Multiple Colouring Techniques on Vegetable Tanned Leather for Fashionable Accessories.

Leather a material sourced from the skins and hides of animals is useful in all aspects of life. This material is used for the production of artefacts which plays both functional and aesthetic purposes ranging from conventional and non-conventional artifacts. Most artifacts used on our body for protection, adornment, are products from leather. Upholstery for the home, offices, recreational centers are sometimes made with leather. For our industries we have protective cloths such as gloves, boots and aprons just to mention a few. Leatherwork today faces numerous setbacks chiefly in the facet of colouring of leather. Tanners and craftsmen are still stuck with the old or indigenous way of colouring leather. In the aid of technological evolution, leather artifacts and leather colouring has seen a significant improvement with the advancement of contemporary skills, technologies and ideas in colouring. Nonetheless, the adoption of these techniques as not been utilized by craftsmen and tanners due to the inadequate knowledge on the use of these colourants, the refusal of tanners to try new way of colouring and the decision by both tanners and craftsmen to maintain the old way of doing things to selvedge their cultural heritage but their source of income hang on the sales of the artefacts and the leather they produce. It is against this lime light that the researcher deemed it imperative to research into how these techniques can be revitalized basing on the inventiveness from already existing finishing and decorative techniques of colouring in the textile and leather industry to expand the aesthetic appeal and creativity in the leather field by adding variety to the existing knowledge. In realizing the objectives set by the researcher, the qualitative research was used. Under which the descriptive and experimental approaches adopted. Some tanneries, crafts centers, sales points in and around Tamale, Savelugu, Bolgatanga were visited. Observations were made unstructured interviews granted. The information gathered from the visit and data gathered from the other web, journals, books, student thesis, and the like new designs were created based on the combination of the existing techniques, colorants identified. The techniques and colourants used were marbling tie-dye, batik, screen printing, screen spraying and sprinkling. Vat dye, suede dye, insoluble dye, auto base paint and acrylic paints were colorants used respectively. The colouring was done by experimenting three techniques with the use of three different colourants on leather, four techniques with the use of three or four colourants on leather and the last one experimentation of five techniques with the use of three or four colorants on leather. Results after experimentation was tested for colour fastness using dry and wet method, test of fastness to light, effect after application colourants by hardness, and pliability. The multiple coloured leather were then combined with matching woven fugu strips for the production of accessories in the production of accessories. Leather tanners, craftsmen, students should take interest in exploring the use of other techniques applicable on both textile and leather for to create variety. Further research should be conducted in the use of more techniques and new colourants.

Source: KNUST