Coloring and staining leather

[Indy]

I nearly tread all of my carvings with antique stains, but I have no idea how to shade them aswell.

Basically I was thought that you have to finish a sherridan style carving for example as follows:

carve and stamp

allow project to dry

dye project with background collour

dye project with main collour

shade every spots you like to apperar darker

applie a fine coat of leather sheen gently

work in antique stains

remove excess with a scrap of cloth

add a final coat of leather sheen

1.) is this order correct or should I do something different?

2.) how does the shading work?

I tryed so many times but my collouring does nearly never look excatly like I'm expected it. Who can give me some good advice?

[Johanna]

You will find as many different opinions as leatherworkers, but here is how I was taught:

1. Complete the carving

2. Dye the backgrounds (let the leather pull the dye off of the brush)

3. Neat Lac any areas you want to emphasize (like scrolls and flowers) for a resist.

4. Use antique for a final color, and keep washing it and playing with it until it "looks right". Make sure you get all the grooves.

5. Seal the leather (lots of choices- what you pick depends on how much stress the item is expected to take and what kind of weather it will see)

6. Buff until your arm gets tired, then buff some more.

I prefer natural colors for leatherwork, but some of the artists who successfully use color are Peter Main, Rod Stanger, Silva Fox, Billy 2-shews, just to name a few. You will find their sites in the links area. Obviously, you have a good eye for style, so you shouldn't have too much trouble deciding what suits your taste.

Hope this helps a little,

Johanna

[Indy]

I saw beautiful carvings at mosby guitar straps on the web, especcialy one picture cought my eye:

So I wrote him how he collour his leather and he sayed he shade the project before using antique stains. Can you reach such results in the deeper arreas of the leafes with just using the antique stains?

[Johanna]

It sounds like Jeff Mosby is using the same steps I described above. The shading you are seeing is partly a result of the tooling. Jeff carves deep into the leather, and can burnish the surface with his pearshaders, for that extra dark effect. Pictures don't do his work justice. The texture of his work leaves you thinking "That man uses good leather, and is not afraid to pound it!"

When the work isn't carved as deeply, the subtle effects of the shading don't show up the same. Just like when casing the leather with water, how the surface will take dye or stain depends on how absorbent it is, and that changes as the leather is cut, pressed, flattened, etc. The great thing about Antique as a final step is that you can take a bucket with a wet rag and just play with it- wipe it on, wash it off, let it dry, do it again, until you achieve the look you want.

Johanna

ps Putting the shene on before the antique might be having an effect on how the antique is being absorbed.

[Leather Bum]

It sounds like Jeff Mosby is using the same steps I described above. . .

Hmm, actually if Jeff shades the project before uses the antique, it sounds like he uses a method more similar to what Indy described -- using dye to darken the areas you want to look shaded. . .

The great thing about Antique as a final step is that you can take a bucket with a wet rag and just play with it- wipe it on, wash it off, let it dry, do it again, until you achieve the look you want.

However, if it comes off so easily with a wet rag that certainly indicates to me that the antique does not appear to be soaking into the leather; and if it is not soaking into the leather (i.e. actually coloring the leather), you may end up with the stain cracking and/or coming off the leather when it is bent later because it never actually colored the leather; it just sits on top of the resist. . . It is important that the leather itself is actually colored -- not just coated with an antique of some sort to make it look right. . .

It is easy enough to make the leather look similar to this (Jim Linnell artwork), but I have yet to find a way to color the leather in this manner as opposed to just putting an antique on over a resist and hoping the stain it does not crack and come off later. . .

Anyway, that's how I understand it. . .

Edited August 17, 2006 by Leather Bum

[Gregory B. Moody]

Here is what I would do to get close to the effects on the guitar strap end shown above.

Be sure to use a nice crosshatched shader. You want the antique to be picked up and kept in the shading but not so much that it takes away the contrast with the decorative cuts.... That will make the rim of the leaves and flowers the lightest, the depressed area made by the shader the next darkest and carved lines and stamped background the darkest. I love an 888 for background.

I use two coats of Carnauba Cream applied in small circular motions with small pieces of sherling with the loose hair pulled out. Each coat must be dry before the next coat and it must be brushed soon after application so as to remove any excess left in cuts. Then allow at least 8 hours to dry after each coat. These two coats are for slowing down the penetration rate of the Fiebings Antique Paste so that you can remove it with old cotton sheets torn into pieces .

Then Fiebings Antique is also applied with sherling pieces so as to quickly get it into all the depressions.

I start removing it as soon as the entire project is covered. Have lots of pieces of the cotton sheets cut up into hand holding sizes ready because this is a one wipe process... each cotton wipe is discarded after going one direction. IE, no scrubbing. Wear gloves because the Antique will take a week to wear off your hands. Keep wiping and discarding until you only have Antique in the carved and stamped impressions..... Particularly check at the end of the process for streaks in the beveled areas along carved lines and wipe that out... pretty much wipe off all the antique you can WITHOUT using anything which would soak it out of depressions... old cotton sheets are ideal ....

Since the example above is pretty dark I would use Dark Brown Antique..... but my standard finish is Medium Brown Antique... Allow the Antique to completely dry... then apply Nuetral Shoe polish from a can with you fingers ( for warmth ) in small circular motions... then lightly brush in all directions with a clean shoe brush.

The beveler you use should also be crosshatched... and used after the background is installed to accent the main floral work.... to give a transition from the carved line to the background... this helps give the main floral design the appearance of standing above the background as compared to being immersed in it on the same plane.

It is always good form to try a finish on a practice piece first.... If it is not as dark as you want just give it more time on the piece before wiping off... try in increments of 30 seconds....

This is also the safest finish that I know of... the only one I use.... I have examples made by my father which are 30 and 40 years old that look like new. Future care only requires applying Neutral Shoe polish and buffing... just like one would use on shoes for protection and warm glow. It is a flexible finish compared to Neat Lac so there is no chance it will craze or come off in bends or fog if applied at too cold a temperature or too high a humidity....and the health warnings on the Neat Lac cans are very serious and it should only be used outdoors unless you have a professional spray booth exhausted to the outdoors...

For many years a big percentage of the samples in the Tandy and Leather Factory Catalog had this as the basic finish ( since my father made them )....

[Indy]

Sounds VERY interessting! Do you have pictures of your or your fathers work? I would love to see how this tecnique came out on your projects.

At least I have to try it out myself, although it seems that this method needs a lot of time

[Gregory B. Moody]

Yes, I will do that... give me a couple of days.. Greg

Sounds VERY interessting! Do you have pictures of your or your fathers work? I would love to see how this tecnique came out on your projects.

At least I have to try it out myself, although it seems that this method needs a lot of time

[Gregory B. Moody]

Here is a sample of the effect on a practice piece...

The small white spots were left to show what happens if bubbles are allowed to stay in the cuts...

but this shows the intermediate darkening effect of the crosshatched pear shader... still allowing the decorative cuts to be darker... and the non stamped area around the edge of the leaf or petal will be even lighter.. Greg

[Indy]

sorry for replying so late, I just moved with my workshop to another flat.

The outcome looks good to me. I did not tryed your method myself yet due to missing time. In fact, I'm also frightned that this procedure will take me nearly as long as the rest of the work in my pieces. Anyway, I need to try it

[Billsotx]

I'll add this so you don't get discouraged. What Greg has said is not easy or everyone would be doing it. The application of antiques is a mistique in my experience. I've been trying to figure this antique thing out for over a year now and all I get is what looks like a project that some auto mechanic cleaned his hands with. Make sure you follow Greg's steps to the letter if you try his method. I've got closest following what he says, but I haven't won the cigar - yet! I'm well into my second jar of paste so I'm getting some miles under my belt ... lol ... one of these days ... I'll never quit ... if those guys can do it, so can I! ... grrrr ... practice, practice, practice ... persistence solves mysteries.

By the way. Mosby uses an airbrush a lot. In fact, several of them; depends on what he is doing. Purely speculation, but that finish on that guitar strap you posted is probably sprayed on. I don't recall what brushes he uses for dye; sable - I think - but you can bet they are not cheesy dime store stuff.

Edited November 29, 2006 by Billsotx

[Indy]

I've been trying to figure this antique thing out for over a year now and all I get is what looks like a project that some auto mechanic cleaned his hands with.

Good thanks I'm not the only one who experienced that! I allready finished some products with antique liquides which where ok, but I never got them as I like to have them.

I totaly agree with you, if others get it right I will get it too someday after much practice. This is what I'm always thinking when I just ruined something (like a wristband yesterday)

The airbrush thing also came to my mind allready. I can imagine that you might get a really fine outcome with it, having less practice on the airbrush than schading by hand. On the other hand I would be forced to use a machine on my projects which I don't really like.

There is an airbrush in the cellar where I grew up and I'm thinkin of getting it to practice a little on paper to see if I like it or not