Made a Petal Lifter, Carved a Leaf!

[YinTx]

Cseeger, I have seen this video, and watched it many times and tried to duplicate his results without luck.  Tan Kote is not really a resist as such, and will allow the color of the antique to reach the leather.  It is also considered a solvent for antique, and I have ended up with sticky, blotchy messes on large projects trying it this way.  I have even tried to let it dry over several days, considering the humidity in this region of the country, to allow it to be truly dry.  I am more than certain it is my method and my expectations of the results that are flawed, I am just not sure what it is.  One individual who has been doing leather successfully for many years showed how to do this with very little resist, and very little antique.  HIs came out really nice.  Complete opposite of the slather it on process everyone else emulates.  Sadly, I couldn't get that to work for me either. Eventually someone like you is going to suggest something that finally clicks for me and I'll get the process to work.  I have yet to study the Sheridan Carving book that has been suggested to learn that techniqe, so I still have hope.  I have so many tooled bits ready for antique, but now I am afraid to ruin them so there they sit - including this fourth effort at an oak leaf!

I must be doing something right, one guy asked me how much leather I had to waste cutting the leaves out and attaching them to this piece of leather...didn't believe me it is one piece of leather!  I think I still need to improve the center midrib, it is coming out much thicker than I'd like..

YinTx

[Reegesc]

I dunno man, it looks pretty damn good to me as is.   Your tooling is awesome.   For me finishing in general is voodoo.   I don't have a set approach at all.   I just wing it.    If it turns out awesome, I don't write it down or remember it .   If it doesn't work out, I dye it black,        I've gotta lot of black projects.

[retiredff]

On 10/27/2017 at 7:23 AM, mikesc said:

YinTX
Get an airbrush..something like a paasche VLS won't ruin you..ideal for applying dyes, colours and finishes , will allow you to do "even" all over, or sunburst and shading and depth effects..The VLS is a "double action" with a bottle that screws on ( avoids spills ) under the airbrush to hold whatever liquid you are spraying.Run it at between 1.5 and 4 psi..get a spray painters mask too most of what you will be spraying through it is very bad for your lungs.

+1 on the airbrush!

 

[bikermutt07]

Y, your work sure has come a long way in a short amount of time. That looks awesome.

[YinTx]

Cseeger, I finally turned off my brain and just did the antique.  Came out pretty good I think, no dye, no resist, just Fiebeng's Antique Paste, followed with Tan kote then an acrylic finisher.  Now I'm excited and can't wait to stitch it all up, but its going to have to wait until I can plow my way through some orders...

mike and retirediff, I have several airbrushes, but lack the skill as of now to utilize them.  I tried to airbrush the backside of a large piece of leather with the Iwata airbrush, ended up with zebra stripes.  Perhaps it was a bit too fine a pattern for the task.  Another learning curve for me, and a skill I look forward to developing as well.  One thing at a time.

bikermutt,  Thanks much for the positive encouragement!  I get frustrated sometimes, so its nice to know I am still moving forward and improving!

sorry the lighting isn't so good on this picture...

[retiredff]

That looks really good. I have not tried just the antique paste. Good idea!