Want a cool 3D effect? Try embossed copper sheeting.

The “anything goes” approach to creative sign making gets used frequently at Southpaw Signs, Oceana, California. Looking through examples of their work, you’ll find borders done with real seashells, scorched wood backgrounds and polished stainless steel graphics.

One of the materials they put to good use is copper sheeting, which they emboss to create textures and formed graphics. When creating the front panels of the counters at Doc Bernstein’s ice cream shop, they put embossed copper sheet to good use.

“For the waffle cone effect that we used at Doc Bernstein’s,” Sean Beauchamp says, “we routed a master from MDF on the CNC that looked like lattice work. We laid a copper sheet over that, then used an air hammer fitted with a wooden block on the end to do the embossing. After that, we added the patina with a torch then clear coated the copper.