Printmaking Techniques: Blind embossing
In Japanese woodblock printing, it is known as ‘karazuri’, it is also known as ‘gaufrage’, blind printing or embossing. This printmaking technique creates a raised surface on paper which adds texture, interest and adds depth to some images. It involves no ink. Dampened paper is pressed into grooves or a raised surface. The resulting effect can sometimes be quite subtle, requiring the viewer to shift their position, or alter lighting to see the actual embossing.
About 15 years ago I bought a hydraulic press with the goal of opening an embossed paper design business. I learnt how to make handmade paper with cotton linters and emboss images into the damp paper pulp. My first forays were quite ambitious now I think back. I would walk around my neighbourhood, drawing the trees and tree roots and translate these drawings into deep linocut carvings. I used these carvings to make embossings, creating raised image onto paper. The deeper I carved the higher I could raise an image into the paper.
I actually loved making these. Here are a couple of these works. On the left is an embossing onto my own handmade paper, and on the right onto printmaking paper.
As time passed, I started using my press for more traditional printmaking and less for pressing handmade paper, but I still continued to use embossing in my work. Sometimes I made simply embossings on their own and at other times I used embossing in combination with other printmaking techniques. On the left is a piece entitled Landscape I, and on the right is a detail from Shepherd’s shelter, a linocut reduction print with embossing.
I worked collaboratively with glass artist Dominic Fondé on a beautiful series called Murmuration. The drill engraved swirling lines of the flock of birds cast a shadow on the various landscapes embossed onto paper. Below is Murmuration IV (without the drill engraving).
Probably my favourite embossings are the Bali Starling series. In this image, Hope I, the endangered Bali Starling is featured with Mount Agung, the sacred volcano in the background. I painted the bird’s distinctive blue face in watercolour.
