Embossing Velvet: Iron
For embossing velvets, irons that have few/no steam holes are best. Think of the fact that you are using the iron as a hot plate to press down the fibers of the velvet pile - any breaks or holes in the iron surface will not press the fibers down in that spot and can mar the image.
There are "craft irons" that have no steam holes, but be aware that these often have smaller pressing surfaces. A number of our stamps may be too large for these. We recommend the Teflon iron shoes that we carry, so that you can use your regular home iron.
If your iron has steam holes you will want to position the iron so that there are no steam holes being pressed onto the stamp.
If you cannot fit the image under the area that has no steam holes, you can gently glide the iron over the stamp a bit after the first 10 seconds of pressing - you do not want the fabric to shift. This will allow all parts of the image to get some press-time.
Note: I am testing out an iron press and will report my experiences when I do. It promises to allow you to set a whole array of stamps and emboss at once. I am concerned about the fact that there does not seem to be a way to close the press so that the pressing surface is parallel to the bottom surface as it lowers. It seems that this could result in the velvet shifting against the stamps as the press comes down. All in all, this might not create that large of an effect, but I am hoping to find a way to keep images as crisp as possible.