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

Baren Digest            Wednesday, 8 September 1999    Volume 08 : Number 694

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From: Gayle Wohlken <blueman@nacs.net>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 09:34:38 -0400
Subject: [Baren 5665] Re: Baren Digest V8 #693 

Congratulations, winners of the print prizes--Maria, Mary and Jeanne.

I found  a way to keep bloody fingers to a minimum.  I went to an 
office supply store and bought rubber fingertips (the kind used in the
office to help a person rifle through a stack of papers).  I put a smaller
size on first, then a larger one over that.  You should have seen me go 
with that bullnosed chisel yesterday and no injuries!  Also I have ordered
an archer's glove.  The middle finger on my right hand is now somewhat 
strangely shaped at the top knuckle area where the bullnosed chisel has
left scar tissue.

Gayle

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From: "Jeanne N. Chase" <studiojnc@prodigy.net>
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 09:51:07 -0400
Subject: [Baren 5666] Hooray 

Thanks Dave

Wow, the last time I won a prize was for a turkey. And this is no
turkey!!!!!  What a great surprize.
Let's do it again.

Jeanne

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From: Maria Arango <Maria@mariarango.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 08:18:59 -0700
Subject: [Baren 5668] Re: I won! & dry cherry? 

Oh boy! I don't think I have ever won anything before, except that puppy
when I was 6 and my mom made me give it back... Thanks, Dave, Himi and
Fumi, and congrats to Mary and Jeanne, too.
A free site of interest to Bareneers all over the world,
htp://www.isbister.com/worldtime , now you will know when everyone gets
up in the morning.
Thanks for the info on posting images on the web.
I have heard nothing but bad things about Win98, by the way, I'm holding
out til Win2000.

Now for more of a woodblock related question:
It seems like sometimes the cherry wood goes along carving very nicely
and then I hit a spot that splinters like crazy. It seems to be
localized to some parts of the wood, not the whole block. Do I have a
"bad batch" or is this the nature of the beast? Keep in mind that we
have single-digit humidity most of the year (although not this year). I
purchased form a Canadian supplier.
Thanks and health to all,

Maria

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From: "David Stones" <stones@mb.i-chubu.ne.jp>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 00:51:44 +0900
Subject: [Baren 5669] Re: Baren Digest V8 #693

Dear Gayle and all,

Re not carving your fingers(!)... I once tried the same idea as you mention
and found it better to cut the tip off the rubber fingertips to protect the
inside of my finger - but, soon, corrected the whole problem by using a
mallet and a longer tool where you have more control, your fingers are away
from the block and you don't need the pressure. If you're pushing so hard
on the tool that it's causing the problems you mention, either the wood is
very hard (then use a mallet) or the blade needs attention. (The blade
should glide along with not so much pressure)... hope this helps.

Dave (S)

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From: Bella1yopp@aol.com
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 12:03:37 EDT
Subject: [Baren 5670] 

Jean wrote:
> I think you are describing paper plate lithography.

I do believe I am.  Xerox inking, paper litho, paper plate lithography.  Its 
all the same.  I really how low tech alternative ways of printing need a 
fancier name in order to become accepted in the art world.  Like a 
Collagraph... or is it a Carborundum Print.
Low Tech is Cool:)

- -Amanda Yopp

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From: Shireen Holman <tholman@clark.net>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 14:31:40 -0400
Subject: [Baren 5672] workshops at pyramid atlantic 

Hello everyone,
I have just put Pyramid Atlantic's fall workshop schedule on the internet - 
it includes information about April's hanga workshop. The address is 
http://home.earthlink.net/~pyratl/
Shireen

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From: Wanda Robertson <robertson@canby.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 13:35:15 -0700
Subject: [Baren 5673] Drawing, printing, not cutting fingers & kids....... 

Congratulations, Maria, Mary & Jeanne, I'm very happy for you - and very
pleased at all of the wonderful information that was exchanged by that
lovely incentive! Thanks Dave. Definitely *yes* again for next year!

I'm working on re-building the deck on the front of our house. So,
technically it's wood cutting, but of a different sort. I have found out
one thing - don't try to print hanga when you're tired! So many blots,
mistakes, and mis-registrations.....argh! I think Dave described at one
time (or was it a quote from one of the books in the woodblock.com
library?) that you have to get in a "zone" of concentration while
printing. I sure missed that zone the last couple of days. Well, live
and learn.

I have advice for not cutting fingers - develop the habit of *never*
having your fingers in the way. I hold my tools in my right hand with
the forefinger of the left hand pressing down on the metal part of the
cutting tool. Never try to hold the board with your hand. If the board
is not staying stable, then find some way to make it so. The "rug hug"
or rubber matting stuff from the furniture department or "Contact Paper"
department is my choice. If the downward pressure on your block &
cutting tool is sufficient, the block really stays in place. Plus, it
makes the block easy to turn, so you're not tempted to cut toward any
cuttable part of your body! 

Hope that Himi & Fumi had a pleasant flight back to Canada. I know that
you will miss them terribly, Dave. Kids are so great, & really with
their parents such a short time. Make the most of it!

Wanda

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From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 16:06:18 -0500
Subject: [Baren 5674] Re: more on books....... 

Congratulations to those "lucky" winners on todays drawings.

I was busy over the weekend and traveled to a couple of stores in Chicago
specializing on used-books. After a few hours of browsing thru hundreds of books
I came away with some nice additions but no real gems (well,maybe one !).

There was one book: "Eric Gill - The Engravings" priced at $40 (original list
$75), which I wanted really bad but I left it behind at the last minute. He did
some wonderful work in the early part of the century and is credited as one of a
few individuals that jump-started engraving after it's commercial downfall at
the end of the 19th Century. It's a huge book with hundreds of engravings
(including his 25-Nudes series).  If anyone outhere is familiar with Gill's
work....I like to hear more about it....I may go back for that book next
weekend.....

I also past up some real gems that were kept in the more selective "$$$"
section:

A two volume set  "The Art of Surimono" by Keyes had lots of info & prints on
Dave's current work ..... $75

A three volume set "The Ukiyo-e Collection " by Siebold (?) huge books approx.
20  X 17 each on their own red box-case with full sized ( 11 x 14 ) color
illustrations.............. $750 (wow!)

Japanese Prints, by James Michener a big book with red cover & lots of color
prints.....glued on to the book......... $ 75

Primitive Ukiyo-e, again by James Michener...........$30

and many more I can't remember the titles & authors....

So what did I take home ?

A book on Escher; The Magic Mirror by Ernst ($7), a book  on the work of Fritz
Eichenberg ; "Works of Mercy" based on his work for the Catholic community
newspaper ($20) and a very nice book of woodblock prints by California artist
Tom Killion "The Coast of California" , with some very nice use of technique &
large illustrations. Does anyone outhere knows this artist or seen his work ?
His use of the woodblock technique to interpret the coastal landscape is just
really amazing. There are so many different ways he treats the sky, sea & land
that I was left speechless print after print. This edition was issued in the
80's but his "California" work goes back to the 70's. He also has illustrated
many other books....

That's it for now.......thanks...... Julio

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From: Gregory Robison <grobison@swiftuganda.com>
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 10:57:58 +0300
Subject: [Baren 5676] Re:transfer 

Wanda wrote:
> "... small graduated color areas like Greg
> Robinson used on the lantern in his Exchange #2 print."

Although I was not deluged by requests from bewildered members for my
lantern print you mention, I point out for the record that that print was
actually my "first practice hanga" at Graham's workshop, not my exchange
contribution, so nobody's seen it but you and
Those-Who-Perspired-And-Laughed-Together in Sidney.

Also, Wanda dear, do take up (carefully) your To (or any common scorper
will do) and -- ever so carefully so as not accidently to excise the dot on
the "i" -- remove the "n" in "Robinson" and with one swift forehand flick
with the right hand, nudge the terminal "son" into the medial gap thus 
created.  Else I will refer to you as "my old friend Mindy Robertsohn"...:-)

I am in the midst of producing my first solo hanga print, and I could sure
use you guys now!  I did some linocuts last month while on safari in the
rift valley and on the Kenyan coast to keep limber, including some views 
of wild animals sketched from life while perched on the top of a Land 
Rover.  It's a hell of a way to try to get source material, but it has a certain authenticity about it.

Gregory Robison

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From: Gregory Robison <grobison@swiftuganda.com>
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 10:59:48 +0300
Subject: [Baren 5677] Tom Killion; Eric Gill 

Kampala, 8 September 1999

Julio: Many years ago while visiting the Art of the Book
room at Yale, I saw a wonderful book done by Tom Killion
with color linocuts and set in Centaur.  I took pictures
of a few page spreads but didn't note his name at the
time.  I did not know who he was until until some years
later when I saw a review of the book you bought, "The
Coast of California," in an old copy of Fine Print, and
immediately recognized his style.  I tried to find out if
his Quail Press is still in operation, and learned from a
member of a letterprise listserve I'm on that there's been
a sighting of TK in Santa Cruz, but haven't been able to
connect with him yet.  Since Centaur is my house face and
since the work I saw at Yale resembles my current project,
I was quite interested in making contact with Killion. 
Just between you and me, however, I felt that Killion's
line lengths in Centaur were much too long.  A better
model, by my lights, would be...Eric Gill, whose
recommendations in "An Essay on Typography" (1936;
reprinted by Godine in 1988; in print & available for
about $16) are not only excellent for page design, etc.,
but are pertinent to a number of Baren threads
(relationship of technology to art; the artistic life in a
world of industry; etc.). Gill, by the way, was a
Dominican tertiary, so there's a Catholic connection which
was not incidental to his world-view, if the interest in
Eichenberg you mention ('...a book on the work of Fritz
Eichenberg; "Works of Mercy" based on his work for the
Catholic community newspaper...') also takes you in that
direction.  Eichenberg was a Quaker, I think, but had a
lot of affinity with the Catholic Worker movement
(pacificism, socialism, etc.), whose eponymous newspaper,
still published, was illustrated for many years entirely
with woodblock.  I think Eichenberg's work appeared
frequently in it.  The Catholic Worker movement is a
direct descendent of the Distributist movement in England,
whose prime movers were such luminaries as G. K.
Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and...Eric Gill.  So you see
there are lots of connections and cross-connections.  The
graphic artist who most reminds me of Gill is, in fact,
Anne de Bethune, who provided woodblock illustrations for
the Catholic Worker for many years.  She may still be
active. (I think she lives in Rhode Island or someplace up
that way.)  In some ways Gill's woodblock work looks to us
somewhat retro, with its very simple, clean lines,
elongated forms, classical & medieval subject matter,
etc., but the composition is sometimes brilliant and it's
that hard, gem-like quality that is still appealing, I think.

Greg

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From: John Ryrie <j.ryrie@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 19:03:44 +1000
Subject: [Baren 5678] Re: Efic Gill 

I know the book you mean I don't have that one but do have a smaller book of
his engravings.  The essay on typography is another good one.  I think that his
masterpiece is the 4 Gospels the illustrations and type destine come together
beautifully.  I also have other books some on religion and on art  society and
politics these are fierily unreadable.  But his arteriography is interesting I
only have the edited version.  In the un edited one he describes his sexual
activity that include his sexual relations with his father, his sister and
brother in lore, his 14 children and his dog.  There are several books about
his life that go into that.  I also have the book of 25 nudes and his collected
letters.  But I do recommend the complete wood engravings it a grate book.

John Ryrie

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End of Baren Digest V8 #694
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