Embossing Experiments
- llatham222
- Jan 8
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 28
I had created some blind embossed works previously using deeply etched sugarlift plates, and I enjoyed the sculptural quality it gave to paper. My intention now was to use my carved woodcut plates to emboss into some of my existing mokuhanga prints. I was interested to see how I could create a new 'layer' of physicality to my prints.
I backed my prints onto dampened Somerset paper using diluted nori paste, rather like a chine collé. I hoped this would give enough stability for the Japanese paper to emboss but not tear under the pressure of the press. My first prints were badly registered, but they excited me as the form cast by the embossing did indeed create a new 'layer' to the print.
I'm interested in the idea of the print as an object. Manipulating the surface of the print in this way creates a new material physicality which disrupts the image and the way we view its surface. In my research I have been considering how I might bring the matrix into play with the print itself. In the first print-embossing titled 'Things', the matrix, ie. the woodblock, is from a different print, so the embossing interrupts and fragments the image. The off-centre registration is unfortunate, because the effect becomes too obvious.
In 'Bones', the series of purple prints above, the embossing is created by the print matrix, so the 3D forms seem to both connect with and interrupt the print. I don't see these as any more than experiments at this stage, but process interests me. Perhaps the embossed mark could be more subtle; one or two lines which serve to delineate sections of the print, like an aerial view of an archaeological site in subtle relief from the existing landscape.
I experimented with pressing brass foil into my woodcut block using the rounded end of a paintbrush. I would like the emboss to be as accurate as the paper experiments so I will try to use the hydraulic press with a layer of foam to see if this would press the metal into the relief.
I lightly inked my large woodblock with an icy blue watercolour and used the hydraulic press again to emboss into damp 600gsm Somerset. I was worried the paper fibres would stick, but the embossing worked well. It reminds of how I feel when I am carving the block: as if I am creating landmasses and archipelagoes.
I would like to scan this print; reprint it as a 2D digital print onto Japanese paper, back it onto the same 600gsm Somerset and emboss it again. I like the idea of form depicted within the 2D print image, and 3-dimensional form within the physicality of the paper. In this way I can continue exploring the print as object and experiment with how this can play with our perception.
When I focus on this cropped section of the print I can see it as a series of shadows and highlights, which might sound obvious, but each form has a white section and a black section, and in its 2D form this is the information the artist requires to draw this form, or this illusion of form. Going forwards, I will continue to find ways of incorporating the sculptural quality of the matrix into my print. I have explored this further in my writing: 'The Matrix in Printmaking'.
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