Strip Teased

Last weekend I had the honor of bootblacking at a party hosted by the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference at the William Way LGBT Center. During the evening I worked on this wonderful pair of pink Dr Martens. Here is the before:

Please note, the pictures aren't fantastic because I'm at a kinky event and trying to be discrete when using my cell phone. These were pretty dirty and the pretty pink stitching was all icky and black. Here is the after:

I gave them a cleaning with glycerin soap, wiped down the laces, and polished with Terrago brand shoe cream. The closest tint I had was "Rose", a very light pastel pink; I could have used something darker but I think the results came out well. I scrubbed the stitching and added a few swipes with an alcohol pad to get as much dirt off the stitching as I could, then with a tiny paintbrush I painted the Terrago on the stitching. The only thing I couldn't help was that bit of scuffing on the one boot. I managed to lighten it and of course the cream polish will add a little conditioning to it.

And on to my newest project! I give you another pair of Dr Martens, which I got off of eBay super cheap.

Since I got these for nothing, I decided I didn't care much if I destroyed them...thus, I call them Frankenboots.

They are vintage 1980s, made in the UK. The original owner cut the tops off. I don't know why. More on this in another post.

I decided that I would try to strip the color off the toe box area and re-dye it something funky like purple.

Whenever I read about stripping boots, it doesn't sound that difficult. "I just stripped the boots and dyed them and then conditioned...yadda yadda..."

But it's a ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS. Either that, or I'm doing it wrong.

I'm using acetone, which is the main ingredient in nail polish remover. Applying with cotton balls, wearing gloves, and working outside because the label says to use it in a well-aired area.

The goal is to strip the areas "to the gray." I soaked the cotton ball and rub it on the leather. A lot. Black will start coming off right away. Move the ball around so you're using as much of it as possible. Toss the ball into a trash bag. Repeat, repeat, repeat. 

I thought I could do this in one night, but I was wrong. Here is a photo after my second session, or about 2 hours of the stripping process total:

Not the greatest picture but you can see that the black is pretty dull. Here is another:

After tonight's 3rd session:

I think we are finally getting somewhere! I can definitely see a contrast coming out.

I will post more pictures as work progresses. 

Another thing I'm thinking about is, how good is this for the boot? Well it's not good, I can imagine, practically soaking leather in acetone and rubbing it in like crazy. I'm going to try to finish this project but I am not sure I will do it again. I don't like hurting leather like this.