Leather Learn

One of the first steps in putting a second layer of leather on the plug. I lay the tracing film over the bottom plug layer and trace the outline - i.e. the size I want to cut the leather for the second layer. I also trace the lines that indicate the “valleys” between muscles, so that I can cut those into the plug.

The plug very much simulates the actual final carving as far as detail is concerned.

The next step is cutting out the plug:

…and then you glue the piece of leather onto the rest …

Google Video:

YouTube Video: (same thing - I am testing to see which service is best!)

Let’s swap to the other arm where the glue has dried and here we start thr sculpting proper:

Please leave a comment ….

The Use of the triangle stamp can be applied to a few other very effective borders.

Below the photos you can read some instructions on the other designs.
The second image shows use of some nice borders and effects for a book cover.

The first of these designs start with a row of evenly spaced impressions with a checkered beveler.  #J

Turn the leather around and make impressions with the same beveler in the other direction.  This will have the effect of a ribbon woven through the leather.  #K

Add diagonally opposed impressions with F910, and it now looks is if the ribbon is twisted as it is woven through the leather. #L

The second border design shows a line of basket weave stamps used end-to-end:  two different stamps are shown for this at #M  and  #O.

Now add The F910 stamp again in diagonal fashion and you have a whole new border to play around with. #N and #P

In the third line you make little squares with a checkered beveler - I first stamped a row of them next to each other. #Q  Then I add the top and bottom sides of the little square and lastly the fourth side of the little square opposite to  the first side.

At #S you can see the added effect of using F910 in opposite corners and at #T you can see how it changes whe you use F910 on two side-by-side corners.

I hope you enjoy playing with this!

Here is the detail instructions for doing the rope effect and other very simple and effective stamped borders.

Click on the image to see a larger version and then follow the instructions in the text.

First begin by scoring two parallel lines with a divider. #A

Now cut carefully on those lines with a swivel knife. #B You can optionally also bevel the inside of the lines with a smooth or a textured beveler, as you can see on the left of the #B part.

In all these border designs the lined stamp F910 is used. #C

Now stamp a row of these ‘triangles’ against one of the cut lines as you can see in #D (the bottom line was done first).

To do the second line, in the opposite direction, study the enlarged piece to see how the tool is now lined up: one side of the tool is first lined up with the cut line (as in the first row) and the other side of the tool is lined up with the impression against the opposite line so that there is a slight ridge between them.

To clarify further - in the enlargement there is one impression at the top and three running in the opposite direction against the bottom line - see how the one impression in the top line up with the middle of the three impressions at the bottom.

As I indicated earlier, you can optionally bevel the two parallel lines after you have cut them with the swivel knife and before you start the stamping.  Illustration #E was done without any beveling and illustration #F was done over beveled lines.

The border can be used very successfully around 90º corners.  I like to use the dividers again to score the lines I am going to use.  When I reach the corner, I let the inside leg stand still while the outer leg does the radius around the corner.

As you can see in illustration #G, the outside edge is stamped first and in the bend of the corner, I tilt the tool slightly forward so that it makes a smaller impression and so that it does not overstamp the edge.  Then when I work on the inside line in the other direction, I keep to the same spacing I did on a straight line:  every stamp corresponds to another on the outside line and is spaced so that there is a slight ridge between the two.

You will find that this causes the impressions to bunch up at the very corner so that all the sharp tips are almost on top of each other and this is OK!

Illustration #I shows the success of this border on curved lines.  Again the outside edges are stamped first up to the point where the lines may curve in the opposite direction.  There I stop with that side of the border and first do the other side, which will now become the outside edge of the curve as I proceed.

Later more on the variations using the same F910 tool.

I have been playing around with this very effective border achieved in the following way:

Mark two parallel lines with a compass.   Cut them with a swivel knife.  Now use a lined sharp-tip beveler along one of the lines to make one row of indents and then turn the leather around to make the row of indents along the other cut line.  The smooth and checkered beveler with the same shape does not have the same good effect, but try them by all means, you might like their effect more.

I do recommend Al Stohlman’s book, Coloring Leather, (not How to Color Leather).  It is still a very relevant book.

There are a few changes happening in the world of dyes - solvent (spirit based / alcohol based) dyes are being phased out and water based dyes will be the only ones available in a few years time.  Some states have already stopped the sale of solvent (alcohol) based dyes.

Pro-oil dye is a higher quality version of spirit based dye - it is simply spirit based dye with a bit of oil added and a better pigment base -  it gives better penetration into the leather and takes a bit longer to dry.  The coverage is a bit more even.  First choice if you can get it.

Eco-Flow water based dye - the new generation dyes - so far looks to be the next choice, mainly because they will hopefully prove to be a lot more color fast than the old regular spirit based dyes, like Tandy Pro Dye and Fiebing’s spirit dyes.

I know your leather craft store is stocked with hundreds of little bottles, so I will expand on this theme as much as I can, but here is the short version:

1. The first liquid to hit your leather, is water if you want to tool and/or shape your leather (”casing”).
2. The next liquid to touch your leather, is dye, if you want to change the color of the leather or parts of the leather.
3. The third possible liquid you use, is a resist (in order of preference: Neatlac / SuperSheen / Blockout), if you want to shield some parts of the leather by being colored by the next liquid.  There is another article on this blog about resisting.
4. Now you can consider using an antique finish on the leather, if you wish to have an antiquing effect, mostly on tooled leather (it sits in the tool impressions and makes them more pronounced).
5. Lastly you add a finish / dressing / conditioner:  for working leather I prefer Dubbin, Dr Jackson’s, Aussie; for leather that was painted with acrylic paints, I prefer and acrylic finish like Supersheen or Satinsheen.

If you want a light stain and thereby enhance the tooling on the leather, you need to dye your project with a much diluted (with water) Eco-Flo dye - that is how a lot of the products shown in the Tandy catalog was done.

To further emphasize the tooling, you can use an antique finish over the dye - the antique finish will add its own color to the project, unless you have the project fully or partially resisted.  I still need to experiment with the new antique gel, but for a more subtle effect, you should be able to dilute the antique gel as well.

I hope this sheds some light!  (… and color….)

Well, I mean the often fuzzy ‘under’ side or flesh side of veg tan leather.

There is some people who think that a smooth backside to the leather means a higher quality. A smooth back (flesh) side of leather is merely achieved in the tanneries when they split the hides to get them an even thickness.

However, often it is nice to have the back of your project nice and smooth, a belt, for example.

Get hold of Gum Tragacanth. You can apply that a little at a time and rub down the back of the leather with an old spoon. To smooth it down even more permanently, you can then cover the back of the leather with Super Sheen - an acrylic product that will effectively seal off the back of the leather.

Both these products are available at your local leather supply store or they should be able to order it for you.

The belt piece before anything is done to it - you can see the typical loose fuzzies on the back.

After the gum has dried on the leather you can see the difference between the covered part and the untreated part.

This is a very upclose of the treated back side of the piece of belt.

This MINI MOVIE will soon be updated to show how the gum is applied.

Here you can see a can I covered many years ago. The writing was done with a very fine point on a wood burning pen.

This MINI MOVIE (3MB) shows the writing in progress. To see how to make a very inexpensive heat controlled burning pen, goto the GOURD SITE

Dying certain areas only can be even more eye-catching if the dying is done in such a way that the area is darker around the edge and lighter in the center.

This photo shows the project with the dye completely dry - you will notice it is lighter than what it was in the little mini-movie.

This project is done with a very old piece of leather - at least thirty years old - it is an old tri-leg chair kit. The leather is already darkened by light, so I chose darker colors to color with. The dye is the new Eco-Flo Cranberry Red dye. It is water-based.

I start off with diluting the dye a lot with water and I just cover the whole area with a thin color. Then I use less diluted dye and only work around the edges, so that the area is dyed darker around the edge and lighter in the center.
REMEMBER: The dye causes the leather to be WET and therefor darker, so it is not immediately clear what the project will look like when the leather dries out. The dye will get lighter as it dries.

This little MINI MOVIE shows the final step with undiluted dye.

This photo shows a similar effect with Eco-Flo dark mahogany. Here the dye, and leather, is still wet and it does not look as though the transition from dark to light is going to be gradual enough. I will have to judge that only when the dye is completely dry.

The completed seat after I applied a coat of X1 dressing. The dye came out the way I wanted it, and I then applied X1 dressing to bring out the tooling in sharp definition.

I cannot help being a bit upset that this product is being take off the market. The new colored hi-liters does not have that same effect without coloring the leather. X1 only accentuates the tooling in a very non-obtrusive way.

The chair complete.

If you want to know where to get the legs, contact me, I have a source.

USING RESIST

I had this request: “I have been using block-out to keep my dye out of what I have stamped, but I can’t get it to resist. Please help me with my leather resist problem.”

My first answer would be that it could be that you are trying to use a spirit based dye over the resist and that will be less successful. On this scanned piece of leather I covered the bottom half of the leather with super sheen as a resist.

On the very left I used antique gel on the leather - it wiped off nice and clean off the resist.

In the center I used Eco-Flo water based dye and although it did not wipe off the resist so very completely, the result is still successful.

On the right I used a normal spirit based dye and the obvious result is awful. Now let us have a look at the intended use of a resist:
Purpose: A resist is used before you use an antique stain to make sure the antique finish/stain does not change the color of the leather, but only gets into the tool impressions so that it gets to the antique effect.

Products: Several products can be used as a resist: Neatlac, SuperSheen, SatinSheen, Blockout, RTC. As you can see, all these products are also classified as finishes, i.e. they are also used as finishes on veg-tan leather after dyes have been applied.

When to Resist: After tooling the project, you decide on a color for the project. This color change in the leather is achieved with dye. If you are also going to apply an antique stain to the project, and you do not want the antique gel / paste / liquid to change the overall color of the project, you need to apply a resist over the project first. Everyone recommends two layers of resist - and you must allow then to dry properly (I do overnight).

The Effect: When you now apply the antique stain, and wipe it off with a soft damp cloth, the stain will only remain in the tool impressions and you will be able to wipe it off the smooth parts of the leather. You will have to seal in the antique stain by putting a layer of finish over the stain.

Variations on Resist: You might choose to use the resist only on the tooled design and not on the background - a two tone effect. This will take some fancy brush work with a fine artist brush. It will mean that the antique stain will change the color of the leather on the unresisted areas, but on the tooled areas you will be able to wipe most of the stain off the leather.

This first photo shows some variations: From top left clockwise: 1. The whole design and background was dyed with Eco-Flo Range Tan Dye and the left half of the quarter was resisted with Super Sheen. 2. In the top right the design only was resisted with Block Out. MINI-MOVIE 3. Bottom right the whole quarter was resisted with Block Out - bot design and background. 4. Bottom left the background was dyed brown with Eco-Flow Timber Brown [MINI-MOVIE] and the design was resisted with Super Sheen.

After the first photo, Antique Gel Medium Brown was applied as seen in the little Minimovies (to follow in a day or two) and this is a photo of the results.

Problems with Resist: Resist is not very successful to keep dye away from leather, especially the spirit based (alcohol based) dyes. These dyes will penetrate through most resists.

Not Yet Tested: The new Eco-Flo dyes are all water based and might just work very well with the resist technique described above. Hopefully I can test these tomorrow and take some photos to enhance this blog entry! Keep an eye on this space!

For this mini tutorial, oil based dye is being applied with a brush. The same technique would be used with alcohol (spirit) based dyes. The background of an inverted carving is being dyed - the design is left natural.

Take note how the fully loaded brush is never set down right next to the edge of the area to be dyed - this is to prevent the dye from bleeding into the area that has to remain dye free. Because the black dye in this case is quite forgiving, mere application of the dye will ensure even coverage. So as the dye in the brush is used up, the brush is brought closer and closer to the edge of the design.

This little MINI MOVIE has no sound yet.