Leather Dye Argh

Grace Dudley · Post by **Grace Dudley** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 5:06 am

Well, the new gorget isn't a complete disaster, but it's darker than I wanted it. I was going for a medium red-brown but after a couple of coats it's quite dark. I tried soaking some of the extra dye out, but it doesn't look any lighter after drying. Any suggestions for lightening up dyed leather or will I just have to lump it with dark brown?

Thanks!

Grian

Uilleag · Post by **Uilleag** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:19 am

I'm fairly certain that you are stuck with dark brown. All of the experiments I have tried to lighten dyed leather has resulted with splotchy results, quite ugly.

Let me quess you used medium brown dye? Apllied more than one coat? Dyed the leather with it completely dry?

Medium brown always comes out too dark, IMO. The more coats you use, the darker the result. Completely dry leather doesn't absorb the dye evenly, so it looks splotchy. Slightly damp leather is the way to go, IMO, when dyeing.

Although I have heard the Animal has very good results with a spray gun and compressor......I've never tried that, but it sounds cool!

Grace Dudley · Post by **Grace Dudley** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 3:32 pm

House of the Wolf wrote:Let me quess you used medium brown dye? Apllied more than one coat? Dyed the leather with it completely dry?

Medium brown always comes out too dark, IMO. The more coats you use, the darker the result. Completely dry leather doesn't absorb the dye evenly, so it looks splotchy. Slightly damp leather is the way to go, IMO, when dyeing.

Almost right. The leather was damp when I dyed it, but the rest, yeah. Oh well, like I said, it's not the look I was going for but it doesn't completely suck. I'll post a picture of it when it's finished.

Thanks for the feedback!

Grian

DELETEMYACCOUNT · Post by **DELETEMYACCOUNT** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:41 pm

Actually I've gone right past dye and on into laquer. I use the airbrush to apply it and that not only lets me put ut on evenly but it also allows me to control the density of the color as I apply it. I'm a real big fan of it.

Grace Dudley · Post by **Grace Dudley** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 1:22 am

Well, I don't have an airbrush right now, but that's worth considering! Thanks!

Grian

DELETEMYACCOUNT · Post by **DELETEMYACCOUNT** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 4:21 pm

You can get a testors airbrush and cans of propellant. That works real well for small stuff like a gorget. That's what I started with and I'm still a fan of it.

Grace Dudley · Post by **Grace Dudley** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:00 pm

I'll give that a shot! Thanks!

Grian