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

Baren Digest               Thursday, 4 June 1998       Volume 03 : Number 173

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From: "Roger A. Ball" <beckorro@inquo.net>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 08:14:31 -0600
Subject: [Baren 865] Lynd Ward and an intro 

Hello all.  

My name is Roger Ball.  I do woodcuts on walnut.  The great-grandson of an
original homesteader of Wyoming,  I am an Episcopalian living in Utah.  I
work for a software company.  My webpage is at
http://www.inquo.net/~beckorro/woodcut/woodcut.htm

What have this to offer for now:

I recently picked up Lynd Ward's 1930 book of 137 woodcuts.  Called a
"novel without words," _Mad Man's Drum_ is a primo example of using
cross-hatch shading.  If you are into woodcuts seriously you really owe it
to yourself to get a look at this book or some of Ward's other work.  Ward
is wonderful!

I would also add as a comment on the edge/sanding/baren issue that I sand
lightly to prevent what I think is an overly hard edge.  Just 2 cents.

Regards,

- -Roger

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 07:21:26 -0700
Subject: [Baren 866] Re: Island in the Sun 

Dave B wrote.
>The printers consider it a point of pride to be able to use the baren so
>expertly that no marks are ever left by these sharp edges.  The baren
>skims across the paper so smoothly that it never touches them.

Yes I can appreciate the pride of workmanship with carvers.
Us artist kind of spend more energy on the end results. I suppose if the
blocks were ever going to be works of art in the same sense as the imagery
then I might go for the delicate finishing.

BUT.... the ol' sandpaper sure does an nifty job.

Graham

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 07:34:24 -0700
Subject: [Baren 867] Re: Graham Horizontal at Last 

Gary wrote:
>Graham, nice layout.  I wonder now, is that lighthouse at the head of your
>page manned, or one of those pernicious automated things?

You break me up....

Graham

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From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie)
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 10:48:00 -0400
Subject: [Baren 868] Baren 860: Islands in the Sun 

Graham wrote:
>Gosh, I thought everybody knew this.
>if you don't sand those little islands of support you will get a nasty
ridge when >you burnish of them with the baren.

and Dave said:

>None of the traditional carvers here do anything at all to these "sharp" edges 
>of the block... The printers consider it a point of pride to be able to use the 
>baren so expertly that no marks are ever left by these sharp edges...

I must concur with Dave here about it being a skill and pride issue. 
I've never known any printmaker in my acquaintance to sand these edges,
although it sounds like sensible time-saving advice.  I feel that its
only fair of me to add though, that I use a spoon rather than a baren;
and with careful manipulation of this tool, it need never touch the edge
of the support.

Mise le meas,
James Mundie, Philadelphia USA

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 10:20:30 -0400
Subject: [Baren 869] Re: Lynd Ward and an intro 

>My name is Roger Ball.  I do woodcuts on walnut.  etc ...

Roger

Welcome aboard.  This is a good group.  If you haven' already done so and
you have time, I suggest you look through the archives.  I enjoyed your site.

>I recently picked up Lynd Ward's 1930 book of 137 woodcuts.  Called a
>"novel without words," _Mad Man's Drum_ is a primo example of using
>cross-hatch shading.  If you are into woodcuts seriously you really owe it
>to yourself to get a look at this book or some of Ward's other work.  Ward
>is wonderful!

For everyone.  I checked Amazom.com and came up with a book by Lynd Ward
called God's Man, A Novel in Woodcuts.  It is out of print but I am having
Amazon find it for me.  When I come up with a copy and price, I will let
everyone know.

Roger, is this the same title as the one one you have or did Ward do more
than one.  Is Mad Man's Drum the title of your copy or one of the prints?

Cheers

Ray Esposito

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 10:24:55 -0400
Subject: [Baren 870] Re: Baren 860: Islands in the Sun 

Jim wrote:
> I feel that its only fair of me to add though, that I use a spoon rather than a 
>baren; 

No wonder all the good restaurants in Philly are closing.  You've got their
damn spoons. :>)  (private joke folks!!!!)

Cheers

Ray Esposito

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 09:50:17 -0700
Subject: [Baren 871] Re:Ideas for art 

Dave,
   I loved reading your report on your visit to the U.K. 
Libraries are great, aren't they?  There was an election
here yesterday.  A new library tax passed.  Also the
school bond passed. The voters must have been in a good
mood.

    Maybe I could go to the Achenbach Center for Graphic
Arts at the Legion of Honor museum in Lincoln Park in San
Francisco and ask them if I could browse their collection
for ideas.  I don't know if they would let me photograph
them, though.

    Lately I have been taking lots of photos of
wildflowers and plan to take a wildflower-walk course at
the local adult school.  Also I went to an Indian pow wow
in Berkeley recently and took lots of photos. I got some
good photos of horses at Point Reyes National Seashore a
few weeks ago.  No more copying from magazines!  I'll copy
from my own photos!  Now if I could just get my scanner
working again, so I can reverse some ot the landscape
photos.  That's on today's agenda.

    My pals at California Society of Printmakers like my
prints with words on them.   So I'll try to get some words
into my prints too.  I don't want them to be too
Disney-ish.  I want to keep an little angst in my art.
Maybe I'll do some more empty wine bottles with  X's on
them.  There's lot's of angst in that.  We drew bottles
last semester until I complained.  Then the teacher said I
could draw something else.

    It's nice to get a few moments to clean the house and
get things working again after a stressful semester. I'm
an awful grouch when I'm tired.  Sorry about that. I'm
counting on Ray to tell me that this message is too long.
Where are you, Ray?

    Here's another good web site:
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/special/exhibits/danny/danhome.htm

Jean Eger

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 13:25:15 -0400
Subject: [Baren 872] Re:Ideas for art 

Jean wrote:
>I'm an awful grouch when I'm tired.  Sorry about that. I'm counting on Ray to 
>tell me that this message is too long.  Where are you, Ray?
>Jean

Considering how long some of my posts are, I would never dream of telling
someone theirs is too long.  

If I have any complaints about posting on Baren it is when people reply to
a message by reprinting the entire message instead of cutting out jsut the
part they want to respond to (as I have done with this reply for example).
It is a total waste of time to go though a long message just to see the
answer.  I often just delete it.  

But an intelligent message containing tidbits of info about printmaking,
woodcuts and Graham's silly one liners being too long?  No way.

Besides...I'm Itialian and it takes us ten minutes just to say good morning.

Cheeers

Ray Esposito

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From: Blueman <blueman@pantek.com>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 16:11:39 -0400
Subject: [Baren 873] Re: Baren Digest V3 #172 

Baren,

Especially Graham.  Great new layout!  

Also, sanding the edges of the islands of color never occurred to me.
Keep the information coming!  Processes we might take for granted 
could be a good tip for someone else.

Gayle Wohlken

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From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie)
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 17:14:42 -0400
Subject: [Baren 874] Has anybody read this book? 

Baren folks,
	Has anyone read or at least flipped through David L. Oravez's
_Woodcut: Step-by-Step Lessons in Designing, Cutting and Printing the
Woodblock_ (1993, I think).  This out of print book came up on an
Amazon.com search.  I was just wondering if anyone had read it and found
it to be useful, or a complete waste of time...

Mise le meas,
James Mundie, Philadelphia USA

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 15:10:36 -0700
Subject: [Baren 875] Re: Lynd Ward and an intro 

Hi Roger.

Welcome ablock.  You will find the good and the bad.....jokes
mostly......and from Ray.

Looked at your site and found the images interesting. You might consider
reducing the sizes of your Jpeg images by about 50%.  They take a long time
to form up. I did find the wait worthwhile, however most surfers will not
bother the wait.  (my 2 cents)
Carving plates from walnut!!  ... must have arms the size of my thighs.
That sure is tough going.

Since you are an Episcopalian I guess we will have to clean up our language.
Watch eh, Ray

What do you do in the software company?

Graham

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From: Phil Bivins <pbivins@mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 18:27:38 -0400
Subject: [Baren 876] Re: Lynd Ward and an intro 

Welcome Roger to Baren. A nice print I might add!
Phil

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 18:44:02 -0400
Subject: [Baren 877] Re: Has anybody read this book? 

Jim wrote:
>	Has anyone read or at least flipped through David L. Oravez's
>_Woodcut: Step-by-Step Lessons in Designing, Cutting and Printing the
>Woodblock_  ...

I have the book.  It is excellent for a newbie but not someone who has
experience.  It is very basic.  Having done several blocks, I no longer see
a need to look at it.

Cheers

Ray Esposito

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 10:02:29 +0900
Subject: [Baren 878] Don't miss this ... 

In case any of you haven't done so yet, I also recommend a visit to the
web site that Jean mentioned yesterday:

> http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/special/exhibits/danny/danhome.htm

This gentleman is producing hand-made books - writing, typesetting, and
printing by himself, along with designing, cutting and printing colour
woodblock illustrations to go along with the text.  There is some very
impressive work there ... a _lot_ of it.  The prints in the later books
are especially fine.

Jim, you will be especially interested in some of the 'tonal' B&W ones:
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/special/exhibits/danny/danpg06.htm


***

> My name is Roger Ball.  I do woodcuts on walnut.

Welcome to [Baren] Roger.  

This is the first I've heard of anybody using walnut for this kind of
work.  This is really quite a close grained and hard wood, and you say
that you are oiling the surface too.  How do you get those water-based
pigments to lay down smoothly?

How are you pulling the impressions?  With a baren? ...  a press?



Dave B.


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From: Gary Luedtke <GLuedtke@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 21:42:03 -0400
Subject: [Baren 879] Recommended Reading 

I couldn't bring up the page 
<http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/Special/exhibits/danny/danhome.htm>
on my server, says it couldn't find it.  Is this a Compuserve thing or did
I get the address wrong?  I believe I copied it as listed.

Welcome to the group, Roger.

Gary

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 19:36:29 -0700
Subject: [Baren 880] Re: Recommended Reading 

Gary wrote:
>I couldn't bring up the page
><http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/Special/exhibits/danny/danhome.htm>

I tried and it wouldn't work.
I then went to the one in Dave's e-mail

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/special/exhibits/danny/danhome.htm

and it worked.  A capital S in 'special' is the difference and it must make
a difference.

Graham

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From: Gary Luedtke <GLuedtke@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 23:15:51 -0400
Subject: [Baren 881] Re: Recommended Reading 

Thanks Graham, I'll try that.

Gary

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End of Baren Digest V3 #173
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