Metal embossing

My clever wife bought me a set of metal embossing tools for Christmas. So guess what I’ve been doing over the holidays? My first effort is above. It’s a 6" x 6" piece of tin-coated pewter, extremely soft and easy to work with (but also easy to scratch and puncture). I used one of my tree doodles as the subject. Overall, I was happy with the result. When it was finished I filled the void in the back with caulking (for structural support). Then mounted it on a 12" x 12” square of plywood which I painted black and varnished.

There are various metals in the set. My plan is to do the same subject with each metal. Last night I did an aluminum version. Today I’ll try out the copper. Next phase of the experiment will be to acquire and test out some metal finishes to see what I can do with patina.