[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Monday, 3 May 1999 Volume 07 : Number 551 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cucamongie@aol.com Date: Sun, 2 May 1999 09:40:55 EDT Subject: [Baren 4280] Re: cherry blossom festival I'm not sure if April Vollmer already mentioned this online, but yesterday I helped her out at a printmaking demo (of Japanese-style woodblock) at the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanical garden. A lot of fun, and a lot of interest from a varied group from children to "serious" artists, etc - anyway, if anyone's in the area, come by today (Sunday) - we'll be there from 1pm to 5pm - take care Sarah ------------------------------ From: Gayle Wohlken Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 09:55:26 -0400 Subject: [Baren 4281] Re: Baren Digest V7 #550 Jean, I enjoyed all your prints, not just the woodcuts. "Horsefeathers", in composition, I found satisfying. A strong feeling of the ethereal. Your Page 4 untitled etchings of a figure standing are intriguing enough to make me want to know more about them. Nice rich color (woodcut) in the forground of the kids playing. * * * Thanks, Phil, for the information on sharpening the bull nosed chisel. I think now I'm really afraid of it, though. I'm a very lousy tool sharpener to begin with. * * * Graham, thanks for clarifying about polyurethane varnish. I had already bought some yesterday before I read your post, so I'll just have to deal with the "scum to skim". Gayle ------------------------------ From: Wanda Robertson Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 10:19:44 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4282] Re: critique Gosh, Jean, I have just been looking at your prints. What a nice body of work you are getting! Is the "Leaving Koto Varos" in response to all the pain and suffering in Kosovo? It is a powerful, moving print. And done in a woodblock reduction? Very well executed, I'd say. You do have a gift for the flowers and vegetation, you know. Your nasturtiums are wonderful, lively and botanically correct at the same time. How many blocks did you use on your "Variation #3"? I love the way the cuts surround and move through the background. Gorgeous! Thanks for letting us see them. Wanda ------------------------------ From: Jean Eger Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 10:17:37 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4283] Re: Baren Digest V7 #550 Ray H, THanks for the compliment about the young Pegasus. The young Pegasus was made from a clay plate. It was bisque fired and did not lay flat. Probably because I was in a hurry. This was part of my research into multicultural printmaking because I saw a print from a clay plate by a Vietnamese artist (sorry I can't remember his name.) Maybe I'll try it again with Sculpey. Because there was a helicopter training crash at Ft. Campbell KY and NATO dropping bombs on the people we are supposed to protect, I guess I'd better get my friendly fire memorial series revved up again. I envision a six foot by eight foot panel of seven flying horses dropping from the sky. The only question is, is it six feet high or eight feet high? I am also going to envision an art show to show all those Pegasuses. Maybe I'll do them on silk or cotton so they can blow in the wind, a la Tomoko. WEll, I'll have the matrix so I can print on anything. Bad news on the health front. I will probably need a mastectomy, according to the doctor. Hopefully I'll join the legions of women who live long productive lives minus their mammaries. I'm leaving this world in little chunks. So I guess I'll be home making art for awhile. Jean Eger ------------------------------ From: Jack Reisland Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 08:57:14 +0000 Subject: [Baren 4284] Re: Baren Digest V7 #550 Gayle wrote: > Graham, thanks for clarifying about polyurethane varnish. > I had already bought some yesterday before I read your post, > so I'll just have to deal with the "scum to skim". If you store the can up-side-down, you will have no scum, just make sure you turn it right-side-up before you open it :-) . Jack ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 2 May 1999 12:53:14 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4285] Re: Baren Digest V7 #550 >If you store the can up-side-down, you will have no scum, just make sure >you turn it right-side-up before you open it :-) . Hummm It didn't work for me.... Just ended up with scum that could not be easily removed until you did a fair amount of fishing..... I am curious how it works for you Jack.... trapped air... be it at the lid or reverse to this when the tin is turned upside down.... is the culprit. Graham ------------------------------ From: Barbara Mason Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 12:58:15 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4286] Re: Baren Digest V7 #550 Could you cut a circle of plastic from a piece of mylar or similar material and lay it on top of the varathane before you closed the lid, like we do with oil based inks? It certainly keeps the air off the ink. If this works it would save a lot of varathane. Barbara ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 2 May 1999 15:46:25 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4287] Scum of the Varn What a good idea.....don't see any reason for it not working. Graham ------------------------------ From: Jack Reisland Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 14:54:18 +0000 Subject: [Baren 4288] Re: Baren Digest V7 #550 > I am curious how it works for you Jack.... trapped air... be it at the lid > or reverse to this when the tin is turned upside down.... is the culprit. I've had good to mixed results with turning the can upside/down on several different products, but now I must admit that I can't remember whether it worked for Poly varnish. Sorry for the imprecise info. Jack ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Mon, 03 May 1999 10:06:14 +0900 Subject: [Baren 4289] Re: need "to" help John wrote: > Questions: (1) How many of you are using the hangi-to like me? and for > those who use the traditional grip- (2) what am I missing? The two styles of grip are known here (in Japan) as: - - 'shake hand' (shei ku hando) - the traditional grip - - 'pencil hand' (pen shiru hando) - the pencil type grip. Among the traditional carvers, naturally the traditional grip is the method of choice. Contemporary printmakers, usually working in softer wood, use both types of grip. My bias is of course to the traditional method ... I find the 'shake hand' grip: - - gives absolute control over depth of cut - - makes it far easier to 'steer' the blade this way and that when carving twisty and turny lines - - is easy to use with a ruler for long straight lines - - allows one to cut in practically any direction - not just towards onself - - is far less stressful to the wrist joint, as the wrist is held straight, not 'turned' back upwards. - - allows indescribably delicate cutting movements to be made (with the support of a finger of the opposite hand) - - can give tremendous power when needed. Yes, it might take a bit more training (might!), but for anybody who intends to do a lot of printmaking, I would most emphatically recommend getting familiar with this way of cutting. The illustration from the Fletcher book that John 'quoted' in his posting is extremely misleading though. Fletcher had no real training, and learned pretty much by himself. This is of course admirable, but means that his techniques are quite 'individual'. The illustration shows the cutting hand held way up in the air, completely unsupported - an impossible way to cut. I can't take pictures showing myself cutting a block, but once my daughters arrive here for the summer, I'll get them to do a sequence for the Encyclopedia on this ... *** Jean wrote (no doubt puzzling many of you): > What a great idea Dave and Julio had to have critiques. And Dave created > such an extraordinary critique page ... I have been asked by a number of you in recent months to try and encourage more 'critiquing' of the exchange prints. This has been a bit difficult, because [Baren] is so polite! But the other day, in response to an idea from Julio, I put up a sample page for him to try out: http://woodblock.com/forum/critique.html The idea is also to have comments available for the group at large to read, so that everybody can learn from these critiques. So a second part of this 'experiment' is to update each page in the exchange section to include the comments. For an example, click on Julio's page in the Exchange section, and scroll down ... http://woodblock.com/forum/exchange_99/exchange_frame.html I myself am not totally convinced that this sort of pages are necessary, but anyway, there they are for your inspection and comments/criticism. Perhaps my hesitancy is misplaced - Julio is certainly eager to hear your feedback on his print, and I've already heard from other [Baren] members who want to have their prints on that page. So I guess we'll give it a try ... that sample page is now 'open' for anybody to try out. Those of you who were _in_ the first exchange have a copy of the print in hand, so you can easily inspect it and make comments to Julio. Those of you who don't have the print, can at least comment about general things like design and composition. *** Gayle wrote: > Okay folks, I got my new bull nosed chisel. I looked > at it and have no idea how I will sharpen it to that shape > again? Any help here? It's sharpened with a sort of rolling motion on the stone, not something easy to describe in words. Before using any new chisel like this, it's not a bad idea to make a close-up sketch (or photo) of the shape of the tip and the angle of the bevel. Even after 20 years of doing this, I still refer back to such sketches frequently - it's _very_ difficult to maintain consistency. The angle can change ever-so-slightly each time one sharpens it; the months go by; after a while you realize that the shape has become nothing like what it used to be. The sketch will help you get it back ... Dave ------------------------------ From: Aqua4tis@aol.com Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 08:04:59 EDT Subject: [Baren 4290] Re: Baren Digest V7 #550 jean you mentioned clay prints ive never heard of this before could you tell me about this process please? im assuming these are hand rubbed prints also in an earlier post i asked if anyone could recomend a good book on the hanga method of woodcut i didnt get any replies so im asking again as you can tell im a novice at this also jean i did a benefit show for breast cancer research recently and many of the artists there were survivors of breast cancer it was encouraging to see so many healthy and happy women i will keep on lighting candles for you in hopes that you will soon be one of them georga ------------------------------ From: Aqua4tis@aol.com Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 08:23:43 EDT Subject: [Baren 4291] Re: LA area roxanne im involved with self help graphics in East LA do you know of it? one of my friends was a teacher at long beach donna anderson and another friend just did his senior project there pete rangel ive heard very good things about your print dept there at long beach i hope to visit there soon georga ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V7 #551 ***************************