[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Thursday, 6 August 1998 Volume 04 : Number 237 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gayle Wohlken Date: Wed, 05 Aug 1998 09:45:17 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1311] Re: Baren Digest V4 #236 James wrote: > How does this sound? >Commitment deadline... 1 September 1998 >Completion deadline... 1 February 1999 This sounds quite fair. * * * * > http://users.lanminds.com/~jeaneger/nasturtium.dir Jean, all I got was "File Not Found on this Server". Sorry to have missed your animation. This came after renaming, as you suggested. Gayle Wohlken ------------------------------ From: "Roger A. Ball" Date: Wed, 05 Aug 1998 08:55:08 -0600 Subject: [Baren 1312] new print up/collection Re: "Collection" Well, personally I was hanging back figuring that I'd get in "next time" after I "got better." I decided it would patently unfair for me to offer in trade one of my latest _experiments_ for a fully planned-out design by someone who has been doing this for years. At least now I could offer watercolor instead of the dreadful speedball...and I hope to bring something off with a little more class by January '99... For now I'd say that a bunch of the other newbies deserve to be in before me. Take a look here http://www.inquo.net/~beckorro/woodcut/vill22a.jpg and then feel free to let me know what you think. I know I still have tons to learn but I'm having a great time! Ob Stats: Moistened Stonehenge, brushed on tube watercolor/ricepaste, barened, nine impressions, single block, walnut. Probably needs more impressions. Definitely needs smoother brush work. Cheerio, - -Roger ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 10:01:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 1313] Re: the exchange continuing update James wrote..... Well, thanks for saving me the trouble, Mr. Scholes. Please Jim....Mr. Scholes was my father's name....Mine is Graham. CONTAINER..... I will make my own box. >NEW DEADLINE SUGGESTION: >How does this sound? Commitment deadline... 1 September 1998 >Completion deadline... 1 February 1999 Fabulous. Perfect. Bang on the money. GO FOR IT. Carve it in Stone SIZE: OBAN Standard print 15" x 10" (39 x 26cm) Fabulous. Perfect. Bang on the money. GO FOR IT. Carve it in Stone Must to have that lovely little boarder of white paper.... 1 1/8" min. or 3cm. Cheers Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 10:01:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 1314] new print by Roger. Roger wrote..... >Take a look here: >http://www.inquo.net/~beckorro/woodcut/vill22a.jpg >and then feel free to let me know what you think. I know I still have tons >to learn but I'm having a great time! As I understand it, when you use Stonehenge paper you should do one of two things ...or is that Thingies. 1. Soak it overnight and then lay it with moderate weight between thick pieces of dry blotting paper to remove some moisture. Leave it there for several hours. 2. Dampen it and them run it through a etching press. Do this twice. You dry it between operations. It will get a very smooth finish resulting in smoother printing. The same technique goes for BFK Rives. It is hard to tell on the web but I suspect that you have too much pigment and not enough rice paste. The blotchy look is the clue. In the sky for instance around the lower centre cloud there seems a build up of colour and then left and right of this area is a texture that is either carving pattern or.....is it speckled pigment. If carving fine. If speckled pigment .... two things possible. Paper is rough and to hard not allowing the burnishing to press the pigment into the valleys. Or....not enough rice paste. This always causes the pigment to go speckly. More impressions will smooth out an area and intensify the colour. Regards, Graham ------------------------------ From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 16:55:38 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1315] Re: Baren Digest V4 #236 (the exchange) Haydee wrote: >I'm interest in the exchange portfolio. It will be excellent idea to >see works from differents parts of the world. That's the spirit! Welcome aboard, Haydee. We are now up to sixteen. Jean wrote: >Regarding the FIrst annual Baren print club exchange print: >James' idea of oban size is good... Oban size is a standard size. It's in the >Encyclopedia under paper. Yes, everyone please have a look at Dave's entry on Japanese paper dimesions: http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/016_01/016_01_frame.html It seems only fitting to choose a standard Japanese dimension standard for the [Baren] exchange, as it is to that tradition that we look for guidance, inspiration and comparison. Oban is half a sheet of O-bosho. If one's sheet of large hosho is 39.4cm x 53cm (roughly 15 1/2 x 20 7/8 inches), the halved sheets would be 19.7cm x 26.5 (roughly 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches). As Dave notes in the text, the actual size of any particular maker's O-bosho varies slightly. I think this variation is intrinsic, and so long as everyone's sheets are roughly the same size, that's good enough for me. >I told James I could not afford to buy a fancy box, but I plan to make >one for the prints, so it would be nice to have the size the same. Dave mentioned to me that the fellow who makes his cases produces them for _substantially_ less money than any of the previous quotes. More on that later.. >The image size could be anything that would fit on the paper, >including a full bleed print. Exactly! James Mundie, Philadelphia USA ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Thu, 06 Aug 1998 08:20:14 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1316] New member ... new print ... Haydee wrote: >I'm interest in the exchange portfolio. It will be excellent idea to see >works from differents parts of the world. Welcome to [Baren] Haydee ... I noticed that your system is displaying dates in Spanish: >Date: lunes 3 de agosto de 1998 19:35 Are you our first member from Spain? Where is 'coqui.net'? *** Roger wrote: >Well, personally I was hanging back figuring that I'd >get in "next time" after I "got better." ... and then showed us the address of his latest 'experiment' ... > http://www.inquo.net/~beckorro/woodcut/vill22a.jpg Roger this is a very attractive print. I'm gradually learning how to look at prints like this. A few years ago, if I had seen this image I would instantly have said 'Hmmmm, nice picture. But let's see: get rid of 90% of the water in there, use some _real_ paper, get some _smooth_ colour instead of those funny speckled impressions ...' But now I'm not so sure if those would be the right things to say. _I_ like smooth colour, but if that's what everybody else printed all the time, the world of woodblock printmaking would sure get pretty boring. The more I looked at this picture, the more I started to like those tones. I guess the key point is control. Perhaps at the moment you are printing speckles because you can't control the water well. Graham's comments are aimed at helping you overcome this, if it is the case. The ideal of course, is for you to have so much control that you can print exactly what kind of impression you wish to at any given moment. For myself, I would like to see smoother colour on the building in the foreground, to contrast it with the more distant areas ... I like this print. It's got great depth, which always grabs my attention. If prints like this turn up in the upcoming [Baren] exchange portfolio, I'll be happy. So cut out the 'hanging back' stuff, and sign up! Dave ------------------------------ Subject: [Baren 1317] Post duplicated in error Subject: [Baren 1318] Post duplicated in error Subject: [Baren 1319] Post duplicated in error Subject: [Baren 1320] Post duplicated in error ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 17:52:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 1321] Re: New member ... new print ... Dave wrote...... > A few years ago, if I had seen this image I >would instantly have said 'Hmmmm, nice picture. But let's see: get rid >of 90% of the water in there, use some _real_ paper, get some _smooth_ >colour instead of those funny speckled impressions ...' > > but if that's what everybody else printed all the >time, the world of woodblock printmaking would sure get pretty boring. >The more I looked at this picture, the more I started to like those >tones. Hang around this list server long enough Dave ... we'll educate you. (<; Graham ------------------------------ From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 22:21:11 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1322] correction to oban dimensions Mea culpa. Julio pointed out a rather large mistake in my last post. In my haste to post that message before bolting out the door to work, I mistakenly quartered the O-bosho to achieve my oban dimensions. Oops. Math never was my strong suit. Oban dimension should have read: 39.4cm x 26.5cm (roughly 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches). That gives one two oban sheets per O-bosho. James Mundie, Philadelphia USA ------------------------------ From: April Vollmer/John Yamaguchi Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 22:35:55 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1323] Exchange portfolio Sounds like a great project! Six months and oban size sounds about right to me. (how big is oban?) I was surprised that people responded so negatively to Roxanne's grantraising ideas, but I'm sure it would be difficult in any case. I do think doing it nicely might cost something, she mentioned artists chipping in for a colophon page....as did Jean...or was it Jeanne? (hard to remember with all the quoting!!!) who said artists chipped in for costs. Shipping, and if not a box, maybe some sort of portfolio to protect them? In any case, with all this enthusiasm how can it fail to be a fabulous collection of prints? Count me in, too. April Vollmer ------------------------------ From: "Haydee Landing" Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 01:13:44 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1324] Re: New member ... new print ... Dave wrote: > Welcome to [Baren] Haydee ... I noticed that your system is displaying > dates in Spanish: > >Date: lunes 3 de agosto de 1998 19:35 > > Are you our first member from Spain? Where is 'coqui.net'? I'm from Puerto Rico and I'm in Baren only for 2 weeks. Coqui is a unique portorrican small toad. Coqui.net is a private company that offer internet service in Puerto Rico. I work color woodcuts by hand or press and for me 5 month is OK. Few years ago I participated in a similar exchange portfolio with 5 or 6 art school from all the world , sponsor by the Art School of the Boston Art Museum and was a fantastic experience. I think that is important to know if we want unity or diversity concept in the portfolio. If want the first is important that the type and size of paper, border will be the same. If we want diversity then the paper, borders, by hand or press, theme, position (vertical or horizontal) and all will be different. I prefer the second one but if you prefer the first it's good for me. The only thing that I don't like in that portfolio was the signature, in some prints were in the back of the paper not in the front. The difference between artist personality was present in all the portfolio. Haydee ------------------------------ From: Matthew.W.Brown@VALLEY.NET (Matthew W Brown) Date: 06 Aug 98 07:17:10 EDT Subject: [Baren 1325] Re: "Computer Art" Gary, This designer is not so fortunate, or perhaps expert, enough to do that. I have to work through my designs, set them aside, see what bothers me, come back and revise, etc. etc. Of course the time comes when as Dave says, you must "cut, print!' Until that time though, it is never too late to improve. And this is where I find the computer very helpful. Richard, Jim Ulrich is his name. He spent years studying inks and pigments, going to the factories and talking with their engineers. At last, he came up with a pigment that is inexpensive, water-based, as rich as the minerals and probably fast. The beauty of it is that you do not need to moisten the paper before printing at all! ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 07:50:46 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1326] Re: "Computer Art" You've got me baffled on this one Matt. You quoted an earlier Baren entry of mine then went off to speak of permanent water based pigment research by Jim Ulrich. I think I missed something here. You didn't spill coffee into your keyboard this morning, did you? Welcome Haydee, to Baren. I've kept silent while all this talk of a print exchange has gone on because unlike most, if not all of you, I have designed prints but never _made_ them. I am not aloof from this exchange, only have nothing to offer. The best I could do would be a computer print out of one of my designs, but of course that would only be on color printer paper. I know Graham would be tearing his beard out if I were to attempt to pass one of those off as a contribution, so I'll respectfully pass on participating in this, but of course I'll continue to participate in Baren. Gary Luedtke ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V4 #237 ***************************