[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking.

Baren Digest             Thursday, 22 January 1998     Volume 02 : Number 044

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: David Bull <davebull@asahi-net.email.ne.jp>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 17:01:43 +0900
Subject: [Baren 197] Re: Brushes. 

Graham wrote:
> ... hairs that come out of my inking brushes ... two or 
> three with every inking. Is this usual or are my brushes 
> letting me down?

I think you've got some 'not-so-good' brushes there if you're losing
that many hairs each time.  We touched on this a bit before, and I
suspect that if you've been soaking brushes a lot, this might be causing
problems.  It may also just be because the brushes are cheaply made, but
without seeing them, I can't say much about that ...  (One clue for this
is to look very closely - with a loupe - at the 'cherry bark' that is
used to tie the hairs in place.  Check if it's real bark, or just
cardboard with a photograph of bark ...  This is common in inexpensive
brushes.)

The problem tends to be most acute with the 'hanga bake' type of brushes
- - the ones that have the tall handle.  The hair on these is gathered
into a clump, then wound and bound in place.  It's quite easy for any
individual hair to 'escape'.  

The other type of brushes, the 'maru bake' (those that look sort of like
shoebrushes), are made a different way.  Longer hair is used; it is
gathered into clumps and then folded in half, before being tied or
stapled in place.  What you are seeing at the business end of the brush
are the two ends of each hair.  It is thus very difficult for hair to
come loose.

With the 'maru bake' brushes, if any particular hair does start to come
loose and project out from the rest - DON'T pull it out.  Use scissors
and trim it down even with the others.  If you pull these 'stragglers',
you may end up yanking out a whole clump of them ...  Once you start
pulling, it never seems to end, and you end up with the situation
described - two or three hairs coming out with every impression.

These maru bake hold a lot more pigment, and thus make it much easier to
keep the colour tone and depth the same from print to print.  Printers
here use the largest one they can get away with for any given print
area.  It makes the work go extremely quickly - just a swish swish, and
the block is ready.  With a small brush you're endlessly rubbing here
and there trying to cover the area before it dries ...

I guess I should also mention that I visited one of the brush makers
just a couple of weeks ago, and found that the stuff he had on display
was quite a bit 'less well made' (to be polite) than what he used to
make.  They were useable, but they sure weren't very pretty ...


Dave

P.S.  I should also be honest and admit that during the past year or so
I too have started to have a great deal of trouble with hair on the
block - and during the demonstrations at the gallery last week, many of
the prints were spoiled this way.  Fine dark brown hairs ... they're
certainly not from my brushes.  Where the h%** could they be coming
from?

------------------------------

End of Baren Digest V2 #44
**************************