(If you would like to comment on this submission, you may do so by posting a reply in this thread. Thanks! Kaitlin)
First practice Design Plates
Well I have had about one hour practice with the airgraver practicing my foot and graver coordination, on lines and circles, in between work (sorry Kathy, ring should be ready next week ) And while this is expierience, I wanted to practice on an actual design on a plate just for fun.
I found the art work for a piece I engraved in trade school, and wanted to re engrave it with what I have learnt, and my new tools, so I can compare the difference
You may recognize this from my other thread (in gallery show and tell ), this was traced on the plate with copy paper and cut with a flat hand graver after about 4 days of practice.
Apprentice engraving
For the new plate I will transfer the image with the laser copier and acetone method.I have read on the threads how a lot of people have trouble with transfer methods, this may not work for real fine detail, as the image can bleed a little, but if you have a fine line, bold printed image, and are quick, it works very well, also its cheep, and costs almost nothing.
My image is not that great the lines are a bit thick, but i will show you how it works.
First make sure you have a reversed image you want to transfer, and make a few copys of it on a plain old laser printer with ordinary paper.
Clean your metal with a wipe of acetone on a tissue and let it dry. Next hold the image (ink down ) on the metal
And the tricky bit, wipe a acetone soaked tissue across the paper, you should see the image clearly, wait a maybe a second then dry the paper by blowing on it, it will dry immediately . Now see how the transfer looks. sometimes a little experimentation is needed, less or more acetone , shorter or longer soak time, but once worked out, works for me most times, and if it didnt, well you have those extra copys dont you, to try again.
Now lets try and cut it, notice the classic in the picture for extra credit
And the final result.
But wait, one final touch, To mark this occasion of my first classic engraved plate It needs to be signed, its a special edition, a Classic No 1
Final Final result
I am extremely happy with this result, I know I have LOTS to learn but I can now see me getting there
This took about 1 hour total from printing to engraving Things I need to learn, better control of wide cutting, also this piece taught me I have even worse control cutting and turning the vice anti clockwise so now I will practice this, and the lettering mmmm , But overall WOW I am very happy.