Leather decorating

[Todd Suire]

I have a customer who will potentially order some leather portfolios. Other than burning the design into the material, what other methods can be used to color the design? He's looking for a gold design imprint.

[George D Gabert]

If the pattern is not to intricate you can gold leaf the design. You put on the size (glue) and then press in the gold leaf. And then seal.

GDG

[Todd Suire]

George,
Do you laser the gold leaf, or cut the outlined design after glueing the gold leaf to the material? And, is it pretty sturdy, as in it won't wear off easily? These are going to be executive gifts.

[Mike Null]

Probably the most common method is hot stamping or embossing/debossing.

[George D Gabert]

The size is the glue, the hard part is to get the glue in the proper place / pattern. The gold leaf is put over the size and pressed into place. The gold leaf is thinner than tissue paper. And then rubbed into place. Where the size is not the leaf just floate away.

It is my understanding that this is how they used to put the gold trim on olden time bibles and and book bindings.

The last project I did using gold and silver leaf, I got the matereials from our local craft store. It was to be put on a motorcyle gas tank decoration. But to stand up to the elements we clear coated over it.

GDG

[Todd Suire]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the help.

[Colleen Williams]

Todd,

What about Laser Foil? I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but the place where I purchased my laser from stocks it and the rep was showing me items that had been done with it. It comes in several different colours, gold being one of them, and they had indicated that it could be used on many different substrates. I know that the LaserBits website has it on there as well. You may want to check it out.

[Joe Hayes]

[QUOTE=Colleen Williams;1275073]Todd,

What about Laser Foil? I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but the place where I purchased my laser from stocks it and the rep was showing me items that had been done with it. It comes in several different colours, gold being one of them, and they had indicated that it could be used on many different substrates. I know that the LaserBits website has it on there as well. You may want to check it out.[/QUOTE

The foils work nice for some items. You place it on then kiss cut it to get your lettering or artwork then remove the part you don't need (weed away).
In this case you would need to be very careful not to cut into the leather. Secondly you would have problem with the foil not "wearing" good on a
portfolio. Since the foil is about 2 mil thick it does not handle being "handled" as much as a portfolio might be used. IMHO

[Martin Boekers]

How about cloth appliques? Never tried it but they use it for leather jackets and sport uniforms so it should stand up to abuse.

Also I would check with a local leather shop, they may already have a product that they use.

check with Twill USA , you would need a heat press though.


Marty

[Bill Cunningham]

I used to have a lot of hand settable type for the hot stamping machine, but those 'one offs' got to be a real pain.. If the portfolios are all imprinted with the same logo, then hotstamping is the way to go..(If you have a hot stamping machine) The hot stamping foil itself can also be used as a 'cheap leaf'. A fine brush, or a glue pen can be used to coat a shallow laser etch with glue, then pressing the hot stamping foil onto the glued surface and pulling it off will let it separate from the carrier and stick to the surface.. The etch is only the pattern guide for the glue.. Old foil that's lived past it's shelf life works best for this, because it barely sticks to the carrier anyway..

[Martin Boekers]

Here are a couple of possibilities.

This is a decal system I used for a limited run of books I published awhile back.
It has a few steps involved, but at the time i couldn't find a better way to do short runs with keeping expenses down.

http://www.pulsarprofx.com/

You may be able to accomplish this a bit easier by using CLT transfer paper then heat pressing it on to the journal. After you do that use a toner reactive
foil to adhere to the toner you just put down. Check these guys out for more info.


http://www.thermotype.com/


This foils are pretty cool and can allow you to make certificates, scratch off cards, business cards many different things without the expense
of a foil press and custom dies.

If you do have a foil press I believe there is a material you can laser to make your die, not cheap, but cheaper than having dies made. I just can think of the supplier offhand.


Marty

[Lee DeRaud]

If you do have a foil press I believe there is a material you can laser to make your die, not cheap, but cheaper than having dies made. I just can think of the supplier offhand.

Would delrin work?

[Doug Griffith]

Would delrin work?

I laser quite a bit of Delrin and it lasers great. Another name for it is Acetal

Industrial Plastic Supply has a fairly good deal on it for small quantities:
http://www.indplastic.com/index.cfm?...722&product=65

[Lee DeRaud]

I laser quite a bit of Delrin and it lasers great. Another name for it is Acetal

Sorry, I know it's laserable...my question should have been, "Will delrin work in a foil press?"

[Martin Boekers]

Lee,

I'll try to find my notes on that. I'm not sure how much delrin costs.
It seem this material was about $35 for a 6x8" piece. This will drive me nuts till I find it now.


Marty