Filling thin veins with acrylic paint

[Jeff77]

Hello! 

I'm new to working with veg tan leather/tooling, pardon if this is obvious...

My goal is to stamp thin, deep lines into the leather (which has been dyed black in this case), paint a brightly colored acrylic into the veins, and then wipe the excess off the top to give the lines a nice sharp appearance.

My trial runs have all resulted in either all of the paint being pulled out of the vein, or a residue of paint left on the surrounding areas because I waited too long.  I know there are probably a lot of things I did wrong, most importantly, not letting the leather gloss dry for long enough.  Any advice on the order of operations here? My guess would be:

Stamp>Dye>Tan Kote>Paint, wipe>Tan Kote.

Thanks for your help!

[TomG]

I use Leather Balm.with Atom Wax to coat and seal the leather.

i then mix neutral Fiebings Antiquing Gel mixed with white acrylic paint (or choice of other color) and apply with a dauber. i let it sit for just a minute and then use a cloth folded into a stiff pad to wipe it off. Think Block dye technique. Refold to a clean side and flat wipe again. Repeat until no more comes off. You will likely see speckles of White in the pores of the leather.  Most of this will probably come out later.

Let dry well. 

Use another stiff pad to apply 50/50 Resolene using same method.Flat wipe.

You are not trying to get it in the depressions right now.

You should see some or all of the speckles disappear. 

Some leathers just seem to have pores too large to get all of the color out. but most look pretty good.

 

[Jeff77]

Thank you!  This is very helpful!