OUGD504 Design for print: Embossing leather

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR PRINT
EMBOSSING LEATHER

For my print book front cover I wanted to emboss the title. I decided to create an embossing plate using the laser cut as this was the way from my research that i felt more confident with, in hind sight i should have tried to create a copper plate to emboss with too. I created the art work on illustrator, making sure to mirror the text and invert the colours. I then set my work up on the computer linked to the laser cutter. 

This is the final laser cut, I had to double raster the design to make sure the letters were really pronounced in order to create a deep emboss.

I then cut the plate down to size and used sand paper to eliminate all the excess filings.

                                                

This was the first test of my embossing on to the leather, as I hadn't sanded down the plate enough it left a brown imprint on the leather. I sanded down the plate more to ensure this didn't happen again.

For this trial I decided to wet the leather before embossing, this was recommended to me by Lorraine.

I am really pleased with the final outcome, the emboss looks much more prominent. However if I had more time I would definitely make a copper plate as the wood block has left an unwanted texture on the leather.