mitch
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
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A client recently requested 'the type of scroll used on money' on a pistol with a patriotic theme ("The United States of America" & "Freedom Will Be Defended" were inlaid in platinum on the slide) and I figured it was long past time to spend a few hours studying banknote scroll with an eye toward actually engraving some. Like all engravers, I've seen it my entire life, but have never really taken a close, analytical look at it. Very interesting stuff...
It has a number of peculiarities, mostly stemming from being primarily designed & cut to print well, as opposed to just look pretty engraved in metal. The shade lines tend to be much finer, more numerous, and fairly consistent in width & depth (unlike our more usual deeper, tapering shade lines, which would hold too much ink). They also observe a realistic directional lighting angle (the conventional upper left, more or less 45°-45°), unlike traditional gun & knife decoration where shading is typically done without regard to any lighting angle, and lighter & darker just represent higher & lower areas. There are other subtle idiosyncrasies, as well.
Further complicating my task was trying to pin down an identifiable style. While it all has a certain recognizable quality (like when you're channel surfing and you can tell in two seconds that you've landed on a soap opera), largely due to the aforementioned shading techniques, it has a tremendous degree of variation. There's relatively little of what we know as full scrolls or leaves, and more snippets of classical ornament, too. My semi-educated assumption is that because there's not all that much scrollwork on US currency, and individual bills are issued sporadically, often years or decades apart, it's been designed & engraved by a slew of different people. It wouldn't surprise me if the US Bureau of Engraving didn't/doesn't even have anyone who specializes in banknote scroll, like they do for portraits & lettering. From what I can tell, there's just never been that much call for it in-house, so perhaps it falls to whomever is on staff when the need arises?
Given this disparate range of styles, I decided to kind of adapt my own leaf scroll to these shading techniques, while adding a few of the more typical signature ornaments. As many of you know, I'm one of the very few engravers who has much experience working in 3D, so I had a big leg up on the directional lighting aspect. As a side note, one of the trickiest parts about engraving in this mode is constantly remaining aware of the lighting angle as the vise spins around under the microscope. It takes some practice...
Note the two sets of right & left side images. The directional lighting completely changes the appearance of otherwise identical, mirror reversed, designs. With our usual shading techniques, these would be pretty much exactly the same from one side to the other.
It was a fun change of pace. One other thing- I grossly undercharged for the job, but instead of an engraving fee, I considered it a continuing education stipend.
It has a number of peculiarities, mostly stemming from being primarily designed & cut to print well, as opposed to just look pretty engraved in metal. The shade lines tend to be much finer, more numerous, and fairly consistent in width & depth (unlike our more usual deeper, tapering shade lines, which would hold too much ink). They also observe a realistic directional lighting angle (the conventional upper left, more or less 45°-45°), unlike traditional gun & knife decoration where shading is typically done without regard to any lighting angle, and lighter & darker just represent higher & lower areas. There are other subtle idiosyncrasies, as well.
Further complicating my task was trying to pin down an identifiable style. While it all has a certain recognizable quality (like when you're channel surfing and you can tell in two seconds that you've landed on a soap opera), largely due to the aforementioned shading techniques, it has a tremendous degree of variation. There's relatively little of what we know as full scrolls or leaves, and more snippets of classical ornament, too. My semi-educated assumption is that because there's not all that much scrollwork on US currency, and individual bills are issued sporadically, often years or decades apart, it's been designed & engraved by a slew of different people. It wouldn't surprise me if the US Bureau of Engraving didn't/doesn't even have anyone who specializes in banknote scroll, like they do for portraits & lettering. From what I can tell, there's just never been that much call for it in-house, so perhaps it falls to whomever is on staff when the need arises?
Given this disparate range of styles, I decided to kind of adapt my own leaf scroll to these shading techniques, while adding a few of the more typical signature ornaments. As many of you know, I'm one of the very few engravers who has much experience working in 3D, so I had a big leg up on the directional lighting aspect. As a side note, one of the trickiest parts about engraving in this mode is constantly remaining aware of the lighting angle as the vise spins around under the microscope. It takes some practice...
Note the two sets of right & left side images. The directional lighting completely changes the appearance of otherwise identical, mirror reversed, designs. With our usual shading techniques, these would be pretty much exactly the same from one side to the other.
It was a fun change of pace. One other thing- I grossly undercharged for the job, but instead of an engraving fee, I considered it a continuing education stipend.
Attachments
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Banknote.jpeg -
IMG_4016.jpeg -
IMG_4065.jpeg -
IMG_4069.jpeg -
IMG_4080.jpeg -
IMG_4081.jpeg
J.J.
