Dying only the (laser) engraved parts of leather?

[blackmad]

Hey all,

I've recently started working in leather and playing with a laser cutter.

I've found that engraving on the laser is really beautiful, but hard to see, especially on a black leather. I accidentally discovered that if I paint the leather with a sparkly/pearlescent acrylic paint, and then quickly wipe it off, I get a pretty nice effect where the engraved parts hold a lot of the paint and the rest of the leather ends up taking on a slightly sci-fi sparkly antique shine.

But I'd like to figure out if there's a way to get paint in the engraved grooves without affecting the rest of the leather much. Any suggestions?

The best technique I've come up with so far for this is to use fiebings acrylic white dye, and then quickly cleaning it off with Bacardi 151 (didn't have any rubbing alcohol last night when I was experimenting)

You can see some of the experiments below - the piece with straps used blick pearlescent white acrylic paint, the one with all the moon phases at the very bottom was the fiebings, and everything else was experiments with Tarrago metallic 507 gold and different solvents.

Thanks,

David

[TomG]

Try covering with blue painters tape and engrave through that.

Air assist will help

[blackmad]

that's a brilliant suggestion, thank you!

I've had tape take a bit of the finish off chromexcel, but the drum dyed stuff I'm using in the laser cutter should be fine.

[robs456]

5 hours ago, blackmad said:

the rest of the leather ends up taking on a slightly sci-fi sparkly antique shine.

HaHa, that's the Bacardi....

[VabaX]

On 11/1/2018 at 4:01 AM, TomG said:

Try covering with blue painters tape and engrave through that.

Air assist will help

Depending on the leather and the tape, you might end up pulling some of the surface grain up when you pull the tape off. on one occasion i've put masking tape on leather before, cant remember why, but after pulling it off it had practically turned it into nap 

Edited November 1, 2018 by VabaX

[TomG]

On the back side, yes.. for sure. 

But on the top, the blue tape should not affect the leather at all in most cases 

 

[ScoobyNewbie]

Couldn’t you use a fine point silver gel pen, like from Dick Blick’s?

[TomG]

Personally, I've used a number of different pens and found that they tend to clog easily 

I now use the refillable Moltow with replaceable nibs and acrylic paint