Uneven dyeing

Dying certain areas only can be even more eye-catching if the dying is done in such a way that the area is darker around the edge and lighter in the center. 

This photo shows the project with the dye completely dry - you will notice it is lighter than what it was in the little mini-movie. This project is done with a very old piece of leather - at least thirty years old - it is an old tri-leg chair kit. The leather is already darkened by oxidation, so I chose darker colors to color with. 

 The dye is the new Eco-Flo Cranberry Red dye. It is water-based. 
 I start off with diluting the dye a lot with water and I just cover the whole area with a thin color. 
 Then I use less diluted dye and only work around the edges, so that the area is dyed darker around the edge and lighter in the center. 
REMEMBER: The dye causes the leather to be WET and therefor darker, so it is not immediately clear what the project will look like when the leather dries out. The dye will get lighter as it dries. 
 This little video shows the final step with undiluted dye.

This photo shows a similar effect with Eco-Flo dark mahogany. Here the dye, and leather, is still wet and it does not look as though the transition from dark to light is going to be gradual enough. I will have to judge that only when the dye is completely dry.

The completed seat after I applied a coat of X1 dressing (the old Drake's Dressing - now being sold by Realeather as One Step Leather Dressing). 
 The dye came out the way I wanted it, and I then applied X1 dressing to bring out the tooling in sharp definition. X1 only accentuates the tooling in a very non-obtrusive way.

The chair complete.

If you want to know where to get the legs, contact Dan at Logo's Leather: Logo's Leather 

In the next technique Tom Evans uses a rag to "dry brush" alcohol based dye to give a two tone effect.

 (Updated 22 October 2019)