Emboss Workshop

Embossing Workshop;
We started by looking at all the different things you could get out of embossing how things work, such as you can't emboss words that are too small, definitely nothing below 10point as it wont be clear, the negative space in the letters, for example the counter in the 'e' would disappear and it just wouldn't work. I decided to do this workshop as embossing is something I have never done before and wanted to try out. It is good to know about embossing as if I want to use it for a piece of design in the future, I will know how long it takes and what to do, also the best methods to do it.

Here are some examples of embossing and the pates used;

This worked really well although it has left a print of where the copper plate went to, if you use this correctly it could look really good, although you could always just use a copper plate that is bigger than what you are embossing.

This copper plate didn't work very well as the font is a script font, and is quite small and detailed, therefore it lost a lot of the letters.

These were the same print, just showing the difference in materials. In my opinion the image and title works really well, although the smaller print may be too small to read embossed.

The method;

Firstly sand down the copper plate so that it will take better.

Then put the light sensitive film on the copper plate, sticky side down, but when you are doing this, make sure you don't stick it down as it will ruin the fluidity of the film on the plate.

Put a lot of newsprint on top of the plate, then run it through the roller, this gives the copper a straight and even film on top of it. Run it through once, turn it 90degrees then send it back through again.

Expose the image on the copper plate, then make the solution for the plate to develop in. After exposing the plate peel the film off and soak in the solution.

Drop it into the solution and wait for the design on the plate to come through.

Slowly sponge the plate every thirty seconds, not too hard, just gently.

Check the plate to see if it has fully developed or whether in needed a few more minutes.

This is the plate after it has been developed the plate.

Next the plate gets taped and dipped in the solution for about 7 hours, although needs to be flipped up side down so that it gets an even emboss. After this you are ready to emboss, put the stock in the machine and the plate and pump the handle until it wont go any further, then you have you embossed design.

Although the actually embossing doesn't take very long to do, the process of making the actual plate take a very long time, therefore it makes you wonder if it is worth it. The effect that it creates is something like no other, although there are different, quicker methods of doing this, for example you could use the laser cutter and then emboss that, this means the process would be a lot quicker are more practical, it also is a better method of embossing for certain things. This is a process I will be using as I think that it is worth it.