I glued calf leather, 0.6 mm thick, to the bow. The weight of the leather is 17 grams. I really hope that I will be able to fill and smooth the joints on the grip.
I made the mistake and cut the leather in length immediately after thinning. I only found out during glue up, that it shrinks over time.
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You can always paint on top of it! Or dye. I’ve been thinking, can you dye the leather even after gluing it on a bow…
That’s what I thought too. I want to finish it traditionally, i.e. oil painting (probably red), gold decoration and homemade dammar varnish.
I will probably have to build UV-B light chamber for curing paint and varnish.
Guess there is many ways to paint a bow, anything goes. Paints are stronger than dye. Suppose it doesn’t hurt to first dye, then base paint, then top layers.
I’ve found dye hardens the leather so you need to dye the leather before you thin it or when leather is already glued to bow.
Lots of stuff to learn! But if one just goes and tries different solutions out, its quickly learned. 
Only problem is we have quite “work heavy” canvas. Hah. So we need to have a lot of bows…
What kind of varnish are you going to make? I bought sandarac and lindseed oil for this job but its waiting for summer now.
I have made two varnishes, one with raw linseed oil and the other with polymerized linseed oil (which has a consistency similar to honey). The polymerized oil should dry faster. I used dammar resin and turpentine oil in both varnishes, and followed the procedure in Adam’s book by cooking it in a canning jar placed over a fire. The first time I tried it in the kitchen on the stove, which was a big mistake!!
The drop of varnish with raw linseed oil is clear and transparent like glass, while the second one is slightly yellowish.
I have found that even a sunny day in January is good enough for curing.
Ahhh, dammar was the resin Adam recommended to me too. But i think there was even a liquid dammar resin. Did you use hard resin or liquid?
@Björn said sandarac has long lasting clarity, while other resins go yellowish/darker when time passes. Hopefully i remember correctly. What is the time window, months, years, centuries?
My sandarac will be harder to boil into liquid, what i read from Adam’s book.
You have read the book right? It actually has quite comprehensive section about decoration. My brain just needs couple of re-reads to understand… 
Yes, I have read the book.
I used hard resin and it boiled very easily. The foaming lasted only 5 minutes.
I don’t mind darkening over time, if there’s a chance that my bows will survive that long, they will at least look nicer with that effect, I actually like it on old bows.
Few color ideas made in illustrator. At first I liked black&red combination, but after a while it seems boring to me. Now I like green and red.
I’m really nervous from painting with gold. It seems complicated.
Heh. Definitely! Whatever comes, just look the bow from distance and everything will be fine. 
I like the simplified black and yellow. Make a traditional pattern, that will suit the bow anyway.