subject: The Art Of Embossing Metal [print this page] The art of embossing metal by Metal embosser makes fall leaves come alive when a variety of leaf shapes and tones of metal are used. Embellish your autumn memory book pages or use them in silk flower arrangements by securing them to floral wire. Adorn your fall table setting by securing the metal embossed leaves to napkin rings.First, the artist creates either a two-dimensional drawing or a three-dimensional sculpture of the design to be made into a metal stencil. Drawings are loaded into an optical scanner and uploaded as a digital image. Sculptures or carvings are passed under a laser scanner which measures the angle of light deflected across the entire surface to read its exact three-dimensional shape.
Then, special computer-aided design (CAD) rendering software converts this data into a scalable, three-dimensional chart of surface elevations.Prepare a pad of craft foam or layers of newspaper to work on. Lay the metal embossing machine sheet of copper on the work pad and secure the pattern in place with tape.Trace with the stylus to form a distinct outline, including the veining. Turn the embossed sheet over and use a rounded handle of a small brush or any similar item, to create a raised effect. Gently move around the inside area of the outline, without touching the lines.
Once the CAD software has generated the surface chart file for the design, the file is sent to a high-precision milling machine. "Milling" is a general term for the metalworking technique of cutting away metal with a rotating, toothed cutter. In CNC milling, each design is expressed as a grid with a finite number of points. Each point has a numerical value that represents the height/thickness of the grid. The CNC milling machine shifts the target metal plate around and grinds each point on the plate down to its corresponding height in the digital file. Several different cutters are used, from tiny, cup-shaped heads to thick, saw-like blades.
Given its strength and resistance to deforming after repeated use, brass is the alloy most commonly used for Embossing rollers . The stencil starts as a 1- or 2-inch thick plate of solid brass purchased from a foundry. Although there's only one design, two different, interlocking stencils must be made: a male, positive stencil (a.k.a. the "debossing die") and a female, reverse stencil (a.k.a. the "embossing die"). Therefore the CAD software creates two files: the original, debossing chart based on the scanner image and a negative embossing chart which is nothing more than a perfect inverse of the former.
