Adventures in antiquing. Post pictures here.

[Souper]

I don't really have any use for black shoes other than rainy days and interviews. I decided to try out a technique that I've been interested in some time. Anyway, I decided to turn a boring pair of black shoes into antique dark brown shoes with red undertones. I really want a pair I can wear with odd trousers and some dressier jeans. Below are some pics of the process

Here are some Edward Green semi brogue balmorals:

After I removed the black. took about 4 hours:

First coat:

The fun part

Painting the tongue

Stopped for the night...

I have since touched up some areas, blended them a little better and swiped the entire shoe with deglazer to further blur the antiquing. I still have a bunch more work to do

Going to layer reddish creams tomorrow and maybe touch up some areas with dye depending on how the creams turn out. Then I'll have my shoe shine guy work on them. ill tip him $10 or something and see if he can restore some of the luster.

Just wanted to share. I think I'm pretty happy with these so far, but I really miss the shine though and I can't mirror shine worth a damn. Hope I have enough time during my lunch break!

 

[samurai]

Oh, this is good stuff. I've been there too, and at that stage was fighting off panic. But it looks like there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking forward to the next set of pix...

 

[andyw]

Are you ABC or JS? Couldn't help notice your newspapers.

 

[robbie]

wow!

Where did you learn/find info on this process?

 

[everybodynobody]

Yes, please share more info on the process.

 

[AntiHero84]

Very interesting. And to think that I've passed up some decent shoes while thrifting just because they're black.

 

[Souper]

I am pretty much done.

The flash really shows antiquing. I have to touch up the areas that are yellowish with a pass of wax polish, but in real life the shoes are pretty much a rich dark oak with a touch of mahogany and very subtle color variation

I learned how to do this from the antiquing threads on this site. Look up ron rider's thread for reference!!

 

[theom-]

looks to marbly in some spots and the cap is way darker than everything else. You can't get everything the same color as the cap?

 

[sho'nuff]

Originally Posted by tigerFormula

looks to marbly in some spots and the cap is way darker than everything else. You can't get everything the same color as the cap?

actually having the cap darker than everything else (besides the heel) is just fine in aesthetic. actually preferred in some ways.

 

[Go Surface]

Great idea for a thread. Nice pictures, and the results are pretty neat.

 

[snuff_daddy]

good pics and project

i wonder if anyone else has done this in here?

 

[Souper]

I am not happy with the dye evenness. I had wanted an uneven museum effect but I didn't use enough layers of dye. Will go over the shoe with a dye+deglazer mix and see how that works out towards evening out the color tones.

 

[XenoX101]

Yeah I like what you're doing but in their present state the dye job looks a bit hack and doesn't do the shoes justice, maybe you would do better using a sponge to avoid that blotchy uneven look, also you could look at how 'genuine' vintage shoes look and mimic the patterns of discoloration. You could even try using a vintage wrinkled leather piece of fabric to apply the dye. I also think you might need to do many layers and steps over a period of days/weeks as wear on shoes is obviously not instant and you will probably find an instant or quick antiquing job ends up looking like you threw your shoes in the oven for 30 minutes to mimic sunburnt leather (i.e: the antiquing is more obvious when rushed)

 

[MiniW]

Hey Souper, good effort on the shoes. I posted a long post myself in the original thread. This is hard work and I had to redo the entire process after carefully going over Ron's instructions.

I have a few questions, 1) did you thin out the dye with dye thinner? I used Flebing's dye and their dye thinner when I antiqued my shoes. I was not happy with the dye at first because it was so thick, but after thinning it out it was much easier to work with. 2) Did you conditioner the shoes after every coat of dye? My process was:

1) coat with thinned dye
2) condition with lexol
3) use shoe cream in the desired color

repeat steps 1-3 five to six times (I know Ron does 10-15+ coats on his shoes)

At the very end I used wax polish to get the shine back. I was working in my small apt in the city so I couldn't do more than a few hours at a time because the fumes were building up. I'd love to see a few pics of the shoes in natural light as I know bright flashes ruin the look of many things.

cheers.

 

[Souper]

after another evening of work or so: