Need to add light contrast to dark leather

[boundlessleatherco]

Hello all,

I hope everyone is having a good friday!  I am starting a hand tooled floral belt for a customer and they want the color to be feibings royal blue.  I did a test piece with tooling and did a layer of resist before applying  the tan antique.  It came out too dark and there was zero contrast.  

My question for y'all is this: is there a way to antique a dark leather with a lighter color to add contrast?  I thought about rubbing paint into the tooling and wiping off excess like you would antique but I could see that being a big mess.  I know weaver sells a neutral antique but I'm not sure if that would achieve what I'm looking for.  

Aside from leaving the belt natural color and hand dyeing the background after tooling, I'm sure what to do here.  Any suggestions would be appreciated! 

God Bless

[bland]

I have used some acrylic paint and Tan Kote to set off a dark dyed project.  I kind of like the metallic gold and silver. I have also used acrylic paint like an antique on kids belts to add color to the tooling. It is kind of a mess.

[chuck123wapati]

if your resist worked then it shouldn't have gotten darker did you let it dry well before the antique? . i just made a sheath with bison brown, i left the floral natural and then used a resist on the floral  then dyed the outside bison brown, then antiqued it with a dark brown and the contrast remained. 

if you are trying to add light dye over dark it wont work. You have to use an opaque acrylic paint over it. 

Are you trying to completely dye your belt blue then lighten the tooling? if so you will have to use acrylic paints, a couple of coats of white just to just to hide the blue, the dye may stain the acrylic also so you may need a resist in between those al well. then you will have to color your tooling with acrylics as well. remember though the acrylic paints may flake off.

Your best bet is to color and resist your light work then hand dye your dark  background with a brush, then resist everything, then antique. IMO.

Edited October 16, 2021 by chuck123wapati

[boundlessleatherco]

Yeah, I was afraid of the whole flaking thing.  I was hoping to not have to hand dye the background but I agree that's probably the best option to have a half way good looking finished product. Thanks for the input guys.

God bless

[battlemunky]

Acrylic will definitely work as an antique but it all depends on your application and if it suits it or not. Sorry if it is ruined, I hate it when that happens.