Black Border Dye Issue

[Russ498]

 I have seen pictures of other people's work where the border is airbrushed in black and fades towards the center. Looks great. I tried to do it on some of my things and they don't turn out so good. I have been using Tandy's water-based dyes.   The dye tends to pool up and look really gray when it dries out.   I know that I am putting on a little bit too much on but that's in an effort to make it look black rather than washed out gray. I am thinking that I should probably be using a paint rather than a dye. Does anyone have any recommendations about a good product to use for this purpose. I am pretty good at using the airbrush to fade the product in.

[JLSleather]

I'm not much on using "paint", though I have dabbed a bit of acrylic here 'n' there on rare ocassion.  As a rule, strictly dye around here with the infrequent bit of [penetrating] stain.

But the "fade" or "sunburst" is simple enough... can be done with "traditional" brush, sponge, airbrush, cloth, whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMVHrTPf1AQ

 

[Russ498]

48 minutes ago, JLSleather said:

I'm not much on using "paint", though I have dabbed a bit of acrylic here 'n' there on rare ocassion.  As a rule, strictly dye around here with the infrequent bit of [penetrating] stain.

But the "fade" or "sunburst" is simple enough... can be done with "traditional" brush, sponge, airbrush, cloth, whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMVHrTPf1AQ

 

1

Very informative video. The first mistake that I see that I'm making is I am trying to shoot from the inside of the project out rather than shooting from the perimeter. One big difference I still see is that whatever product is being used didn't immediately soak into the leather and turn gray, it remained on the surface and still looks black.  Did they use some type of resist on it first?   Do you know what brand or type of dye was being used? Thanks for all your help.

[Mattsbagger]

Jeff is the guy that did the post and video. There is no resist used that I know of.

[Mattsbagger]

Jeff is the guy that did the post and video. There is no resist used that I know of.

[immiketoo]

You can airbrush in either direction but I usually spray from inside to the border.  I use only fibbing's pro dyes and I oil lightly between coats to help set the colors better.  Water based stains can be used but they are more topical than spirit dyes and usually yield an inferior result in my experience.  Here's a few fades I've done as examples.

[VabaX]

Re your comment about the dye turning grey after soaking in, I've had the same thing happening, even with mid-light browns. In my case at least, I suspect it has something to do with a presence of some sort of finish/coating/light wax or something on the hide I use thats only present in small areas. other than that I got no idea. I'm not even sure that its even the same thing as what you're talking about, but anyway...

Will follow this thread to see if anyone else has thoughts