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| | How to "Distress" Leather GlovesIndiana Jones' gloves were not nice and new looking, of course. They showed the wear and tear of life on the edge. If you're going to wear your Indiana Jones outfit ("costume" just sounds too tacky) in public, you'll want your gloves to look the part, too. Sure, you can distress them with hours of hard labor. But if you're in a pinch, or you live in an apartment and can't go outside and do landscaping, then here's a quick and easy way to make your gloves look like they've been through the war. Supplies needed: Acrylic craft paint in black, rusty brown, and dark red, a small
sponge (with a green scrubby if you have one) and rubbing alcohol.  First of all, the term "distressing" refers to treating a prop or piece of clothing to make it look old and used. You can see from the picture on the left, I started with a brand-spanking-new pair of my custom Wells-Lamont gloves. |  To start off, dampen the gloves with rubbing alcohol. I use a spray bottle, but any method will do. The entire glove only needs to be damp. Soaking the gloves won't help anything, and it will take a lot longer to dry. Make sure to get between the fingers. |  Now take the two damp gloves and rough them up. Clench your fingers really tight to set in the creases. Rub the ends of the fingers to smoosh down the extra length. Grab the palms and stretch them out. Use a scotch-brite pad and scrub the daylights out of them. Go climb a tree. Hang from a moving truck. Beat up a Nazi. Have fun with it. |  In a few minutes the gloves will look broken in and conform to your hand. You can see the results here. It only took a few minutes to simulate many hours of creasing and stretching. |  Now lightly dampen a sponge with water and squeeze a dab of black acrylic paint on it. The sponge I used had a green scrubby side, so I put the paint on that side. Fold the sponge and rub it together to spread out the paint. Begin dabbing the black on the gloves while you are wearing them. When the paint runs out apply more to the sponge and keep going. Use your imagination and apply the black to the areas that you think would get the dirtiest - the knuckles, the palms, the ends of the fingers, etc. Scrub a few spots to smudge the paint. Rub the gloves together. Lock your fingers together and get some in between the fingers, too. Lightly brush the paint across some of the wrinkles to make them stand out. |  Stop applying black when the gloves look like this -- not too black -- you have to leave "room" for the next step. Next, repeat this step with a rusty brown color. The paint color I used was called "iron oxide". This color adds a lot of warmth and realism. Just make sure you leave some of the leather untouched so you have some contrast between light and dark areas. To finish things off, I dab a few spots with dark red and smear it around to simulate blood. Imagine where blood would go if you wiped your bloody nose or if you grabbed a wound. |  Go slowly and build up the color. It's a lot easier to add more than take it back off. If you do overdo it, you can use light sandpaper or scotch-brite pad to remove some color after they are dry. Much of it will rub off the palms from normal wear, anyway. I go for up-close realism. If you were distressing these for screen use, you would go a little further. |  So here is my final result. Remove the gloves and set them aside to dry. All of the wrinkles and creases will stay. They will be dry in a few hours, and you'll have a brand-new pair of gloves that look like they're ready for the trash can. Just make sure your neighbors don't know what you're doing. They'll never understand why you want to ruin a new pair of gloves, and they'll probably say uncomplimentary things about you behind your back. |
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