Fading Dyes

In my previous posting I made mention of the tool box colors that have faded so bad.  Here it is - a side by side comparrison:

In March 2004, this was the new box lid, done in Fiebing's spirit based dyes:-

Today, September 29, 2011, I took this picture, but the fading already occured a number of years ago....:

All the yellows and blues are gone.

In June 2004 I did this handbag, also with the Fiebings spirit based dyes  (The initials were done in Cova Color enamel acrylics):

In April 2007, after three years, the color had faded completely and the new Eco-Flo dyes had just been introduced.  I tested them on this handbag by doing one half in the new water-based dyes.  And so on May 15, 2007 I took these three photos of the 'half' restored bag:

I photographed that bag this afternoon to show how well the Eco-Flo dyes have kept its color over the last 4 years:

ToolBox Project

This is my first attempt at a hand-made personal toolbox - inspired by Peter Main.

Inside
	I first constructed the box by gluing the four sides together and holding them in clamps. Then I glue on the bottom and lid of the box - ending with a closed hollow box.         The hollow box is then sawed in half - top and bottom. On the inside of the bottom sides, I glue pieces of wood identical to those from which the sides were originally built - these serve to hold the lid in place. The lid is of course and absolute perfect fit, because it used to be one piece with the bottom of the box.
The next step was to plan the inside - the placement of the tools and the layers of cork that would give them a place to lie. I embedded strong magnets into the cork and glued it down with epoxy glue.
	I lined this box with pre glued felt from the local woodworking store (used for lining jewelry boxes), but never again - the adhesive is very strong and is very difficult to work with on the uneven surface - next time I will line it with garment pigskin.
Next was the enjoyable part of the project -putting the design on the leather - here the whole design has been carved and one half of me wanted to stop right here!
	I begin with the zulu shields and progress to the Trevor Jones Bars at the top and bottom. The Zulu shields are symbolic of the oldest use of leather in Africa and I just liked the design. The Trovor Jones Bars are dedicated to a master leathercrafter in Natal, South Africa, who made me a beautiful belt with a similar pattern on. The elephant was just another nice design I wanted to use in any Africa setting and the Strelitzia flowers just seemed to complete the picture.
I sometimes use a magnifying glass on a stand when I do fine dying work - I just find it so much less stress on my eyes in artificial light.
	At long last the dying is done and the leather is glued onto the box lid.
A final scan of the finished design.

September 2011 Update:  Those Fiebings dyes faded completely and now this box is totally monochrome!  There is a seperate posting in this blog about that : Fading Dyes

 This is what that lid now looks like (Feb 2014) :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because the leather was glued onto wood, I thought it would be a good idea to heavily coat it with neatlac - so if I were to re-color it, I would have to strip it very agressively.    This time I will definitely use the regular Eco-Flo dyes.

Tandy in SA!

I just saw the news that Tandy now has a website just for South Africa.   Hopefully this will make its products and leather more accessable to South Africans.

Here is a link to the page:  TANDY SA

I see the orders will probably be processed from Woodheads in Cape Town.  That is where I bought my first 3 ounce belly, the basic tools and made a 2" wide belt for my bell-bottom pants on the mother's dining room table (no marble stone at that stage and no sence about the right weight of leather to use!  That was in January 1978.  I should probably publish a picture or two of that first belt!  I did actually use it too....

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.

HiFi cover

Early in the 1980's a blind friend asked me to make a cover for her Hifi to protect it from dust.  And here is what I came up with.

The next photo shows details of the design I used.  It has a few interesting facts behind it.

It was the very early days of PC's and the bank where I worked had two Apples to do their graphic work with.  I spent my lunch times playing there and making slides for the IT Director's presentations.  This design was one of the few cliparts that were available (not on the web - this was held on a 100 Kbyte floppy).

I immediately liked the design - Amanda had told me that for her, her whole world were inside her, because she could not see the world around her that we experience as a shell around us.  And see, the design is a globe inside the outlines of a head!

Horse Brasses

Long ago in a land far away, a very British sounding lady asked me to make a strap for her horse brasses (pre Google / internet days).   I had no idea what these should look like and she did not really know either.   So I completely dreamed these up.  But she liked them...!

More detail:

Original Human Figure Project

In October 2005, in this blog, I showed the restoration of the big human figure carving I had done.  (You can see it HERE)   Now I have uncovered the photos showing how I did the project in the first place.   Unfortunately it was before free digital photography, so I only have these few photos.

First is the start of the tooling:

The project was tooled on vegtan Blue Wildebeest leather.

And this was with the figure dyed completely:

...and then mounted and framed with a thin strip of leather - at the time I did not want any framing to take away from the carving itself.

This piece traveled 8,000 miles and underwent a lot of 'abuse', which was why I had to restore it in 2005.  So this again, is what it looked like after the restoration: