Archive for the ‘Leather’ Category

9 Months Later…

Exactly 9 months ago, on October 11, 2010, I put on a leather bracelet. Rather, I sewed it on making it a ‘permanent’ bracelet. I bathed, swam, sweated, cooked, scuffed and scraped and never it came off. I had oiled it just a little bit with some neatsfoot oil before putting it on, otherwise it was raw veg-tanned leather.

It slowly began to darken and the color got richer. I made no effort to take care of it or treat it nicely, nor did I purposefully try to scratch, scrape, or abuse it, I just treated it like part of myself, the occasional scrape notwithstanding. It got darker and began to take on a waxy finish, the leather fibers slowly wore off until it had a dull sheen.

Now, exactly 9 months later, I began to notice it smelled a bit like an old shoe, a moldy boot or a stinky foot. I don’t suppose most would have noticed this, it isn’t noxious and is very subtle. In fact I wouldn’t have noticed either if I hadn’t had the habit of occasionally smelling the band to enjoy the rugged leather scent. However, I decided after 9 months, the test was over and it was ready to be born, perhaps as something else. The cycle of craft complete.

Making Vinegaroon

Disambiguation: This article refers to leather “dye” not Vinegaroon the arachnid.

One of my primary interests in leather work is that is an old craft and a natural material.  Modern leather work uses all sorts of harsh chemicals for both tanning and dying.  Traditional artisans didn’t have access to all of these methods and had to use other ways to dye and tan and to achieve the results that they sought.  One of these processes is the usage of vinegaroon to “dye” leather black.

Vinegaroon is basically ferric acetate, formed by dissolving steel wool in plain white vinegar.  Chemically the mixture that I make from steel wool and vinegar is far from [Fe3O(OAc)6(H2O)3]OAc (OAc is CH3CO2).  But for the purposes of “dying” leather it’s splitting hairs.  So why do I keep saying “dye” in quotes?  Well technically there are no pigments in the vinegaroon that are dying the leather, but rather a reaction forms between the ferric acetate and the tannins present in the leather from the tanning process to create a rich dark black color.  This creates a rich permanent change in the color of the leather that won’t rub off or stain anything it comes in contact with.

My first attempted batch I bought some stainless steel pot scrubbers and soaked one in vinegar for 2-3 weeks.  The scrubber was mostly untouched by the vinegar and I realized that 1) The thickness of the metal was rather large and 2) the stainless steel was rather impervious to the light acid of the vinegar.  The result was useless and I tossed it.  I had mostly forgotten about it when I found some steel wool at the dollar store!

The steel wool that I got came in a 12 pack for only $1 and came in #2, #1 and #0 sizes, four pads of each gauge.  Steel wool can be found in even finer gauges like #0000 for even faster dissolving.  I took one pad and pulled it apart a bit to maximize surface area and dropped it into a spare jar of about 12oz of plain white vinegar.  I poked a hole in the lid to let off any pressure and after dating it, put it in a dark cupboard to do its thing.

After only 1-2 weeks the liquid had turned dark red/black and I couldn’t see if there was any steel wool left or not.  I was busy with other projects so I just let it go extra long for almost a month.  Today I filtered it out through a paper towel and tried it out to see how it worked. There was very little sediment remaining after the filtering.

Just as expected it dyed the leather intensely black, even in bright sunlight.  I’ve read that if you desire a darker black you can soak the leather in brewed black tea to increase the tannins in the leather so that it will create a stronger reaction.  You may also wish to neutralize the pH of the leather in a baking soda and water solution briefly so that the acid doesn’t damage the leather.  That’s all there is to it!

First Items up on Etsy!



Tutorial: Making of Stitched Cuffs Part 2




Edge profiles are sanded round.

Stitches are marked.


Dyed and good to go.

This little dino is stitched and looking happy!


Wide view of the finished dinosaur cuff!


Tutorial: Making of Stitched Cuffs Part 1



initial scribbles

added a little color to see how that would go



Tutorial: Making of Bird Mask






Bird Mask



front view

quite the hooked beak

note the eyelashes

other eyelash detail

Leather Book Necklace

