For gentleman gamers of handmade leather shoes, do you often hear the term “Patina”? Some people may know that this is one of the techniques of hand-dyeing leather shoes, and some people even regard such a technique as a trade secret. So do you know what tricks it has for dyeing? What is the difference between the choice of pigment and leather? With the launch of Lin Guo’s hand-made leather shoes – “Patina Hand-Rendered Series”, we also have a glimpse of the initial knowledge of this kind of leather shoe post-processing technique.
▲ Patina, derived from the original English meaning of rust
What is “Patina” handmade leather shoes rendering and coloring?
Generally speaking, after many years of use, natural leather will naturally produce rich changes such as darker color and more significant luster due to exposure to rain, sweat, oil and even sunlight, and this process of being changed by the external environment is called aging.
“Patina”, derived from the original English meaning of rust, refers to the mottled feeling on the surface of metal substances due to external oxidation, and is also commonly used to describe the color change of wood and leather when exposed to sunlight. The most well-known dyer of “Patina” was Olga Berluti, a dyer in the eighties of the 19th century, who believed that the leather shoes she had worn had become more beautiful with time. The ancient dyeing techniques she uses are solvents, essential oils, dyes, pigments… etc., the aesthetic process achieved by coloring and repeatedly fading the leather. Men’s handmade leather shoes make it unique through this rendering technique, and become the handmade leather shoes that every gentleman dreams of.
▲General pigments are divided into alcohol, water-based and oil-based
Hand-rendered canvas source leather selection
When rendering “Patina”, the leather must be uncoated, usually benzene dyed primary color leather, and sometimes unwaxed skin and white leather are used for coloring. If you need a special fade and then paint effect, it is sometimes used to dye a basic color (such as coffee color) when dyeing leather, and then make a fade and color rendering. It should be noted that if the structure of the leather itself is too loose, the effect of coloring will be uneven, and there will be too many wrinkles, and too large pores will also affect the completion of post-processing such as mirror polishing, and the final quality will be deducted points.
For example, Lin Guo’s “Patina” series uses Italian MDC calf leather embryos. Growing in a cool environment, the pure water quality makes the cortex more delicate, and there are fewer mosquitoes and other skin cavities, and the way of enclosure grazing also reduces the impact of external forces and scars; The use of tight leather as the rendering leather, the solid leather is conducive to rendering, but also increases the stiffness and durability of the finished product.
▲At the beginning, the color test will be done on the original leather
The choice of handmade dyes presents different shades of leather shoes
Generally speaking, dyes are more common alcohol dyes, water-based, and oil-based dyes, each of which has different uses and advantages and disadvantages. Like the paints used by the artist, each chosen material presents a different mood and personality for the painting.
Alcohol-based dyes:
The dyeing effect of infiltrating leather with dye has good permeability, saturated color, good color maintenance, and natural blending effect.
Water-based dyes:
The brushstrokes are better rendered and will not smudge the effect, but the brushstrokes will be more rigid and unnatural, but the outline is clear, and the lines of a specific pattern can be drawn.
Oil-based dyes:
Leather carving is more commonly used, after painting and then wipe the excess part, so that the carving traces float, and bring out the relief-like two-color effect, but the color fixing effect is poor, easy to discolor.
▲One of the base colors of the pigment is blue
The “Patina” series uses Saphir’s alcohol dyes, which are characterized by bright colors, high saturation, and good permeability, as well as better color maintenance due to the trans-dyeing effect.
Originally from France, Saphir is one of the top brands in leather care products, including Hermes, Louis Vuitton (LV), JOHN LOBB, BERLUTI… and other exclusive skin care products of world brand leather goods, all of which are manufactured and produced by Safir. Saphir beeswax is used this time to keep the shoes shiny after wiping. A total of 72 colors of shoe wax in addition to a wide variety of colors, in addition to nourishing the leather, it can also modify the color of the leather.
▲Alcohol-based dyes can be mixed with other colors to create a suitable base color
(Note: Saphir first formulated shoe care products in the 1920s in a laboratory in the small town of Favel in southeastern France, which was designed to maintain the beautiful color of leather products, and was awarded the Gold Medal at the 1925 World’s Fair.) The product is based on natural wax and is refined with vegetable oil, animal oil and mineral oil. )
The layered hand-colored technique blends the traces of time condensed into a pair of leather shoes
The most important thing about a pair of “Patina” shoes is the dyeing technique, taking the dyeing of forest fruit as an example, it needs to go through at least five color processes. The first color is directly painted on the original milky white leather, the pigment will be slowly absorbed by the pores of the leather, and then slowly render the second and third layers, and the middle needs to be constantly colored, so that the traces of smudging are more natural, but can create a mottled high-end layer. In the middle, it is even necessary to go through “color removal” to add more staining details, and finally throw shoe wax to make the rendered color shine.
The following is an example of burgundy to introduce the detailed process of rendering.
Rendering process:
1. Clean beforehand
First of all, clean the surface with leather cleaning lotion to avoid the dust, dirt and grease on the surface affecting the coloring, so that the shoe wax on the leather core can be better in the subsequent dyeing process.
2. Background dyeing
SAPHIR alcohol leather dye with a lighter red background is applied first, and then it is dye a darker burgundy color locally, and the brush pattern is used to make a retro feeling, stacking about three layers. To have a better color fastness effect, alcohol dye needs to be left for about 8 hours before the next color.
3. Detail staining
Carved and partially accentuated shadows, then stacked with dark colors.
4. Strengthen the gradient
SPAHIR beeswax is used to enhance the color gradient on the toe cap and engraving.
5. Polishing and fixing
Apply glossy wax to modify the gloss of the leather surface, and make the final reinforcement according to the required brightness.
▲ Use a brush to draw the color of the base color on the original leather
▲The last step is to polish and fix the color with bright wax
Lin Guo’s “Patina” hand-rendered details reveal the details of the silhouette of the leather shoes
In fact, the dyeing techniques of “Patina” vary from brand to brand, and the coloring principle of Lin Guo is based on the principle of “using colors to build up and strengthen the lines of leather shoes”, so it does not use too many colors to mix and dye. In addition to the repeated painting process, the hand rendering also focuses on the details of the shoe design, using color gradation and thickness to enhance the carving, stitching, or even threading of the shoe itself.
For example, the thread-buried horizontal derby shoes use the stacking of colors to make the lines that already have thread shadows more prominent. At the same time, through the gradient of the toe cap, the edges and corners of the Premium – Z series appear more neat, although Patina is the meaning of rust and mottling, but the technique is very exquisite, after wearing it, it shows more personal characteristics and texture improvement. Lin Guo’s “Patina Hand-Rendered Series” this time maintains Lin Guo’s warm and restrained brand style, using the classic three-color red, yellow and blue, with meticulous brushstrokes and gentle gradients, bringing out the exclusive “Patina” style of Lin Guo, which is not overly strong but can still feel the process details and characteristics of this technique, and red, yellow and blue are also classic colors that are quite easy to match.
▲ Lin Guo’s rendering focuses on the details of the shoes
▲The Patina shoe model launched for the first time is mainly in the basic colors of red, yellow, and green
The value of waiting There is no one in the world that is exactly the same
Because of this technique, it is all handmade, including the color proportion, all rely on the precise judgment of the shoemaker, and there will be slight differences in the brushstrokes, directions, and color absorption of each color, enriching the diversity of the “Patina series” in terms of color presentation, and the brush color of each pair of shoes is also different. The Patina shoes you’ll get are the only ones in the world, and you won’t have the same smudge strokes. After using it for a period of time, the color saturation will be slightly reduced, which is a natural phenomenon, but basically if it is used normally, rather than being exposed to external forces or chemical contact, there will be no exaggerated fading.
Since each pair of colors is processed by the master by hand, and each layer of pigment needs to be absorbed before it can be stacked, basically a master can only complete 1 – 1.5 pairs of shoes a day, so it takes a long time. Friends who like it need to evaluate the time they need to use their shoes and wait for a unique pair of shoes. But perhaps, just like the concept of “Patina” itself, a good pair of shoes needs more time to condense and wait!
Click here to see the PREMIUM series
Text / Lino Wang, Daniel Huang, Gary Kao
Data provided / Saphir
Photo by Ronin Photo
