Embossing a book cover

I had a lovely play a week or so ago. I came across Annie Kerr's (Inkhaven) poem Blackbird in amongst my goodies on my table and just wanted to sit down and play with the words, write it out and see what I could do with it. I headed off with gay abandon - you know those times when you have no expectations of yourself or a piece - you are just interested to see what happens next or where it takes you?

I went along for the ride and ended up with two lovely little bookish pieces.

Being the total white on white fan and a lover of the embossed word, I decided to make the cover an embossed one.

Here is what I did:

I wrote the title out by hand and checked that it fitted and would look balanced on the page. Little notes to myself re the size of the nib, and height of the letters...

Then I got out a piece of my very expensive embossing material.

Not really. I simply trimmed a washed-out milk container down to the right size. It's a great way to re-use the plastic, it can be cut, and it can cope with a press. I nearly always have a stash of blank bits in a drawer in the studio just in case I get inspired and need to emboss in a hurry.

The next step was to trace over the word in a black pen. Another wonderful characteristic of the milk containers is that you can trace because they are see-through! Quickens things up a bit.

I sat with my trusty exacto knife and scalpel-like tool and cut away the letters.

I thought I was finished for the day at that point, but couldn't help myself. I quickly dipped some test paper in the sink, patted it dry and ran it thru the press.  Of course, as the sun set further I just had to get the two covers done and I did.

Don't you love that texture? I used Arches Velin paper which has a beautiful velvety feel. I got permission from Annie to use her words and sent her a copy and kept one for myself.