So, You Wanna Produce Custom Dye Effects.

leatherman

leatherman

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First off, I'm doing this for free, as it should be. Second, Please if you do this professionally all I ask is you at least give a little credit where its due. Its a small request. I developed most of these techniques back in college for my art, now if you know artists they are VERY protective of their techniques and processes.

Lets start with the basics: Supplies:
Dye, if you do mottling, its in your best interest that you get a collection of the same types. ie, Water based, alcohol based, and/or oil dye. They do NOT cross over. I've tried and none of them work together well at all. Yes, even the pro oil wont work with the alcohol based.

Get yourself some wool daubers, again, I've tried other ways and tools and nothing works as well as those simple wool daubers. They come in three sizes and I've found the medium and small work best. The large is just too big.

Denatured alcohol, this stuff cleans the leather and opens the pores.

Mineral Oil, greatly lengthens the dry time of alcohol based dyes. Learned this from the original master Al Stohlman. It works!

Next, when I get some time to take some pictures, step by step. :)
 
I literally *just* dyed my first sheath and dangler!

Thankfully I read about using alcohol from the guy right above me (thanks Tal), and used daubers. Came out quite nice. Definitely looking forward to more tips and pics. :)
 
So, while I am trying to get the pictures and sheath blanks together, lets start off with the basics:

Get the leather cut to size, whatever you want to use be it pouch or sandwich style, doesn't matter.

Next, clean that nasty stuff! No matter where your leather comes from its spent time in a warehouse. What do you suppose loves warehouse conditions? RIGHT! Rats. There are a few directions. Tandy has a nice concoction called deglazer, it works well for cleaning the surface and its not that expensive. If you need cheaper (I do) get some denatured alcohol from the builders supply. It works nearly as well and is a bit cheaper. I'm purposefully staying away from the more harmful chemicals so if you have concerns please feel free to ask.

Once its wiped down, let the leather sit for a bit.

Whew, ok, now I can get caught up.... :)
 
Next step is to choose your base color, the one that shows through as the lightest of them all.

I will be doing three: Tan, red, and a color yet to be determined. Since I cant find the green I used to use I'll leave this one till I get more water based colors to experiment with. So far the water based green is good, but I need more additional colors to try a mottle or fade with. I'm excited about this because of the longer dry time, this is a good thing for creating nice fade effects. Wet on wet is a very old water color technique and I've been able to get some really nice fading effects in water color. :)

Your base color, for the most part will need to cover the entire face of the leather. This rules out any mis steps and showing the bare leather. I've tried bare leather effects and dont like the overall look, but your mileage may vary.

Tomorrow! I will start taking pics! Its probably going to be raining with my luck, so it may be later.

Onward and forward! :D
 
I just had to mention rain didn't I? DOH! I have three with the initial coat, including one with a random pouncing. I hope the random one works out. :)
 
Looking forward to this one. I really want to try stepping up my leather work. Thanks Dwayne.
 
It's raining here too. Crazy, it's been forever since we've had rain and it's been bordering on hot up until now. The farmers around here should pay you to say the word! :)
 
Big Chris said:
Looking forward to this one. I really want to try stepping up my leather work. Thanks Dwayne.
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Your very welcome! :) I hope it helps, and I fully intend to do more like this after we're all done here. Including a possible sheath construction series. A book is not out of the question. Video, not so much.
Strigamort said:
It's raining here too. Crazy, it's been forever since we've had rain and it's been bordering on hot up until now. The farmers around here should pay you to say the word! :)
Click to expand...
Finally stopped here long enough for me to get some pics, fyi folks water spots are a bad thing. In other words dont sneeze on your leather! Yep, ask me how I know this, me the allergy ridden leather worker. :p

As soon as I get the pics downloaded you all will see the (super exciting btw :rolleyes: ) first dye application!

It does get more interesting from here. ;)
 
First Step!

Tan! Saddle Tan is one of the most difficult dyes to get even and smooth. Dont fret over it if your doing a mottled finish. You dont need perfect if your just going to splotch it up. :)


Tan just splotched around a bit, its called tamping if your curious, its a semi dry brush technique. Just randomly pounce the lightly dipped dauber. Dont over dip the dauber or you'll get a saturation spot, just simply tap it at the dye in the bottle.


Red, yea I know, it looks pink, but after the other colors go on it looks better


I got the second dye job done and took pics, I'll get them up asap.
 
Sorry for the delay folks, technical difficulties and all. Also a dreaded deadline is looming. And a silly argument with someone across the nation took up my "free time" I need to get a grip sometimes and quit arguing with fence posts. Does me nor my heart any good, let em think they win and move on folks, not worth the shortening of life. Wise words from an old friend, sometimes we need someone near and dear to let off some steam to, and let you know that your being a stubborn old fool. :p
 
Here we go! Finally got some work done and had time to take a few pics and get a bit done on these.

Hopefully in the same order...
Here is the solid tan one after some pouncing with medium brown, like I said before, barely dip the dauber in the dye and pounce it around and note the pattern that starts to develop. THis one is looking somewhat like a lightning bolt so I am going with it. Others might start looking like sparks. Its somewhat random but you can get to where its controlled to a point, but something always changes your direction one way or the other. Next I will be defining it a bit more with dark brown.


Next is the random pattern, this next color is medium brown. Simply pouncing with random hits. Do take care not to fill all your light areas, you might want to cover most of them, but the effect of the extra light points in really small areas can be dramatic.


Lastly is that red, I am trying something different here so I'm learning right along with you. I did black right off the bat, might have been a bold move or a bad move, lets see what the next step does. Heck, if its nothing, then I'll simply fill it in with black and no harm done. :)


Now, so far I know they dont look all that great, but like most things with several steps, it never looks good till its finished,

I hope to get something done on these in the coming week! And a couple of other effects as well. I want to make this an ongoing "real time" effort.

Thanks for looking!
Dwayne
 
Super cool Dwayne, and really great of you to share all of this.

The bottom pic looks like either an impossibly sun-burnt, or seriously ANGRY cow. :D I'm really looking forward to seeing how that one turns out. Even with some simple blending, I bet that would look sweet. Especially if the knife had red elements.

Funny. I never really gave sheaths much thought, other than knowing that I wanted to make them, but not knowing where to start (thanks again Tal!). But now, knowing what I've learned, and by watching you guys do incredible work, I'm realizing that, as I think about how to do my next knife, the sheath is dictating a lot of how I want to design it.

Carry on Dwayne. Let's see something crazy! :)
 
Third step is finally done and waiting for the dye to even out then I'll take a few pics, some added tools in this late stage to add and some deep thinking how to explain what I am doing. I'm quickly realizing that pics are not the best or easiest way to try to explain an intensive process like this. There is more technique in this process than there is luck.

EDIT: Quick update this evening, Photobucket is apparently having issues tonight so I cant get my photo's to work. I'll check back in with them later tonight and see if they are working. sorry folks.

Bingo! Now I am too sleepy to write the descriptions, but here's the pics! I'll fill out the process so far when I get to the computer tomorrow. I am pleased so far, especially with the red and black. There is still a few steps to go, the random brown isnt dark enough yet and the other brown is not there yet either. This is a labor intensive style.





 
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So here is where we are at so far, on the black and read I'm using a Q tip to apply the black dye close enough to the red lines so they look very thin and sharp. But at the same time I use the same Q tip to produce soft gradations for the fade job. Its all in how you apply the dye with the cotton swab. I use them because they can do both a soft edge when you swirl the dye and a hard edge if you use them like a brush.

On the random I used the normal dauber, just doing the same pounce in a random way till I get the color I want. Its best to let the dye settle in before you make the final decision on if its finished. I've gotten anything from what looks like storm clouds to very whispy looking smoke. Its a draw of the cards. You never know what you'll get.

I'm going to try to add another layer to the brown ones in the next couple of days, the black and red is all but finished but for reinforcing the black, a lot of red is showing still, I dont want to kill it all, but most of it.

More to come!
 
Oh snap!

(Oh snap, I just said oh snap! :D )

Those are cool. Especially like the top two.

I'm guessing that you do any wet forming before dyeing? When I've tried doing the other way around, the colors ran together. Looked nice (imo) but wasn't what I was shooting for.

You, sir, are an artist! I really want one of your sheaths just so I can look at it in hand.
 
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