Greetings from Michigan, US!
Hello everyone,
I'm about 4 months (maybe a bit longer due to the coronavirus delays) from graduating with my PhD in Agricultural Engineering. Leathercraft is one hobby i took up a few months ago to indulge my creative side - my studies are mostly data analysis and writing and it gets to be a drag real quick. Before grad school i worked as a machinist, welder and designer of prototype CNC robots at a CNC manufacturing company.
I am very DIY oriented - a penchant that has actually slowed down my leathercrafting a bit because i keep trying to make my own tools! So far i have made one wallet, started with veg tan and dyed it myself with Pro Dyes. On that note, i'm also into paper marbling - and i'm experimenting with ways to make that work on leather and still be rub-fast enough to last a lifetime. Also, i just got the chemicals in to have a try at tree calf marbling like the old bookbinders! http://scholar.library.miami.edu/bound/bindings-page6.html. I'm nearly finished with a DIY japanese skiving knife, and my main project for this quarantine period is to make a stitching pony because i found out how bad my stitching is without one after i made my first wallet.
Right now this is a hobby for me, but the goal is to gradually create and refine prototypes for my own leather tools and leather goods to use myself, while recording the designs so that i might sell them in the future.
Looking forward to chatting with you all!
Thanks!
I got the dyeing idea from Kraft.Tools gradient dyeing video https://youtu.be/yw0YVJi1QQ8. I started with dabbing 50/50 diluted light brown Pro Dye around the edges with a kitchen sponge, and followed the gradient inward with a 1:15 dilution. After that, i did the darker speckling with the undiluted dye with the same type of sponge but with softer dabbing, i was trying to go for a Baldassi Carlo Nemesis sort of look.
Marbling leather works well with acrylics, and the colors are very vibrant, but its a paint so it covers up the grain which i'm not a fan of, and its pretty rub-fast with the right top coat, but not the last-a-lifetime sort of durability i think people would want in leather goods. Im experimenting with using leather dyes on a traditional marbling size, most of them behave completely different but interesting nonetheless. This first picture is what happens when you mix 2 drops of black Pro Dye with 1 drop of surfactant, then put 2 drops of that on a carageenan size. The 2nd picture is with 1 drop of black Pro Dye with no surfactant, followed by a drop of the dye+surfactant mixture. If you drop a piece of leather treated with alum onto that, it'd transfer that pattern permanently, but that'd make for some very non-traditional items!