Let's make a mask with the embossing techmique

TRANSFER OF THE DRAWING TO THE METAL SHEET:

1. put the notebook, the ballpoint pen and the wooden skewer on the table

2. place the aluminum plate on the notebook so that the silver side is visible

3. place the rectangle of paper on the plate 

4. fix the rectangle of paper with the design with a piece of adhesive paper tape (about 3 cm) on the plate by folding the adhesive tape on the back of the plate itself. (Do not attach the drawing to the notebook: the plate must remain free, so that it can be turned during the work).

5. Go over your drawing with the ballpoint pen, treading a little so as to create a groove in the plate corresponding to all the lines of the drawing. (Attention: in case you have blackened some spaces on your drawing, just go over the contours of the shapes anyway).

6. Lift the sheet of paper and go over all the marks again with the wooden skewer to make the groove deeper. (Be careful not to use too much force: you could puncture the plate) To obtain a sufficiently deep mark, move your skewer back and forth in the groove already drawn: it is the repetition of this operation that will allow you to shape the plate without breaking it.

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STRAIGHTENING OF THE SHEET

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1. Turn the plate so you can see the copper side.

2. Observe that the grooves you traced on the back of the plate appear in relief: the relief must be very well defined (at least a couple of millimeters).

3. If the marks are not all well defined, turn the plate over and correct again.

4. Turn the plate again from the right side (copper-colored side) and, using the tip of the skewer, make a well-defined mark next to the previous ones at a distance of one, maximum two millimeters. This operation is called straightening and serves to create a precise boundary of the parts that you will then go to emboss from the reverse.

5. Starting from the outer profile of the mask, and using the flat part of the sushi stick, go to the outside of this second mark in order to define the profile of your mask well.

6. If necessary, smooth the plate around the mask well using the cotton ball. (The plate around the mask must be perfectly flat.

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    EMBOSSING

1. Turn the plate so that you can see the silver back and, with regular and light movements, start to emboss the parts you want in your mask to appear in relief. For this you need to use a sushi stick. In larger areas you can use circular movements, in narrower ones, straight movements. Move the tip back and forth, as if you were coloring with a pencil. The aim is to create a deep space, which from the obverse will be in relief. You don't have to press too hard, either because you could break the plate, or because you don't have to create unnecessary marks.

2. During this operation, turn the plate often and observe what you are doing: some areas will probably have to be more embossed than others (for example the central part of the nose, the cheeks and the lips).

3. If you want to have very prominent areas, place the soft cloth folded in four on the notebook and go back to working exclusively in the affected areas. Be careful not to bend or crumple the plate. If you notice any imperfections, remove the cloth and, placing the plate straight side on the notebook, smooth it back around the mask, in order to restore the correct levels.

4. Still working from the back (silver side), smooth the areas you embossed well with cotton. 

5. If you want to add textures or embossed marks, placing the plate on the notebook and using the skewer, draw them

6. The mask should be finished at this point.

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BACKGROUND

 

To give greater prominence to the work done, you can make a dotting on the surface of the plate outside of the mask you have just finished. 

Dotting can be made both from the front and from the back of the plate. 

1.     To perform the dotting you can use the spherical tip chisels (there are different sizes), the wooden skewer or, the tool that I prefer, the pencil with a not too sharp tip. 

2.     Place the plate with the mask on the notebook, from the verse you have chosen

3.     With the pencil (or with the tool you have chosen) start to imprint in the plate some points by practicing a certain pressure so that the obtained relief is clearly visible. The points must be quite close, but according to your taste, you can achieve gradient effects by acting right on the frequency of the points.

4.     Be careful to keep at a distance of at least a couple of millimeters from the embossed area.

5.     Remember to cover the surface well, even on the corners of the plate.

6.     When finished, strighten the plate once again by slightly pressing with your fingers the surface you have just dotted

 

MOUNTING

 

At this point we have to mount the plate on a cardboard larger than the plate on which we worked. To center the plate in the cardboard:

1.     compare the dimensions of the plate with those of the cardboard and subtract from the dimensions of the cardboard those of the plate. Divide by two the two dimensions you have found.

2.     With the pencil draw 4 points corresponding to the four corners of the plate in the correct position

3.     Fix the plate on the cardboard with double-sided tape.