Hi everyone! I am back to etching copper! I decided to play around with creating a stamp from an etching I made on the Silhouette Curio. I’ve blogged about etching on the thin foam before, but I will update with a new post because I am doing something slightly different now and getting cleaner etches I believe. But I digress 😉
In this case I liked the image that I etched and yes it’s true I could have made a “normal” stamp using that image, but I like the texture I get from the foam etchings and wanted a similar feel for this design. So I used 2 part Silicone Molding Putty to press into the etched foam and pick up the design. Then I used that as a stamp to transfer ink onto the surface of the copper and act as a resist. In the video I used different inks and then a surprise twist- embossing powder and show the results. Embossing is a bit tricky- especially on metal so I would only attempt this if you have more of a grungy design and are more of a pro at stamping. Otherwise, just go with the inks 🙂
Here is the video showing the experiment and I also show you my new set up where I am etching with Copper (Cupric) Nitrate.
I forgot to record the tip on keeping the powder from sticking where you don’t want it, but here it is- use corn starch to lightly dust the piece of metal before stamping and embossing!
I’ve mentioned I am using a different solution for etching now. Here is a link to the information I used to set up my bath. There is also another site I’ve used in the past (looks like it has changed recently) but there is still information on electro-etching under the Section titled “For Our Students”. He has a handy calculator to figure out the bath recipe.
NOTE: The Cupric Nitrate I used was from the Science Guys on Amazon. It looks like that is currently unavailable, but you might want to search yourself in case it is back in stock.