and also the specific products and that is how it is done.  The color acrylics are commonly called Cova Color and the other colors come from either the Gel Antiques or Fiebing's Antique Paste, that is it.  If you want an are of natural leather to be highlighted then you apply either 3 coats of satin shene or Resolene or, you give it two coats of what is referred to as Neat-Lac (now called Clear-Lac and available from Springfield Leather).  There is no block dye technique as dye and liquid stains penetrate through everything.  As I mentioned, there are books on this very topic and it is in your best interests to obtain them and read them as they will become invaluable to you in the future if the art of unique finishes is your direction.  Take what I provided in my earlier post and give it a test run and see for yourself.

[YinTx]

NVLeatherworks,

Any particular recommendations on books?  Not much showing up on Google or Amazon...

YinTx

[NVLeatherWorx]

Go the Tandy Leathercraft Library (here: http://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/default.aspx?) and then go to the eBooks section (left side menu) and you will find at least 3 books specifically related to dye/finishing leather.  Since most people are trying to "save the world" and tend to use the Eco-Flo products (even though there are several of us who have responded to the constant issues related to these products that are constantly arising within this community) that one is a good start.  The same techniques apply regardless of what the product brand is so it should be looked at as "general" information on how to do the various techniques (best of all, this one is FREE).  You can also find this information directly from the Fiebing's website where you can purchase their book (which is considered to be the Bible on this topic).  There is also at least one ebook on the Leathercraft Library site written by Al Stohlman; it is well worth the money and goes a long way on explaining how to create unique hues as well.  

Stick with searching for these things on leather crafting specific websites as the world of Google and Amazon are not the end all source for everything.  Good luck in your search.

[AndyL1]

I follow that artist on Instagram, he's from Russia and I don't know his name (I can't read the language. Haha!) ALWAYS really cool work on there. My guess is dyes expertly painted on, sealed very well with a resist, and antiqued. That's my method anyway.

 

[MADMAX22]

The general process is dye, resist, antique. Which types you use is up to you. Here are a few videos showing generically what you want to do. 

 

These arent the best videos but I cant find the couple of good ones I had book marked. Still it gets ya off on the right start and go from there. I prefer feibings over the tandy stuff. 

[MADMAX22]

Check this guys channel out as its very similar, heck may even be the same guy I dont know. 

 

[Vo1lok]

On 10.02.2017 at 9:28 AM, NVLeatherWorx said:

The full color elements are either done with acrylic leather paint or even hand painted using standard spirit dyes.  If it is done with spirit dyes then you have to seal it to create a "resist" against any other coloring that will be applied over it.  Once your detail color work (and resist) have properly dried you then apply an antique over the top of everything to get your final "overall" color.  Could be the lower quality water-based antiques or even a the spirit based Fiebing's Antique pastes, they both will do the trick but be aware that the water-based antiques are typically much darker and may not ultimately be what you are looking for.  The Fiebing's Antique paste can be blended with their spirit dyes to create custom hues/colors without causing any negative effect to full color elements because you only use a little bit of it.

There are books written on the topics of how to do just about every coloring technique you can think of and they are an investment (very little one by the way) that should not be passed up.

Hi again! Sorry for late reply. I took some time to look comments on this leatherworkers instagram, and here is what i founded about his stain technique, im really interested what do you think about it!

 

And found some amazing image of his skull work. Third from the left is amazing! I think this is "wiping off" and "some sandpaper" technique, but still not sure. and are you sure thats he use Tandys cova color dyes (acrylic?)?

Edited February 15, 2017 by Vo1lok

[Vo1lok]

13 hours ago, AndyL1 said:

I follow that artist on Instagram, he's from Russia and I don't know his name (I can't read the language. Haha!) ALWAYS really cool work on there. My guess is dyes expertly painted on, sealed very well with a resist, and antiqued. That's my method anyway.

 

I follow him to  You mean dyes or stains? Thats important.

Im interested about examples of your works, do you have any?

11 hours ago, MADMAX22 said:

Check this guys channel out as its very similar, heck may even be the same guy I dont know. 

No, this is another guy for sure

[Vo1lok]

11 hours ago, MADMAX22 said:

The general process is dye, resist, antique. Which types you use is up to you. Here are a few videos showing generically what you want to do. 

These arent the best videos but I cant find the couple of good ones I had book marked. Still it gets ya off on the right start and go from there. I prefer feibings over the tandy stuff. 

But final result looks so different. Its hard for understanding for me, because all what i worked with are spirit dyes and antique paste, both from fiebings, and resolene of course. And when i saw this leatherworkers dying technique, i fell in love with this one 

Edited February 15, 2017 by Vo1lok

[MADMAX22]

1 hour ago, Vo1lok said:

No, this is another guy for sure

Thanks, yeah the pics posted do look better than the work in the video I linked.

1 hour ago, Vo1lok said:

But final result looks so different. Its hard for understanding for me, because all what i worked with are spirit dyes and antique paste, both from fiebings, and resolene of course. And when i saw this leatherworkers dying technique, i fell in love with this one 

Lots of experimentation. One thing to look at besides the dying/painting that he does is that there is a lot of texture work on the leather. Background and even the carved portions have a lot of texture added to pick up the antique. A good resist is also very important to ensure the dyed portions can be cleared of the antique.

Have you looked at Xian leather at all, he does some amazing work as well with dying and antiquing (leather work in general). Slightly different style but similar.

[AndyL1]

6 hours ago, Vo1lok said:

I follow him to  You mean dyes or stains? Thats important.

Im interested about examples of your works, do you have any?

I use dyes. I have also used a non-traditional method for color by way of Sharpie pens. Excellent control and a ton of colors out there. Check out my Instagram feed @blackthornleather for images.

[bgl500]

On 2/9/2017 at 11:56 AM, Vo1lok said:

Hi! First of all - sorry for my english, i know it's bad

So, today i saw a nice carved leather wallets, with freaking amazing dying technique. Now i can't sleep because i need to know how to get these colours. I think its not spirit dyes, seems like water based or acrylic used with some snain ot acrylic gel (i dont know), but, its so vintage, and lean, yes, its looks old, but clean. Do you have any ideas, or maybe you know this technique? Maybe you can give some advise of dye brand?..God, that's make me mad...

Hope I'm not highjacking your thread Vo1Lok but does anyone know of the backgrounding tool in the upper right? Have always figured I'd have to make something to get that texture.

[NVLeatherWorx]

First of all, which upper right?  The background on these is actually done with matting tools and not traditional background tools.  If you go to the Tandy website you can look at their stamping tools and will find exactly what you are looking for.

[bgl500]

4 minutes ago, NVLeatherWorx said:

First of all, which upper right?  The background on these is actually done with matting tools and not traditional background tools.  If you go to the Tandy website you can look at their stamping tools and will find exactly what you are looking for.

Thanks yeah I'm familiar with all of the pebble matting tools. I was referencing the large and blocky looking matting.

[Grihm]

On 2017-02-09 at 6:56 PM, Vo1lok said:

Hi! First of all - sorry for my english, i know it's bad

So, today i saw a nice carved leather wallets, with freaking amazing dying technique. Now i can't sleep because i need to know how to get these colours. I think its not spirit dyes, seems like water based or acrylic used with some snain ot acrylic gel (i dont know), but, its so vintage, and lean, yes, its looks old, but clean. Do you have any ideas, or maybe you know this technique? Maybe you can give some advise of dye brand?..God, that's make me mad...

The way i do items like this is ( I use vegetable tanned leather )

1: Carve the pattern with a Swivel knife and hammer down the edges ( with leather tools ) where needed to shape and clean the patterns.

2: Hammer stamp the background with leather stamp tools to get the texture you want.

3: Paint the skulls or Ganesha with a leather shene " shine.

4: Apply an Eco flow Antique ( I´m guessing that the skull wallets use Dark Brown and the Ganesha is Tan ) and make circle motions with ease to apply the antique on the leather.

5: Wipe off the excess color with a dry paper towel.  ( If you want a deeper effect, apply more antique on the same area again and wipe again and so on ).

6: Seal the color with a shene ( shine ) without pressing too hard ( That will remove the color and or leave you with a spotted product when dry ).

Then rinse and repeat and practice. These skills are just a matter of practice, going slow and steady and to accept that you WILL make mistakes. No one goes full success all the time.