dino footprints

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Adam

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Seattle
I have a customer who brought in some prints with matboards that had dinosaur footprint impressions in them. I have tried and tried to replicate them but wasted way too much board. I can do cutouts or fabwraps over cutouts etc. but cannot seem to master a way to impress a footprint into the matboard. I have tried laying cutouts on top and placing in the press, pounding on a wood cutout and still no luck. They obvously used something to imprint the footprint. Any ideas or has anyone accomplished this? Thanks

hamlet_75@yahoo.com

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I guess it all depends on how large a print your trying to make. We have used Leather working tools to make impressions on mats. Works great, but you have to do a lot of pounding.
biggrin.gif

Good O'l Sue
 
That might get cost-prohibitive, what with building the time machine and all. I've never done this but I'm wondering if steam might help. Could you dampen the section of mat to be impressed and then put it in the press with the temperature turned way up? Of course, you would have to be sure the mat was totally dry before framing - but you know that.
OR Cut the footprints out of one board, strip the surface layer off of the mat you want to use, then press it down into the cut out areas. Sort of reverse embossing. Just brain storming here. I have no idea if any of this will work. Good luck. I'm looking forward to seeing what ideas everyone else comes up with. (Note to Grammar Police: In Minnesota, it's okay to end a sentence with a preposition. It says so in the State Charter; Article IV, paragraph III.) Kit

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Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana
 
And for a real one:
A adjustable roller ( adjustable pressure) monoprint press.
I should shmush what you desire.
 
Try this:

Put the print on a piece of foam core and put it in the heat press with a lot of pressure for 20 min or so.

Take it out, cool the foam board with the print in place.

Coat the foam board with fabric adhesive, let the adhesive dry.

Lay a piece of Falcon's premimum suede on on the foam core over the indention left by the print.

Put the print back in place on top of the fabric and press it in place to get it in excatly right position.

Put this in a release paper folder and put it back into the press for 10 min or so. Cool again.

I'd use a tan or grey suede to look like the sand or mud the dino walked in.

Chris Paschke's book is a great thing to have around for any questions concerning mounting.

Email me if I can help.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Here is a little more info on the project. I will be using a double crescent mat and the prints will be in the top mat only. (this is to match previously done pieces in the same matboards---of course the framer who did the past footprints is out a business and nowhere to be found to see how he did it). The prints will only be around 5/8" in diameter or dinofootameter (i think that is the official dino track measuring terminology). A co-worker had mentioned the leather tooling trick but as of yet I haven't found a supplier. Anyone know where to look further into this idea. My local "leather clothing stores" seem to be the local work after high school hangout and I can't get any info out of the teenagers. I did find one local guy who makes western belts but he hadn't seen anything in dinosaur prints (whole dinosaures yes). Thanks again for all the ideas.

Adam

Don't take offense please...I just thought it was funny.

"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot." Salvador Dali
 
It seems to me I did some dino footprints about 10 years ago. It could even be that I did the mat your talking about. Does it have Dino cutouts too? I used a couple of different leather working tools for each print. A rounded one for the foot and a thin one for the toes. I got them from Tandy Leather. You could try dampening the mat with a little distilled water where your going to put the print. It'll emboss a little better if I recall correctly.
 
Frank,

Sounds like you may have been the one (by the way they look great). yep, they had cutouts as well. They were James Gurney prints (author of Dinotopia). My customer said it was someone local, as you are. Thanks for the hint I will go get some leather working tools online.

Adam
 
Yep, that's them. Did them while I worked at a frame shop over in Lake Forest Park. Nice to know the customer is still enjoying them. Happy framing!!
 
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