[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Friday, 23 January 1998 Volume 02 : Number 045 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Phil Bivins Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 09:18:30 -0500 Subject: [Baren 198] Re: etching press Ray Esposito wrote: > I am looking for a small etching press but do not have a lot of money to > spend. Ray, You know I found myself in that same situation. I did not have the funds for a press but I had an old slab roller that was used to make thin clay slabs for pottery. So I cleaned it and oiled it up. It seems to work rather well. Hey it beats what I was using. Whenever I wanted to make a print, the only thing that I had that had any weight was my Toyota 4 Runner! Yep, I would roll right over the plate and paper, which was sandwiched between two sheet of 3/4 in. plywood. At the time I really thought I was onto something. An original thought, maybe? Well the original thought dream went right down the drain. I had a conversation with my art teacher, informing her about my new found press technique, she quickly responded that she had performed this same technique with her high school students, years before. So much for my original idea. Anyway if one wanted to market this so called new printing technique, how would one make any money? Anyway, thank God for old slab rollers. Take care, Phil ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 08:28:07 -0800 Subject: [Baren 199] Re: Nothing to do with art Just in from Gary..... Wow ! What good questions. The best way I can answer this is the suggest you stay tuned. I am sure that gradually all of this will be touched upon. I limit myself to about an hour every morning to respond to this and other writing. Then I must get to the studio. Hope you can be patient. Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 08:29:08 -0800 Subject: [Baren 200] Re: etching press Good morning Phil Welcome aboard ...or should that be carved board.??? Oh, Oh bad start. I got a kick out of your plywood venture only we used a piece of sheet steel. It reminded me of how my friend and I use to use his old model TFord to achieve results around the mid 50's. His father owned a car lot so this guy always had a beat up jalopy. I'd like to have that ModelT today. Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 08:29:28 -0800 Subject: [Baren 201] Re: etching press Hi Ray. It is not sacrilege's to ask.....only to use (<: How much is ...not a lot of money.... ? I know of a person here on Vancouver Island that makes presses. He has supplied several schools and colleges with these and the report is that they stand up very well. A few years ago I had heard the price was around 1600.00 CAN That equates down very nicely for you ... around $900.00 Let me know and I will persue it. Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 08:31:24 -0800 Subject: [Baren 202] Re: Brushes. Dave wrote. 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 is possible I have already damaged the 'mara bake' brushes with excess water. Gosh I hope not. The 'hanga bake' brush don't seem too bad. Although one is just about ready to be tossed as I have seen "clumps" 6 - 12 hairs coming away from the bunch last time I used it. I am sure the 'mara bake' , I have three sizes are of good quality. They are made as you discribe. I maybe should of clearified that it is not so much that the hair - long ones - are coming out but that I get a lot of little short ones that look like "breaker off'ers". I hava a storage box that hangs on the wall and each brush has a place. I made this box of cedar and do two things to give them the best conditions possible... 1. from time to time place a moth ball in the box. 2. leave the door of the box open a few days to insure they dry, otherwise if I close the lid the next time you go to use the brush the inside of the box, or a least the brushes look like fuzz city because of the build up of mould. > DON'T pull it out. Use scissors > and trim it down even with the others. Yes, always did this. > 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. That's for sure. However I have never been satisfied with just a swish swish... >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 ... Isn't that a shame. The all might buck is more important than the integrity of the product and thus the maker. About your P.S. Fine dark brown hairs ... they're certainly not from my brushes. Haven't you heard Dave. Its your grey matter ... the grey cells .... that are expanding and pushing the hair of the head out. Good sign .... good sign Graham ------------------------------ From: "Denny Hansen" Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 12:17:49 +0000 Subject: [Baren 203] Re: Nothing to do with art > Guys > > This is just a curiosity question. Who is on this forum? > Ok -before Dave starts prodding me Hi - My name is Denny Hansen. I think that I am the only "chick" on the list - but having been "one of the guys" all my life - don't worry... My background includes - Graduating with a bachelors degree in Art Education (which meant learning a little bit about practically every art form out there - only 1 pritnmaking class) and now I work for a printing company - We deal mainly in forms - but occasionaly we do runs of "art prints -- The reason I joined the forum (I've been here since about day 3) - is I am in a recreative (one that re-creates) medival society Recently I have had a yearning to learn all about the arts of the time - (700 - 1700AD) -- and started hitting woodcuts on the web - which is where I found Dave - I am intrigued about the making and doing - but also the history - (both European and Oriental) of prints and printmaking. Gary covered a lot of good topics - and I hope we will get to them all.... And when I finally get a chance to put my first print ( now that I appreciate it - unlike college) - I'll keep you all informed. Also - I do medieval manuscripts and I know how to lay gold leaf - - it's not too hard - you just need practice - there's even a clip on it in this month's "Artist Magazine" Anyway - back to the shadows - I'll look a few things up then post about the gold leaf.... Take care Denny ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 13:42:54 -0800 Subject: [Baren 204] Re: Nothing to do with art Guys and Dolls Welcome aboard Denny ..... Or should that be abroad??? So where do you live? Like what part of the world. Graham ------------------------------ From: "Denny Hansen" Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 15:22:54 +0000 Subject: [Baren 205] Re: Nothing to do with art Hi - > Guys and Dolls > > Welcome aboard Denny ..... Or should that be abroad??? > (polite laughter inserted here) > So where do you live? Like what part of the world. I would be in ole Salt lake City -- Utah!! hmm - enough said about that BTW - I love your lighthouse prints!! It combines both the lighthouses I love with a style I admire.. ..someday I will own one --- someday.... Denny ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 17:34:57 -0500 Subject: [Baren 206] Re: Nothing to do with art I'm looking forward to the answers to some of my questions, and I realize you have more pressing things to do, so of course I will wait upon these things to come up in natural context. Just thought I might put them out there and see what happens. I think in your years of experience Graham, and your locale, there has to be some interesting stories there, and I don't know about the rest of the group, but it kind of interests me to hear about things like that. There's a whole human side to this printmaking art that can lend it such depth and interest which has always been one of the exciting parts of it for me. You're not all locked in a printing cell for life with a bare bulb overhead and a slot in the door where you slide your prints out. You all have a life, and I'm sure with the diversity of locations and cultures we're all from, they have some curious facets to them. As these lives bear on you, so do they bear on your work, therefore to learn more about you can give a different insight into your work. There is an underlying passion here for the art, we all have this need to create, where did it come from, how did it manifest itself to us, therein lies a tale, I'm sure. Ray, David steered me toward your site, which was a marvelous discovery. I commend the work you do, and I second David's motion to help out by what limited means we possess. Keep up the fantastic work! Gary ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 07:43:43 +0900 Subject: [Baren 207] Re: Gold leafing Denny wrote: > Also - I do medieval manuscripts and I know how to lay gold leaf ... I for one, am eagerly awaiting your post on this. When you do send something, in addition to your general comments, could you address a couple of particular points for me please: (1) laying leaf as a wide background around an image, to give the same sort of impression as a painting on a gold leafed screen ... (2) using gold as a 'printed' part of the image (in my case, a tracery of gold lines on a kimono, for example) ... I've seen this on some prints here, but haven't been successful at reproducing it. When I asked Seki-san about it, he just smiled ... > there's even a clip on it in this month's "Artist Magazine" Is this something that would be available 'on line'? ****** Graham wrote: > a storage box that hangs on the wall and each brush has a place. For what it's worth Graham, I've never seen anybody here use any kind of a box for brush storage. The standard method is a rack of shallow open shelves on one wall. After each brush is washed, as much water as possible is shaken out, and the brush is then left on the workbench or table to basically dry out. It is then put back in place on the shelf - open to the air, but generally protected from dust by the shelf above it ... Another common method that I've seen illustrated in many printmaking books here aimed at hobbyists, is to screw a little eye-hook into each 'maru-bake' and hang them up on a series of nails on the wall. The 'hanga-bake' usually have a hole in the handle which can go on the nails. It makes an attractive 'display'. Dave P.S. By the way - how do you like that phrase 'many printmaking books'? There are even a dozen or so in our local town library. Woodblock printmaking has its own shelf ... Eat your heart out! ------------------------------ From: Matthew.W.Brown@VALLEY.NET (Matthew W Brown) Date: 22 Jan 98 18:11:14 EST Subject: [Baren 208] Re: Nothing to do with art Ray, Dave wrote: > There seems no question that it seems to go in cycles. In the early > part of the century, perhaps because of the fact that the Japanese > influence was so recent and vivid, there was a sort of woodblock > printmaking 'movement' in America and England. It faded out, why I > don't know. (Matt, you probably know a lot more about this than I do. > What 'killed it off'?)" How about WW II ? Things Japanese became very uncool very fast after Pearl Harbor. Phillips wrote his book and made many of his prints during the 20's, as did many of the American printmakers who had either studied in Japan or with Arthur Dow. Interesting that H. Yoshida's book was published in 1939 (in English, obviously for Western audiences ). Not very fortunate timing for what I am finding may be the best manual in English on the subject! Gary asked: > Matt You have a marvelous ability to condense a lot of > difficult visual information into a meaningful, attractive, yet simple > looking composition, is there a special way you have of doing that? Do > you take a picture and work off a two dimensional drawing to help in the > simplification, do you sketch on site, do you sketch and fill in the color > at home, do it all on-site, or have another method?" How to answer? Seems to me the answer to this question is as long as the making of the prints themselves. A short answer might be that each print gets made in its own way, some out of my head, some from a sketch, some from a photo, some get much of their stuff out of my head even after several of the blocks have been carved. . . They say it's time to head for dinner. . . Matt ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 23:07:49 -0800 Subject: [Baren 209] Re: Nothing to do with art >BTW - I love your lighthouse prints!! >It combines both the lighthouses I love with a style I admire.. >..someday I will own one --- someday.... > >Denny A Lighthouse or a Print!!!!! Chuckle Chuckle. Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 23:08:03 -0800 Subject: [Baren 210] Re: Gold leafing Dave wrote >is to screw a little eye-hook into each That is how I hang them in their little box. The cedar prevents moths from feasting...... If one goes away for awhile and can't replenish the moth balls well...... >P.S. By the way - how do you like that phrase 'many printmaking >books'? There are even a dozen or so in our local town library. >Woodblock printmaking has its own shelf ... > >Eat your heart out! Ya, I think I have already reported that the Victoria Library does not have a selection of how to book on the subject. Graham ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V2 #45 **************************