Imperial Lace

Imperial Lace comes in four colors - these three and then white.  I carried a piece of edge braid for four months in my pocket with my keys and the white lace remained pretty clean.  What little dirt there was, wiped off with a wet cloth!

One of the first items I made with the Imperial lace was a dog leash - the contrast with the white is amazing!

Here is a Mexican round braid using three different colors:

One of the very best uses of Imperial lace is around the edges of projects with a double loop braid.  the lace lies nice and wide and covers the edges very well.

Some detail:

(The cross on this check book cover was embossed with a very thin leather plug at the back.)

Here is a bit of fun close up of the tooling:   (The stamps used were two hand made tools - made by Jason R)

Oxidation

When I was a small boy, Condy's Crystals was widely used as a disinfectant.

Then I discovered that I could 'paint' with it on leather!  Almost like watercolors, except only in one color - a very nice neutral brown.  The Potassium Permanganate is a very strong oxidizing agent that turns the leather brown immediately (it will do the same to your skin too).  The stronger your sollution of Potassium Permanganate, the darker it will color the leather.

Just like Vinagroon, this is a chemical stain and is quite permanent.  (There is some suggestion that a mild acid like lemon juice will fade out the browning effect, so I am a bit suspicious that this cover of mine had more contrast when I made it.  Some of the darker shades of brown might have "faded" due to the acidic nature of the leather itself.)

Well, in about 1994 I bound a set of health magazines and picked this design for the cover.  It was done on a split.

You should read up a lot about it, before you use it!  It can be dangerous in contact with the wrong substances.  See More.