[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Tuesday, 29 September 1998 Volume 04 : Number 296 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gayle Wohlken Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 09:24:12 -0600 Subject: [Baren 1773] Re: Baren Digest V4 #295 Daniel mentioned with rice paste one can use a roller to apply the pigment. Could you elaborate on the process, Daniel? I like using rollers because that's what I'm accustomed to using, so describe how much paste vs. pigment. With a roller you don't work with such little dabs? Do you roll it out on a glass? Could you give a play by play on this? Gayle Wohlken ------------------------------ From: Matthew.W.Brown@VALLEY.NET (Matthew W Brown) Date: 28 Sep 98 12:26:56 EDT Subject: [Baren 1774] Pastes and mold Dan, Actually I have found wheat paste is too 'sticky'. It takes too much water in the balance to be able to have prints pull easily from the block. Potato starch, however. . . that sounds interesting. The UV light sounds interesting also. I know in making maple syrup UV lights are getting used more and more to keep sap from going "off". The sap is sent through a UV 'filter', of some sort. It might be a thing of passing each print under a light to 'inoculate' it? In a phone conversation with Kathy Carraccio of NYC recently she mentionned using distilled water. Has that been brought up yet as another aid in discouraging mold? Baren, (a little story:) While I was away in the cities this past weekend my shop was part of an Open Studio Tour. A woman who does woodcuts using oil inks and rollers was set up demonstrating downstairs while people could see the hanga benches and prints upstairs. Evidently someone asked about the differences betweeen the two printing methods. My little boy Nathaniel, who is five, explained: "Well, its like this: what she is doing is more GLOPPY, and what my Dad does is more SLOPPY, you see." !!!! Matt I might mention: the International Print Show in Boston this past weekend had three dealers representing color woodcuts in a major way, it was a real thrill to see lots of Yoshida, Hasui, Baumann, Walter Phillips, William Rice, as well as some contemporary (including Dan Kelly), lots of ukiyo-e, even a print by Frank Morley Fletcher, author of one of the books Dave has posted on the 'Pedia. There will be a Print show at the Park Ave. Armory in NYC Nov. 4-8 with much of this same work, perhaps there are some on the Baren who could make a visit to this; I would encourage it! ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 11:54:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 1775] Re: Pastes and mold Hi all. You should use distilled water for any wetting or making of paste or mixing with pigments. You just never know what will be in the tap water to start beasties growing. The water I use comes from mountain lakes and I still do not take a chance on using it. Yes, wheat paste is too sticky. The recommended formula by Noboru Sawai is 50% Rice and 50% Wheat. This makes a wonderfully consistent paste for brushing. Graham ps Welcome back Ray...... ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 17:52:09 -0500 Subject: [Baren 1776] new midwest supplier Good news. I found a store in my neck of the woods that specializes ONLY in Japanese hand-made washi and tools. They also carry all kinds of japanese art books & miscellaneous stuff. Sounds really promising. It's only about 2 miles from my house so you can imagine how excited I am. Unfortunately they are closed Sundays & Mondays so I will have to wait till tomorrow to go check them out. I came across their address & phone number while visiting a Suminagashi web-site ( I am signed up for a class in suminagashi later in November at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art). I will let everyone know what I find out about this new supplier and what kind of prices they offer asap. I believe they also carry videos. AIKO's Art Supply 3347 N. Clark Chicago, Illinois phone (773) 404-5600 ------------------------------ From: Daniel Kelly Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 09:00:55 +0000 Subject: [Baren 1777] Re: Back to UV / roller Matthew W Brown wrote: > The UV light sounds interesting also. I know in making maple syrup UV > lights are getting used more and more to keep sap from going "off". The sap is > sent through a UV 'filter', of some sort. It might be a thing of passing each > print under a light to 'inoculate' it? This is essentially what I was thinking about when I mentioned lights above the shelves holding the prints we are working with. Each print in turn would pass under the light as we add layers. This occurred to me as I had purchased UV lights for photographic exposure but got the wrong ones. I didn't know how many kinds there are. So when the local electrical shop got in the special order, they warned us of the dangers to our eyes. I investigated and found that the ones we had were for the UV filtering systems at large aquariums in which water is passed through a glass tube surrounded these lights. BTW there are OTHER UV lights mainly used above aquariums in homes to enhance colors . These are not so dangerous. I have some of them on the ceiling of the studio. I can turn them on at night while I am gone and give a long exposure while drying prints. I intend to put the dangerous ones above the print shelves with eye protection. > In a phone conversation with Kathy Carraccio of NYC recently she > mentionned using distilled water. Has that been brought up yet as another aid > in discouraging mold? Discourage is a good word, but I wonder how much it matters as everything in and on the paper is organic except the pigment. Wonderful hand made papers made in Asian countries are like a collection of old kitchen waste (organic cellulose) with soup stock (size) poured on them. Gayle Wohlken asks: > rice paste one can use a roller ....to apply the pigment. Could you elaborate > ... describe how much paste vs. pigment. Do you roll it out on a glass I have simply used a very soft roller with a sponge like (but harder) surface and rolled out the same inks everyone describes here mixed with the same rice paste in a dryish mixture on a glass table. Using lots of paste one can easily get fine, light, transparent tints or whatever. You can simply roll out rice paste by its self if you wish. If it dries too quickly add a little glycerin. If you tried it you would see that there is no explanation necessary. D ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V4 #296 ***************************