amateur shoe antiquing results

[nerdykarim]

Before:

After:

Originally, I was going to highlight the heel and the toe cap with a dark brown. An unfortunate accident involving shoe cream, however, caused me to change my mind and try for a full darkening/antiquing a la briiian13/diorshoe.

It's pretty obvious that it's my first try--it looks like I missed a couple spots. Other than that, though, does anyone have any other advice?

 

[odoreater]

For what it's worth, I think you did a pretty good job and I like it.

 

[sho'nuff]

Karim, good job. that is a good shoe to do it on too, same leather as the tellmans.
actually that is an excellent job. better than mine.

now, what you'll find is that as you wear them and step the creases will lighten causing a bit of a contrast, but reapply shoe cream those areas and buff out and let them rest overnight. keep doing this, the crease lightening i dont think will ever stop but it will gradually blend in with the rest of the antiqueing and become some sort of a patina.


..

.just put those on with a dark grey or charcoal suit and matching brown belt, and you are in business.

 

[tiger02]

^^^ If you use a different color, like blue or green, in the creases, you'll get a great depth of effect.

 

[kronik]

Very nice job.

 

[whoopee]

Excellent for a first try. I do not like this Italianate style of variegation as much as a more natural antiquing, but that is a personal preference.

 

[arced]

Originally Posted by whoopee

Italianate style of variegation

Can anyone explain this idea a bit more?

Thanks.

 

[sho'nuff]

type of antiqueing or coloring effect most prominent with italian makers:

like lattanzi and berluti, check those websites out, you can see how variegated and striking they dye their shoes.

i think italianate variegation is more whoopee's description, not an official term.

EG and C&J etc and most english brands have a more consistent coloring

 

[M-V-London]

Here is a pair of JL Romsey that I changed from black to brown. I wear these all the time with great success.Attachment 347

Attachment 348

Attachment 349

 

[nerdykarim]

Originally Posted by M-V-London

Here is a pair of JL Romsey that I changed from black to brown. I wear these all the time with great success.
Wow, those look really great. Can I ask how you removed the black dye? (Also, welcome to the forum...I have a feeling you'll like it here

)

Originally Posted by whoopee

I do not like this Italianate style of variegation as much as a more natural antiquing, but that is a personal preference.
I'm not going to lie...I agree with you 100%. My original intent was to get them to look something like Norcaltransplant's shoes (and they were almost there, too, except for a big splotch of cream that needed to be covered up)

.

I'm almost tempted to take them to a cobbler and asking him/her to remove the shine (since I couldn't get rid of the cream myself). I think the shoes are wearable now, though, and although I would have prefered a different kind of look, I'll chaulk it up to experience and not mess with my shoes nearly as much any more (I'll let them patina naturally).

 

[M-V-London]

Thank you for your kind welcome. Although I am new to this, I read the posts regularly.

I used bleach on a cloth to remove the black. Just as you would use a cloth to clean the shoes. You need to rub fairly hard. I was fairly sure it would work. I read a post a while ago, but the guy dipped his shoes in bleach...This was overkill. Leathers like this need more respect.

I had done the same as you before ( turned a lighter pair in to a darker pair) but found that the creases showed soon after each wear.

By lightening the colour,(Black to Brown) it seems that the creases are not so obvious.

To convert them to Brown, I used a renovating polish from a local cobbler. This seems to give it a more permanent coating. I then used approx 4 different colour polishes to reach the desired colour & shine.

I have found that using shoe cream is not good for this method. It is not permanent enough.

I must admit that the shoes did smell of bleach to start with, but this disappeared after a week or so.

 

[sho'nuff]

did you dilute the bleach or just straight bleach on a rag and rub?

i tried doing that with bleach and a rag on an old pair of loafers and I did get the color off, but i was not able to apply polish onto them because the leather got real dry.


is this renovating polish some special polish or can i use regular kiwi as well?

nice job on the brown by the way.

 

[j]

Interesting. I tried some dilute bleach on a pair of AEs I've been messing with for a while, just wiping it on there gently and letting it sit. It did basically nothing. I didn't want to try straight bleach as it would have eaten through the cotton rag I was using. I also didn't think to scrub with it.

On those, I got impatient and decided to take fine sandpaper to the parts I was bleaching, to see what I got down to underneath, and whether that would take bleach (it didn't do anything different than the upper layer). It did lighten them up, but once I put tan polish on they went right back to their regular color. I have no idea what I'm doing with those at this point, really just messing around. They were $3.

 

[M-V-London]

Hello Diorshoe,

The bleach was not diluted. I tried not to let the bleach soak in. I did use large amounts but rubbed it off before it had time to soak in to the leather too much.

Renovating polish is available easily. Kiwi do make it. It is usually used for scuffed, scratched shoes as a base colour. The other polishes used to colour them were all Kiwi.

 

[sho'nuff]

thanks mvlondon