Shaving Cream, Waterstain, and Leather

Prompted by a FB post a few weeks ago, I decided that one of the next wallets I would make would be stained with an interesting technique. It just so happened that my sister had requested me to make a wallet for her boyfriend’s upcoming birthday, and had reminded me to make it before it was too late (I’m quite forgetful, and had in fact forgotten about it, so good thing she reminded me!). She wanted it to be an ocean themed wallet, and immediately I knew that I had to try out this new to me dyeing process. She took a bit too long in choosing what fabric she wanted me to use while I waited in the store, and I ended up buying even more fabric. If you’ve seen my other post, then you know I already have a ton of fabric :sweat_smile:. I used this video on youtube as a guide, and learned very quickly on what works best for me.

I wasn’t unsatisfied with the front, I just was more satisfied with the inside panels. So after doing the inside pockets, I did a second pass on the face. Looks much better than it did originally.

You can see that the pockets are a bit more defined with the marbling - I followed the video, but what I found was that I needed to use more drops than she had, and to mix less.

I felt as though the marbling was a good way to express ocean currents or waves, and with that in mind, I think the wallet succeeds in getting that message across. I made the very inside pocket a solid blue to represent the deep ocean, while the swirly outsides represent more of the surface.

Of course I handstitched the wallet since I still have not bought a machine, but I’m not complaining about that. There’s something very therapeutic when going into a flow state while stitching by hand.

That’s about it for this one. Hopefully I convince one of you to try this technique out - it’s really quite fun and reminiscent of childhood creativity :grin:

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I love the stain job. Reminds me of highly figured walnut. Think I’ll go see the video for more leather porn.

@raymondking32 , just watched the video. Your is a 1000% better looking than the one in the video. What did you do differently to get those results?

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Ooooh, with brown stains, you could replicate that style really easily! :thinking: Guess I’m going to need to order a dark brown to go with my tan. My wife will not be pleased with me ordering more leather working stuff, especially since I just got in two large sides of leather :grimacing:

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She sparingly used the drops, where I did not. I’d say I did at least twice as much she did, and when mixing, I did an infinity swirl where the swirls overlapped like this:

I also used two colors, a dark blue and turquoise.

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I have a knife sheath to make I’m gonna try this on. Did you engrave before or after staining?

Both. I I typically dye my leather after I cut and engrave my logo and the Hawaii mark, so that I’m not wasting any in the scrap pieces. I also usually do multicolored wallets, so it’s easier to color the pieces after. This wallet was the same, but I have a few wallets that are cut waiting to be colored and put together, so I decided to take one of those and stain it with this process. It was only after I was done that I remembered my sister wanted the date inside. I put some masking on one of the the pockets and put it back in the Glowforge and didn’t notice any problems with doing it afterwards.

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OUTSTANDING!!! Absolute perfection!!

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I agree 100%.

Very nice looking wallet!

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Nailed it. You overlooked the wonderful turquoise color from a shallow, white sand bottom - the thread!

That’s key. I think if you grow up all the way something is lost.

The therapy of watching all the aspects of the effort culminate - food for the soul.
I always loved that logo man. Nailed that too!

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Wow, absolutely beautiful!

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This is quite beautiful.

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Oh I see what you mean about her video. I love this one corner of her piece
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but the majority of the rest is way too sparse. Do not spare the dye!
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Also, your use of that bright blue and green is gorgeous!

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Appreciate that - I love looking at it!

That’s what mine looked like at first, probably because I followed what she did pretty closely, glad I decided to give it a second pass. I should have taken pictures of the process, oh well, this won’t be the last time I do this!

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:star_struck: Truly a work of art! Love it! :smiley:

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This effect is fascinating and I just found myself staring at some of your pics for an abnormally long time! Love it!

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Really pretty marbling job.

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That looks wonderful!!! Great work!

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Haha now that is a compliment! I’m looking forward to trying out other colors together, so keep an eye out for new stuff :+1:t4:

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Really beautiful effect! He’s going to be thrilled with this wallet.
(heads out to watch technique video now…)

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This is beautiful. I’m going to definitely have to try this method. Beautiful wallet!

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