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

Baren Digest              Saturday, 25 April 1998      Volume 03 : Number 137

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 09:22:31 -0400
Subject: [Baren 668] Re: Moving day ... 

Dave wrote:
>Today is moving day ...     

A great improvement.  Very clean.  Congratulations on the continuing
improvement of one of the internet's premier sites.  This is where every
wood block artists, collector and interested party will gather.

Cheers

Ray Esposito

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From: April Vollmer & John Yamaguchi <jy6@columbia.edu>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 11:07:48 -0400
Subject: [Baren 669] Re: sharing 

Dave? was it you who pointed out Charlotte's web page? Thank you for
sharing info! Love seeing what other artists are doing in hanga....

And I love your exerpts from our web pages....makes it easy to remember who
is who...I have a terrible memory for names, but images I remember!

I did notice the paper on my page is misnamed...should be "kizuki hanga"
which is what Elaine calls it in her catalogue....it is #42 when I order it
from Tokyo....a double weight sheet, already sized for printing, costs ca
$16 to $25 a sheet, depending on the exchange rate and the number of sheets
bought.

It is hard to describe what I'm printing with: it's really watercolor and
gouache made from pigment ground in water.

I'm getting excited about my show May 12....everything is framed, the cards
have been sent out....hope to post some photos of the exhibition once it's
up. It will be 15 to 20 hanga woodcuts....we've been talking about frames
so much lately. I decided recently that I like float framing work...the
newest work in the show will not be matted, but floating in the frame, so
you can see the edge of the washi. I left a deckle at the bottom by using
the upper corner for the kento registration.

April Vollmer

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From: Matthew.W.Brown@VALLEY.NET (Matthew W Brown)
Date: 24 Apr 98 11:17:53 EDT
Subject: [Baren 670] Moving  

Baren,
	CONGRATULATIONS on OUR new home! Does this mean we now have more space
to grow in? Here's a plug for all of us being thoughtful and using our new
space with care~!

Matt

And many thanks to Dave, our host!

P.S.  Dave, have you ever thought of getting re-imbursed in some way for your
expenses at this work? Is there a way we could all chip in and help out with
this move in some way, for instance?

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From: Matthew.W.Brown@VALLEY.NET (Matthew W Brown)
Date: 24 Apr 98 11:41:18 EDT
Subject: [Baren 671] Get-together 

Baren,
	April and I are working out a little Baren Get-together and Baren
members are invited to join us! The time will be Friday, May 16, between 5 and
6 pm and the place will be at her gallery in NYC:

(the address of which I can't find at the moment, it is in Soho somewhere I
think and  perhaps she can re-post this info)

What we would do probably is all go out to dinner from the gallery, then we can
all go into KINKO's and post Dave an e-mail message: "wish you were here!"

Matt

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From: Bill Ritchie <ritchie@emeralda.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 11:26:45 -0700
Subject: [Baren 672] Re: Get-together 

Hi-I'm a new guy, and already I want to fly to NYC and be at April's show!

Sorry, though, I won't make it. It's a long way from Seattle, and I have to
be home by six.

Who would have believed it if they were told a few years ago that the
Internet would have a site just for the BAREN? Wow!

Over there, on the shelf behind me, my old baren is just flipping around
with excitement!

Kidding aside--it occurs to me that KINKOS is the pioneer in self-service
Video Conferencing. It's probably quite costly, but costs are coming down,
I think. Anyone with an inside track at KINKOS (or who own a major block of
shares in the corporation) let me know and I'll share with you a fantastic
idea to link those incredible (lacking credibility? Naw!) new technologies
and those wonderful, odiferous old ones.

- - Bill
Inventor of Emeralda
500 Aloha #105
Seattle WA 98109
Telephone and FAX by request
<http://www.emeralda.com>

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 16:50:28 -0400
Subject: [Baren 673] Re: Get-together 

Matt wrote:
>	April and I are working out a little Baren Get-together ...

You two aren't fooling anyone.  This is just an excuse for you two to get
together in the "big city".  Letting us know just three weeks before means
no one else will be able to make it.  I should hop a plane just for the
heck of it but you know what they say, "three is a crowd".  :>)

Have fun.

Ray Esposito

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 14:07:27 -0700
Subject: [Baren 674] Re: David Bull Home Page 

Dear Dave,
Thanks for letting us know about your home page address change.
Jean Eger

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From: David Bull <davebull@asahi-net.email.ne.jp>
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 08:42:39 +0900
Subject: [Baren 675] Replies to various questions ... 

Jim wrote:
>  I was also glad to see the additional info in the directory section.
> Are these prints all from your collection?

_My_ collection?   Jim, I'm a printmaker!  How on earth is a printmaker
ever going to afford to have a collection of prints?

No, they are all scans from books.  This is quite illegal I'm sure, but
as we are dealing with long dead artists, (and mostly long-dead books)
I'm not too concerned ...

***

Matt wrote:
> a little Baren Get-together ...
> ... post Dave an e-mail message: "wish you were here!"

If this idea had popped up just a couple of weeks earlier I might have
been able to surprise you and drop in.  I'm off to England for two weeks
from May 17th, and could presumably have arranged a stop-over.   But the
tickets and reservations are now all arranged ...

I'm headed (hopefully) for the British Museum, to dig up some
interesting prints for next year's new project, and also to drop in on
my parents in Yorkshire.

***

April wrote:
> I did notice the paper on my page is misnamed...should be "kizuki hanga"
> which is what Elaine calls it in her catalogue

She has simple shortened the name.  Such paper is more fully described
as 
'kizuki hosho, hanga yo', (roughly meaning - 'naturally made hosho paper
for printmaking use').  We _know_ you're making 'hanga', so I thought it
made more sense to call it 'kizuki hosho', the common term here for such
papers ...

***

Matt wrote:
>Dave, have you ever thought of getting reimbursed in some way for your
>expenses at this work? Is there a way we could all chip in and help out with
>this move in some way, for instance?

No.  I'm just having fun.   Despite what I just said to Jim, I'm doing
alright at the printmaking, and am not having to 'scrape' together the
money for this.

And actually, it's not very expensive.  The hosting fees for the new
woodblock.com domain are far far cheaper than what I would have to pay
to do it here in Tokyo.  It's not any kind of a burden.  I don't want
your money - I want your _time_ - your contributions and ideas.

My friend Sadako was asking me recently 'Why are you spending so much
time at this?  _You_ learned printmaking mostly by yourself, why help
these people?  If they are _really_ interested, they'll practice and
work to find information for themselves.  And those who wouldn't make
such efforts ... then they don't deserve all this help ...'

I'm not sure how to answer her.  I guess that rationally she's correct -
anybody who is 'worthy' of the help, doesn't 'need' the help ...  But if
we were all to follow that philosophy, then I think the world would be a
pretty sad place.  No libraries, no traditions ...  

I'm quite proud of the printmaking skill I've developed so far, but not
such an idiot as to think that I could have learned these things in a
vacuum.  Many many people have given me advice and assistance, either
face-to-face or in their writings.  It's only common sense to pass these
learnings on.

At least that's the 'rational' answer.  But I suspect that ego is also
an important part of the motivation.  A pretty neat thing is coming
together here, and I'm the architect.  That feels pretty good.  A lot of
other people are laying bricks, hoisting steel, painting walls, etc.,
but I've designed the building, and when I stand back and look it over,
and know that people are walking around inside and using the space and
facilities ... that feels good.

Anyway, enough talk about money.   SEND ME SOME MORE BRICKS!


Dave


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From: Phil Bivins <pbivins@mindspring.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 20:35:38 -0400
Subject: [Baren 676] Re: Get-together 

Welcome Bill to Baren. I hope you remember me, this is Phil Bivins from
North Carolina. Glad you are here, you have a great deal to offer and share
with this group. Again welcome. Take care,

 Phil

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From: David Bull <davebull@asahi-net.email.ne.jp>
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 12:00:05 +0900
Subject: [Baren 677] One-point lesson ... 

Here is this week's 'One-point' lesson, contributed this time by 
printer Mr. Keizaburo Matsuzaki (paraphrased into English by
David Bull ...)

********** ********** **********

(#2) Making 'bokuju' (sumi 'juice') ...

Sumi sticks used by calligraphers produce a rich and black ink,
but we woodblock printmakers need such a large quantity of
sumi that it is not practical for us to sit there rubbing the stick
back and forth on a stone to produce it.  Instead, we make it from
 'ore-zumi' (broken sumi).

Go to your local calligraphy supply shop and ask for a bag of
'ore-zumi'.  They will sell you a paper bag full of broken and
otherwise sub-standard sumi sticks, ones that cannot be sold
to their usual customers.  The more different types of stick that
are in the bag, the better.  Get out your hammer and smash them
up into pea-size fragments. (This is difficult, as the pieces tend 
to fly all over the room.  Do the smashing with the sumi inside a
strong bag of some kind.)

Put the fragments in a jar, pour in water to cover, and let them
stand for a couple of months.  (If you start off with hot water, it
tends to help the process speed up.)  Once the sumi has become good 
and soft, put the black mass into a mortar, and grind it into a smooth 
paste. When you think it is as smooth as you can make it, strain it 
through a cloth two or three times.  (Dumping it into a sock and 
squeezing it out through the toe section works well.)  Put the 
left-over mud back into the jar, add more smashed fragments, and
start the process again for next time ...

Take the strained fluid and add water and 'nikawa' (melted
gelatin) to 'taste'.  A typical ratio might be sumi '1', water '1.5',
nikawa 'a few spoonfulls', although these numbers are completely 
flexible.  Less water will obviously produce a thicker fluid; more 
nikawa will produce a more glossy black.  Let it sit for a day or so 
before using it, to let the components blend together well.

There is always a jar of sumi fragments soaking in a printer's
workshop, and the sumi smell in the room is one of the 'badges'
of our trade.

(contributed by Keizaburo Matsuzaki)

********** ********** **********

Next week, David digs deep ... not!

These 'One-point' lessons are being collected into a section in the
[Baren] Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking.
http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/updates.html

Contributions from experienced printmakers for future 'One-pointers' 
are eagerly solicited.


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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 20:58:26 -0700
Subject: [Baren 678] Re: Get-together 

>You two aren't fooling anyone.  This is just an excuse for you two to get
>together in the "big city".  Letting us know just three weeks before means
>no one else will be able to make it.  I should hop a plane just for the
>heck of it but you know what they say, "three is a crowd".  :>)

But a foursome is game for most anything..
I''ll just jump in my jet and join you guys.
(In your dreams Graham)

Regards

Graham

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End of Baren Digest V3 #137
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