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To make an embossing plate, the metal sheet, with both exposed and protected areas, is kept in the acid bath for many hours. The resulting metal mold is then covered with a sheet of paper and passed under the heavy roller of an etching press, to push the paper into the recesses of the plate that were carved by the acid. This creates a paper bas-relief that evokes the carvings in stone or ivory of the Mayans, Egyptians, and Medieval artists.
To see an article about the embossing technique: Click here

Drawing on tracing paper and the printing plate to which it was transferred.
Images on etching plates print in reverse on the paper; this is especially important to remember when text is an element in the image. Thus the original drawing on tracing paper (shown) was flipped when placed on the copper plate, after which the image, seen through the paper, was redrawn onto the plate. Before the image was redrawn, a piece of white-powder carbon paper (not shown) was placed between the drawing and the plate, to enable the image transfer.
Then that white-line drawing served as a guide for the etching needle used to remove areas of the brown acid-resist coating the plate. Those exposed areas of the metal would be etched in the acid. That premise is the basis of all etching. In the plate shown, the lower part of the guide-line drawing has been scraped away by the etching needle, prior to the plate's being etched. The upper part of the drawing is yet to be removed.

Armadillo
Etched embossing plate (5 × 9 × 1/4) and print.
As always in etching, the print is a reverse image of the plate. In addition, the raised areas of the embossing plate provide the recessed areas of the print. The plate still has vestiges of the acid-resistant enamel paint that was used to stop out those areas of the plate that were not to be etched.

Tortoise
Copper printing plate (5 1/2 × 7 × 1/4)
As for most embossing plates, the etching time in acid for the copper was about 15 hours.

Tortoise
Print on Canson MI Teintes paper

Tortoise
Embossing on metal
A paper-thin sheet of copper was placed on the embossing plate, on the etching-press bed, which was cranked under the heavy roller of the press. This pushed the thin sheet into the plate's recesses.

Desert Scene
Copper embossing plate (5 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 1/4)

Desert Scene
Embossing on Canson MI Teintes.
While this paper is ordinarily used for pastels, it is well suited for embossing, as it lightens in the raised areas of the print, unlike many other papers. This heightens the contrast in the image.

Embossing on clay
There is no need for a printing press when clay is to be embossed. A slab is flattened by rolling pin to fit the plate's dimensions, pressed into the metal, then gently lifted off of the plate. Excess clay can then be trimmed off with a knife.

Aesop
Embossment etching, 6" x 8" plate size

Aesop
Embossing with hand-coloring on the print.
Often a print can serve as a starting point for much additional imagery.

Crocodile
Embossing on Canson, with added pen (14" × 7")

Benediction
Embossment etching, 7 1/2" x 6" plate size

Benediction
Embossing with hand coloring.
To color an embossing, one holds the oil- or water-based crayon at a horizontal to the print, so that only the raised areas receive the color.

Augury
Hand-colored embossing (7 1/2" × 8 1/2")
For this image Caran d'Ache water-based crayons were used on the recessed area surrounding the objects, as well as on the raised areas of the print.

Strider
Hand-colored embossing (8 1/2" × 7")

The Lives of Quadrupeds
Embossment on canson mi-teinte Each panel 7" x 8", edition of 75
The book was in part inspired by the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History in New York City and was printed from uninked embossing plates on Canson Mi-teinte, a paper that comes in many colors and is used primarily for pastels. When I first started making deeply etched embossing plates, I experimented with various printing papers, to see how they would take the uninked emboss, and discovered that Canson slightly lightens in those areas of the paper that were raised in the course of printing. It also looks like leather as a result of the printing. As the book's panels are essentially bas reliefs, they are especially dependent on the light source and alter in appearance when the book is placed upright, like a miniature folding screen, and re-positioned in various ways.

Reptiles
Embossing on Canson MI-Teintes paper, hand-colored with Caran d'Ache crayons, six panels, each panel 7" × 9", edition of 25

Section of one of the four embossing plates used for the accordion book "Biblion."
Each plate was used in a separate printing, by means of the etching press. Then the four embossings on paper were trimmed, scored, and assembled for each copy in the edition.

Biblion
Embossment on Canson MI Teintes paper.
Each panel 3" × 5", edition of 75.
In "Biblion," inspired by ancient Mid-Eastern art, there is a continuous narrative flow. For example, a group of figures is divided between two adjacent panels, as are a building and a herd of oxen.

This composite embossing was made from the four plates used for the accordion book "Biblion." The plates were assembled on the press bed, a large sheet of Canson was placed on them, and the bed was cranked under the heavy roller, to achieve the embossment. The print was then hand-colored with various Caran d'Ache crayons rubbed over the paper's raised areas.

The "Biblion" plates were the basis for this lamp shade. The embossment on Canson MI Teintes was treated with oil to increase the paper's translucence, then adhered to a wire framework.