[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Thursday, 21 January 1999 Volume 06 : Number 419 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Roger A. Ball" Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 09:03:37 -0700 Subject: [Baren 2738] wood Jake: I too got the opportunity to see the Escher show. Great stuff. Wonderful to see the blocks. If I recall correctly (IIRC), in his bio, he describes that he uses palm wood for the 'cuts and palm heartwood endgrain for the engravings. One of his early works is a of a palm tree. Most of the admired pieces that aren't lithos are engravings. A few like the spiral fishes (can't bring up the name...) are genius woodcuts. At any rate the thing that I remember most about the book is Escher's complaining to his friend about the knives breaking! I recall a discussion about pear, ash and "harder woods" like walnut about six or eight months ago. My first experience with birch ply proved much more pleasing than I expected. My current feeling is that I will continue to use birch ply while still using some walnut for some detailed pieces. I've still got a bunch of it (people keep giving me planks!), I know how to work it and it holds great fine lines. Wish some of my friends "used to" work with pear! I dislike the brittleness of the cherry I have seen and I really dislike the texture of mohagany. No doubt your mileage varies... Mine will be in the mail tommorow or next. Draw, Cut, Print, - -Roger ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 08:11:18 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2739] Re: Solid blocks for printing . . . Matt wrote.... > at long last a query I've had about Graham's using a sealer on his >blocks before carving, sealing the wood would seem like a good way to go in >working with a sanded surface. Precisely. Maybe I haven't been expressing my self well enough. Maybe a little body language is needed as well. (<: >on carving birch: this winter I have been carving almost exclusively on some >white birch I cut years ago and have been really enjoying it (about the same >hardness as our cherry). Anybody else have experience with this? If you have access to yellow birch you will find it just a little softer by degrees and equally tight grained. It is a very nice material to work on. The advantage is the yellow birch grows bigger and so comes in wider board widths. You will need to find a mill or lumber yard that can supply air dried. Jake.......I see lots of input here about kiln versus air dried. I will not post anything as it looks like it has been well covered. If you have any specific questions please let me know. Lots of luck Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 08:16:18 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2740] Re: wood stuff Dave wrote: >All I've got for you so far is a snapshot taken just before I set off: >http://www.woodblock.com/forum/archives/vol06/extras/penguin.jpg What do you think girls......Is this guy handsome or what. WOW!!!!! Graham ------------------------------ From: "David Stones" Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 02:07:09 +0900 Subject: [Baren 2741] Re: Cherry blocks, in continuum Dear Jake, Mat and All plus... Dave B (if you're back from watching the TV results of all those hours... I just got back in time to catch the last few mins. but it's all on tape - except that I've now "read" the last page of your story first... It's Sayonara Dave, your quite life HAS gone but, what a way to go! - We've got a much less interesting two-week event just starting in Okazaki (mention later, maybe) but this and a couple of good news articles has left me busy, my print room silent... and the phone overly active. It's very encouraging though to note that here, in recession Japan, there's gathering interest in not only our art, but it's process and the life-styles of the people who do it - some good news to start '99... Anyway, to those block questions. Again, in addition to Dave B' s comments - what tends to be forgotten is that although a block is maybe o.k if planed to even 1.25 cm (0.5 inches) just what happens when you carve away large areas in the middle etc. has a great effect on the stability. They sell very thin blocks at stationery stores here and I've used some that had interesting grain - but I screw the block to another "base block" - this could be one way to use re-cut/planed blocks but you'd lose one face. Final note: At one exhibition, a man gave me an old block of Cherry (Oban-size) - it had been used as a leather-worker's bench for years but one side remained as carved... this block is still 4.5 cm (1.75 inches) thick even after we planed one side down for carving... The colour of the best wood I get is often a deep brown/red but varies - the worst is a light beige. All greatly depending on where the tree grew. Narrow, dark grain for slower growing trees on a North-facing hill for example. One problem here is narrow, deep reddish "soft" spots that are useless for carving or printing. I mark these and try to fit my work around them - they do not go right through the block but are certainly a nuisance. They only appear in mature wood. Many old Cherry trees get brought down in typhoons and I sometimes get word of these BUT, invariably, the heartwood has gone and only the outer parts are intact... when standing, such a tree looks a sturdy, solid, mass. Buyers of un-felled or even un-cut logs of Cherry beware. The planing work (Dave B) is done in the winter, yes, as the carpenter is not so busy but also as the temperature etc. doesn't change so much in our hilly area - humidity is, of course lower. Even on February's cold days, my friend works outside in shirtsleeves and sweats a lot planing those deep brown/red blocks. What he mutters sometimes is best left un-translated I guess... Print on... Dave S ------------------------------ From: Wanda Robertson Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 09:15:27 -0700 Subject: [Baren 2742] Re: wood stuff Graham Scholes wrote: > What do you think girls......Is this guy handsome or what. WOW!!!!! Yup, he is! Wanda ------------------------------ From: Jean Eger Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 09:03:55 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2743] Re: Baren Digest V6 #418 The only explanation I can think of for no books at the Hiroshige exhibition is that they sold out, because it was the end of the show. Perhaps there were some at the corner of the cash register, where I did not go. Could you send me the book title and publisher of the catalog so I can look it up on Amazon.com? Thanks, Jean Also, I was told the red cherry wood is the heart wood and it is harder. The color of the wood rangers from yellowish to cherry colored. ------------------------------ From: Wanda Robertson Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 09:31:44 -0700 Subject: [Baren 2744] Re: Cherry blocks, in continuum This may be a stupid question, but I have several cherry trees on our farm. These are not producing trees, but seedling trees that have been let grow. One clump of them (about 4 trunks about 12" in diameter) blew down in the last wind storm we had. Do you think they would be good candidates for woodblock blocks? And how would one go about doing it, or telling someone else how to do it? Sizes, drying, etc. The nuts and bolts part of woodblock printing. Wanda ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 12:30:11 -0500 Subject: [Baren 2745] Re: wood stuff Dave, I noticed in your photo url the word "penguin". Just wanted to let you know I didn't miss your subtle humor there. Where did you happen to find a tux that fit? Gary ------------------------------ From: "Jeanne N. Chase" Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 12:39:40 -0500 Subject: [Baren 2746] Re: Solid blocks for printing . . . Graham I must have missed the post re; sealers. what kind of sealer do you use? PS. Glad you are back in the Exchange! Jeanne ------------------------------ From: Marco Flavio Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 09:57:01 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2747] 2 color overlapping? Hello everybody, I have a question for all of you. I am making my own inks with rice paste and powder pigments and yesterday I came across a small problem. I was printing Prussian blu over an ochre and the blue plate kept picking up the ochre which was still damp when I tried to print it, therefore giving me a quite uneven blue coverage from the keyblock. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. Marco Flavio ------------------------------ From: Jacob Roquet Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 14:50:44 -0500 Subject: [Baren 2748] From logs to lumber Wanda wrote: >And how would one go about doing it, >or telling someone else how to do it? Sizes, drying, etc. The nuts and >bolts part of woodblock printing. Wanda, Possibly. The process is complex. There is a magazine called Fine Woodworking. Your library should have it or go to http://www.taunton.com/fw/features/materials/6logstolumber.htm ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 16:56:12 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2749] Varnishing Jeanne wrote.... >I must have missed the post re; sealers. what kind of sealer do you use? After I have sanded a block with 400 grit and is ready to accept the line drawing, I use a 50/50 mix of varnish This varnish should be the best quality you can fine. Marine varnish is the stuff to look for. Take a little bit, the amount you need to coat the wood you have prepared. I smear this on with a cloth and allow it to sit for a moment and then with 600 grit sandpaper on a sanding block covered with a peice of cloth. Flannel works good, which will act as a little cushion when rubbing the sandpaper block on the surface of the prepared block. Allow to dry overnight and it will be ready to use. Do the carving and when you are finished give the plate another coat of the 50/50 or even 60/40 varnish/thinner mix. This protects the carved areas as well as giving the fine fine lines a little more strength. If you have a particularly fine line that is questionable as to holding up with continual printing another touch of varnish on that section will only help to strengthen. Let this dry and very carefully sand with the 600 grit the top relief areas of the plate. Gentle now, gently does it. You just want to take the shine of the surface i should point out the plywood 'shina' that is used is not a firm as the Japanese cherry and it need some help. Varnish is the answer to adding strength. I don't know how the wood is prepared for the making of the shina but I do know that it is *much* softer than the solid blocks I normally use. The new piece (image) I am work on is 18" x 24" so had no choice but to use the shina. Yuk. However you do what you gotta do to make it work. Graham ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 20:01:04 -0500 Subject: [Baren 2750] Re: Baren Digest V6 #418 Jean, The book I was referring to was entitled "Hiroshige--- The James A. Michener Collection". This was volume I, I don't recall whether vol. II was on Hokusai, or a backup reference book. It was put out by the Honolulu Academy of Art in 1991. Their address is: Honolulu Academy of Art 900 South Beretania Street Honolulu, HI USA 96814. The publisher listed was Kokusai Art, Tokyo. It sold at the time for $32.50 Good luck in finding it. Gary ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 17:42:31 +0900 Subject: [Baren 2751] Various ... Graham wrote (re my small new year print ...) > i notice you used a metalic pigment. I took the 'easy way out' with that print, and used a commercial formulation to get the 'gold' effect. It's a product made by Holbein, and I guess should be easily available anywhere - Acryla polymer emulsion. I used #A541 - Pearl Gold. I mix it together with a standard yellow pigment, to give it a bit more body, and then print it in the usual way. It's murder on brushes though, so I use a junker brush and then toss it after I'm done ... *** Gary wrote: > Where did you happen to find a tux that fit? This sort of stuff is 'standard issue' at rental shops all over town. I'm 179cm - which twenty years ago was TALL here, but which today won't even let me look over everybody's head while standing on the train. The rental shop measured me up (measuring not just the arm length, but shoulder to elbow, elbow to wrist, etc.), and then just pulled it off the racks. Five minutes ... *** Marco wrote: > I am making my own inks with rice paste and powder pigments and > yesterday I came across a small problem. I was printing Prussian blu > over an ochre and the blue plate kept picking up the ochre which was > still damp when I tried to print it, therefore giving me a quite uneven > blue coverage from the keyblock. I'm not quite sure from this description what the problem is. The powder pigments I'm familiar with are mostly transparent, so when we print one colour over parts of another, we usually get a third new colour showing up on the print. When you say 'uneven blue coverage' is _this_ what you mean? Another aspect to overprinting, is the fact that if you use rather too much paste for the first colour, there will be so much 'stuff' in the paper that the second colour will not go 'on top' evenly ... There is a limit to how much paste/pigment can be tucked away down there in the little spaces between the fibres of the paper. Too much overprinting, and you just start to get guck building up on top of the paper ... If you keep the pigments quite thin, the paper not too wet, and wait at least a couple of hours between applications on any particular sheet, you may have better results. *** I've finally given up on the telephone today, and have switched the answering machine on. The TV station was instructed not to give out my telephone number, just my address, but that didn't stop people from hunting it up via directory assistance. But there's not much I can do for these people who are calling. I've now booked more orders that I have prints left in the storeroom, and it's time to make a big decision - do I go ahead with a new printing of the poets' series? I don't want to even think about such a thing. I want to just get going with the new surimono prints. To do a hundred copies of one of the poets would take three/four days ... multiply by 100 ... add in some days off ... and we're looking at two years of _just printing_! No way. Another way to do it would be to send the blocks out to some of the guys in the craftsmen's association, and have them do an 'edition'. Simple prints like these would run around 900 ~ 1,000 each for a printing fee. But I don't really want to go that route either. Up to now, I've made and sold these prints _directly_ from myself to the collector. To farm out the work would just turn it into a business ... But to just turn away all these orders? Still another option is to tell these people that yes, they can have the set, but only one-by-one ... one each month ... over ten years. That way, I can just re-print _one_ each month (alongside my normal work). But do I want to commit myself to keeping this series going for another ten years? Decisions, decisions, decisions ... Dave P.S. By the way, I'm looking forward to hearing Dave S's report of the TV program. I chickened-out last night, and went for a walk instead of going over to a friend's house to watch it. It really felt a bit surreal, strolling around the dark streets, looking at all the lights on in all the living rooms, and knowing that the people in there were watching my 'life story' ... ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V6 #419 ***************************