Colouring leather advice

[Dreadhead]

after seeing these pouches i make (below) someone asked if i could make a similar one with a thistle as the flap instead of a leaf.

By wanderingpict at 2012-04-27

im interested in at least trying this to see how it works as it could be a good little commission project. i would make it exactly the same as the pouches in the picture but with a thistle on the flap.

however i have never used more than one colour when dying leather so i could do with some advice as i reckon depending on the design i will need 2-3 colours here. a brown flap with a green and purple thistle carved into it. so can anyone give me some advice on how to achieve this without the dye spreading out of place? or should i consider using some acrylic paints for the thistle part? im not sure how best to do this

im still searching for thistle designs that will work well carved into leather and at the moment am still in planning stages so i am in no rush just want to get my head around it before i buy various dyes

any help from you leatherfiends would be a huge help

Hamish

 

[blacktimberwolf]

i will need 2-3 colours here. a brown flap with a green and purple thistle carved into it. so can anyone give me some advice on how to achieve this without the dye spreading out of place?

You could dye the pieces before assembling them for the thistle & leaf for example put some thing on the thistle flower, such as a masking fluid found in art shops , then you can dye the leaf green, rub off the masking stuff & your flower is ready to dye a different colour...you can also use an artists paintbrush to apply the dye giving you a good deal of control of where the dye goes...


I like the pouches by the way....

 

[HillBill]

If the piece is carved/textured then you want to use the lightest colour first as you cant put a lighter dye on a darker dye. Kind of the opposite of painting warhammer stuff. Light coat first, this will stay on all the raised areas, mid shade second leaving the high points alone,, and then the darkest shade in all the recesses. Need a paint brush for it all though, don't put too much dye on the brush. Build the colours up, rather than trying to do it all in one go.

 

[rancid badger]

Exactly what Bill said but practice on scrap bits till you have the hang of it.

there are loads of possibilities with leather dye, particularly the spirit dyes, with a fairly good colour range.

Acrylic is okay for some stuff but I'd try with dye first.

This effect is done with an all over application of yellow to start:

Then tan and ox blood with extra applications round the seams and a final application of edge coat black.

Both of these also involved a yellow base application:

then some areas were gone over again with the yellow to darken it and then progressively darker dyes were applied in turn.

Heres a few more with multi tone dye jobs;

all working light to dark. you need to "feather" the edges though, so that you don't end up with definite borders, unless of course that's what you need, like this one:

This one was a one off, I've not yet managed to re-create the effect:

there's about 8 different colours in this one, including yellow, green, blue, ox blood,orange, tan,chocolate, black etc.

I almost always work with my leather wet too, not soaked through, just a couple of sprays with a re-cycled bath cleaner bottle.

I hope the above is of help, it takes a while to get the hang of the way the dye works when painting with it but it's well worth the effort.

best of luck

Steve

 

[Dreadhead]

phwaw love those sheaths theyre awesome! thanks for the advice ill pickup some dyes next week and start practising with scrap

 

[Angst]

hiya dread....as bill and badger said....its just a case of mucking around on some scraps....i've not used acrylics and when i've seen them used they dont look very subtle....bit garish imo....and i've not had badgers experience either and have only recently started trying this sort of thing myself....
in the cocobolo knife sheath pic i used eco flow and finish rubbed in and built up slowly and sprayed with some fiebings dye....dry leather....in the machete sheath i soaked the leather to allow as much 'blend' as possible....mainly used daubers....and in the last knife pic i used dry leather and painted each panel carefully with a small brush....all three took ages so patience and caution is the key...i used i think 5 colours in total....fiebings dyes....brown, green, mahogany, beige, black...
have fun!!!

 

[Dreadhead]

cheers angst interesting between the difference of wetting the leather or leaving it dry. my main concern was that i would paint the dye on a certain area and the dye would naturally soak in and blend into other areas. now i see its just a case of being very careful with a brush and working it up slowly cant wait to get practising!

 

[Angst]

yo...yup it will bleed a little even on dry and however careful you are, i would imagine its virtually impossble to get a totally clean/straight line so just a tiny amount of dye on the brush and slowly build up....if you take it easy it'll still look darn good unless you get a magnifying glass out....on the last sheath i did all the stitch grooving first....this helped as any bleed sorta ran into the grooves which was then covered up with the black stitching.

badgers 'flames' one is pretty snazz....do the panels first then colour the grooves in carefully by running the tip of the brush along inside the groove??....steady hand needed!!!

a

ps...i've no idea about the other thread and ya health prob as i'm fairly new but great to hear your mended up m8 and groovy tats too!!! fight the good fight!

 

[Dreadhead]

cheers mate i have plenty of scrap so will have plenty to practice with before i set out to acually make this thistle sporran/pouch

 

[titanius anglesmith]

Hi all,
just like to say,some cosmic leather work on this thread.
Regards Chris.