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

Baren Digest                Sunday, 23 May 1999        Volume 07 : Number 571

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Jeanne N. Chase" <studiojnc@prodigy.net>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 09:51:53 -0400
Subject: [Baren 4440] Re: Baren Digest V7 #569 

Jean
Do they have a catalog of the Political Print show at the Berkley Center?
If so, could I have their address so that I could send for one?
Congratulations that you have 3 prints in the show!!!

Thanks

Jeanne

------------------------------

From: horacio <horacio@centroin.com.br>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 15:35:09 -0300
Subject: [Baren 4443] Re: Baren Digest V7 #566

Gayle Wohlken wrote:
>Horacio, tell us all about how you
> work on your pieces.  Thanks.

The size of the prints shown varies from 4" x 5" (the small) to 8" x 12"
(the largest). I'm updating my web page this weekend and including the
size of the prints, as suggested by Graham too.

A brief description on "how I work on my pieces":
[1] Block: I use blocks of a very compact white wood that we call "pau
marfim" (direct translation: ivory wood) . It's very good for my kind of
work but not easy to find. Unfortunately it is in extinction. Not
because of the massive consume by the Brazilian printmakers, of course.
Alternatively I use plaques of linoleum (in fact, a rubberlike material
used to make sole of shoes).

[2] Ink: Normal typographic black ink used for newspapers and off-set
impression.

[3] Paper: (papel seda = silk paper) A very cheap, easy to find, thin
white paper used by children in schoolwork and to make kites.

[4] Tools: Normal knives and gauges in "V" and "U" shapes. I have some
special tools that a friend gave me years ago and that are very good for
detail and delicate cuts. Besides the usefulness those tools are
beautiful handcrafts. The handle opens like a fan and the blade is
removable. They are made in Japan but she bought them at:
Robert McClain Japanese Prints and Supplies
2380 Spring Blvd., Eugene, OR 97403 USA
In Robert McClain's catalogue they are specified as FUTATSU WARI MOKU
HANGA (two-part knives for woodbloking printmaking). ?!
I would like to buy more of such tools, but I didn't find the shop's
address on the web. Maybe you can help me.

[5] Printing Process: I apply the ink with a rubber roller and take the
copies pressing the back of a wood spoon against the back of the paper.
Sacrilege! I don't use baren. But I promise, I will buy one and try. 

[6] Tools Sharpening Process: Very fine metal sandpaper

------------------------------

From: <DARICH@prodigy.net>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 12:17:31 -0700
Subject: [Baren 4445] political prints

Dear Horatio,

I read your comments about your love of the woodcut process and the
political message of your prints.  I am not sure I agree with you about
printmaking being outdated as an instrument for political comment or
change.  In fact I believe a strong image can be used to speak clearly to
large numbers of people.  Certainly photo journalism does just that and a
print can be just a eloquent. I think of Katie Kollowitz as an obvious
example.  It's true that commercial advertising seems to have taken the
place of poster art but that has more to do with distribution than with
media or content.

I want to thank you for realizing that at their best my "decorative" prints
are indeed political.  Where your work speaks to frustration with the world
as it is, mine illustrate the exquisite beauty and richness that surround
us but which we are devaluing and destroying bit by bit, day by day.  For
me it is too painful to illustrate the waste and loss occurring and I think
for many people it is too painful to look at directly.  But by focusing
instead on what it is we are losing we grow stronger in our commitment to
change the direction of our future.  We are possible of great change but
only if we believe it is possible.  I find that when I focus on all the
negatives I begin to lose that belief, hence the difference in our
approaches.  It is in the end the same world we are looking at and
responding to.

Thanks for stimulating my gray cells this morning,
Andrea Rich 

------------------------------

From: Jack Reisland <reislandj001@hawaii.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 10:39:27 +0000
Subject: [Baren 4446] Re: Baren Digest V7 #566

horacio wrote:
> In Robert McClain's catalogue they are specified as FUTATSU WARI MOKU
> HANGA T=D6 (two-part knives for woodbloking printmaking). ?!
> I would like to buy more of such tools, but I didn't find the shop's
> address on the web. Maybe you can help me.

Sorry to say, McClain's does not have a web site. Do you have a current
catalog?

Jack R.

------------------------------

From: judy mensch <mensch@interport.net>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 17:26:30 -0500
Subject: [Baren 4447] Re: Baren Digest V7 #569

Jean: I'd like to add my Congradultions on the Berkeley Art Center
Show.  I'd also like to send for a catalogue, if they're doing one. Can
you post the address and phone number?  Thank, Judy

------------------------------

From: horacio <horacio@centroin.com.br>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 18:57:16 -0300
Subject: [Baren 4448] Re: Baren Digest V7 #566

Jack Reisland wrote:
> Sorry to say, McClain's does not have a web site. Do you have a current
> catalog?

The catalogue I have is dated Fall 1989. It has a telephone number,
1-800-274-2642, I called them up but I could not communicate myself.
Wrong number. Maybe because of my English speaking problems.

------------------------------

From: Jack Reisland <reislandj001@hawaii.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 13:02:20 +0000
Subject: [Baren 4449] Re: Baren Digest V7 #566

McClain's current phone number is 1-800-832-4264. Purhaps you could get a
new catalog, and do your ordering through the mail, as you written english
is just fine. If you have any questions about their tools or prices, I'm
sure several of us here on line could help you, we even have members in
Portland, where McClain's is located.

Jack R.

------------------------------

From: "Brad A. Schwartz" <brads@iea.com>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 16:10:08 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Baren 4450] Re: Baren Digest V7 #566

Their e-mail address is Mcclains@aol.com
That might work the best & fastest... :)

Brad

------------------------------

From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 08:32:44 +0900
Subject: [Baren 4451] Political prints ...

Gayle wrote:
>  I think the political statement in woodcuts will be
>  around a long time.

Well this may be so, but what I was thinking about with my original
comment the other day, was sort of a 'so what?' feeling.

Back a century ago, a woodblock print or poster or some other such
graphic art technique could be used to deliver a message - by carrying
information that the viewer _hadn't seen before_. 

It was the combination of _showing_ some injustice, while at the same
time _commenting_ on the injustice, that gave the medium its power.  But
now that TV has done the showing, there's nothing left but the
commenting, and we don't need a graphic art for that ...

Horacio said:
> I agree that woodcuts are out-of-date as an instrument for
> political purposes.

... and this is what I think too. 


Andrea added:
> ... by focusing instead on what it is we are losing we grow stronger
> in our commitment to change the direction of our future.

Your approach is interesting: not showing the negative side, but
emphasizing the positive side.  I don't know that I would call such
prints 'political'; is every picture of a beautiful sunset to be taken
as a call against air pollution?  To think this way is I think, to allow
the 'negatives' to define our world. I would like to think (naively,
perhaps), that beauty can stand on its own, without any other
justification.


> But, of course, I don't expect to change the world
> with my prints. I just want make "xilogravuras".

Not 'change the world' ... but just add a bunch more beauty.  (And in my
case, it's 'chromoxylogravures'!)

(And do you remember that Horacio said "Please, forgive my bad
English."  I guess that was a joke!  Nothing wrong with your postings,
Horacio!)

***

Brad asked:
> David, you mention using 'gum arabic' on the block to adhere the thin rice
> paper with the colour image on it.  Is this just plain old gum arabic that
> you'd use in lithography or something else? What about using rice/wheat
> paste and or YES! paste?

I don't know about lithography Brad, but the stuff I'm using is simply a
good sticky glue (kind of like the 'mucilage' that we used to use back
in school, but a bit stonger). 

I used to use rice paste, but found that when carving thin lines, the
paper pulled away from the block too easily.  Since switching to this
stronger stuff, this hasn't been a problem.  I've read that back in the
old days, they sometimes used a straight 'nikawa' (melted gelatine ...).

I've never seen this 'yes paste' you mention.  Will this wash off easily
after the carving is done?

Dave

------------------------------

End of Baren Digest V7 #571
***************************