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

Baren Digest              Friday, 27 February 1998      Volume 02 : Number 081

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 10:36:59 -0800
Subject: [Baren 435] woodcuts 

Dear Barenpeople,
Today is sunny with clouds (I must look these clouds up in the Audubon Field
Guide).  The plum tree in back is loaded with white blossoms, so it looks like a
popcorn tree.  Bees are visiting today.  Last year was the first good plum harvest
in eight years.  I moved the potted orchid ($30 at Costco, but someone gave it to
me)to the back yard because last year an unknown person took the stem of flowers
while it was in the front yard.  I'm glad they didn't take the whole plant.  Last
year I made a small edition of flower etchings for a local politician. She sold
those small prints for $25 each to raise money for her campaign.  Perhaps this
year I will make a woodcut of flowers.  It is harder to make a nice woodcut than
it is to make a good etching, and it is not as much fun.  Now I am getting
approval from my peers for my woodcuts with words on them.  I guess I should do
something with words on it.  Ray, do you want to edit my woodcuts?

Jean Eger

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 11:15:38 -0800
Subject: [Baren 436] clouds 

I look out my front window and I can see the San Francisco Bay.  Because I was
willing to camp out in my old house by the freeway and endure many hardships, I
was awarded this freeway relocation house with a view.  From my window I can see
low-lying clouds.  I don't know what they are, but I know what they are not.  They
are not cumulus clouds (thunder storm clouds).   They are not coming in on little
cats' feet, so I know they are not fog.  They are not cirrus clouds (scudding
clouds).  If they filled the sky, we would say it was an overcast day.  The fog
makes it really cold.  The fog comes in through the Golden Gate (the Golden Gate
Bridge), rolls across the bay and climbs up the east bay hills, then spreads out
north and south.  Across the hills, it is ten degrees warmer than where I live.
When the fog comes in, the best thing is a sweater or a sweatshirt and a
windbreaker.  A windbreaker is a nylon jacket without padding, good without a
hood, better with a hood.  If you want to learn what California weather is really
like, read "To A God Unknown," by John Steinbeck.  He talks about drought, which
is far more common here.  Thanks for letting me  digress on your woodcut page,
John,
Jean Eger

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:22:33 -0500
Subject: [Baren 437] Re: woodcuts 

Jean wrote:
>Dear Barenpeople,
.....
> Perhaps this year I will make a woodcut of flowers.  It is harder to make
a >nice woodcut than it is to make a good etching

Ain't that the truth!!!

>Now I am getting approval from my peers for my woodcuts with words on
>them.  I guess I should do something with words on it.  Ray, do you want
>to edit my woodcuts?

Jean

I do not have the experience to edit anyone's woodcuts.  But I am sure many
on Baren would be happy to give you their opinions.  I like your work,
especially Leaving Kotor Varos an Srebrenica.

Cheers

Ray Esposito

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From: Ceil Tanner <Ceil.Tanner@tuccster.tucc.uab.edu>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:40:53 -0600
Subject: [Baren 438] RE: clouds 

How lucky you are to live in a beautiful place!   I spent 6 weeks in SF
last summer doing an internship at the San Francisco Center for the Book
(I'm working on an MFA in Book Arts).  
 
Thanks for the digression.  Your description brightened my day.  :-)

Ceil Tanner

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:47:32 -0800
Subject: [Baren 439] Re: key block impressions 

Dear John,
I'm very glad you pointed out your encyclopedia entry about the key block.

>One point of confusion for beginners comes up here - these (key block)
>impressions are not printed in the 'normal' way, with the paper inserted 
>into the kento as common sense would dictate, but are printed with the
>paper laid over the entire piece of wood. 

I think you are referring to the method of designing the color blocks with
pasted-paper, rather than the oil-based ink method of laying the key block
impression face down on a fresh piece of  wood and offsetting (printing) the image
on to that piece of wood.  You have probably already mentioned the great influence
these Japanese (and Chinese?) prints had on our comic book industry and on Gauguin
(I still think it should be Gaughin).  Or perhaps it goes back farther, to the
Italian Rennaisance cartoons of  Raphael.  (I think this computer is having a bad
effect on my brain, because I am having to search for names again.)

Matt Brown's picture looks like the valley of the San Pablo reservoir might have
looked before there was a reservoir there.  I guess it could be anywhere, though.
Jean Eger

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 13:09:25 -0800
Subject: [Baren 440] Re:paste and knives 

Dear John,
When making paste for paste papers, if I add the boiling water to the
paste-and-cold-water mixture, prior to cooking it, the paste does not lump.  If I
added the boiling water a little at a time, it would be lumpy.

It is difficult for me to sharpen my knives.  I still have not learned to do it
right.  Or else the steel in the knives is too soft.  It seems like it should not
be so difficult to get sharp knives and keep them sharp.  The merchant, who sells
the Japanse knives here, frowns at me when I come to his store asking that he
sharpen my knives or put a new edge on them with the correct angle.  However, he
will sharpen my knives for $2 apiece.  No one wants to complain about bad
equipment.  My knives are not the most expensive, but they are not cheap, either.
American knives are just as good as Japanese knives.  He would probably sharpen my
American knives too, if I asked him to, but I don't have as much trouble with
them.  I don't remember his name or the name of his shop, I just know how to get
there.  I call it the Japanese Knife Shop.  In my education class they told us
about something called an affective filter.  That is where it is something that is
so upsetting that the memory is blocked.  You can see how upsetting it is not to
have knives that will cut well.
Jean Eger

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 13:21:19 -0800
Subject: [Baren 441] paste 

I meant to say, if I add the boiling water to the
rice-flour-and-cold-water-mixture ALL AT ONCE, there will not be lumps.  What the
heck can I use besides expensive watercolor, for pigment?

Now that I am beginning to make mistakes, it is time for me to shut up and do
something else.
Jean

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End of Baren Digest V2 #81
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