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

Baren Digest            Saturday, 11 September 1999    Volume 08 : Number 699

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From: "Brad Schwartz" <bschwartz1@uswest.net>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 17:39:35 -0700
Subject: [Baren 5736] Re: woodcuts and printing 

Hi Daryl,
Are you printing oil based or waterbased?
If oil based... I usually print everything dry on the papers that I use...
mainly Mulberry (Owara) and Kitakata... tried some Masa -- hated it. That's
about all I've used... I love Mulberry for its strength... takes pretty deep
embossing and will not tear when presented with deep expanses of carved
areas...

BS

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From: Maria Arango <Maria@mariarango.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 17:48:17 -0700
Subject: [Baren 5737] Re: wet or dry 

Hi Daryl, welcome to Baren! You might want to introduce yourself to the
group. I can speak for Daryl's talent as an artist personally, he does
great bold work.
I would welcome the members to give input on this question because I'm
also interested in the answers. There is probably great variation on the
types of paper that everyone uses, I think most of the traditional
printmakers of the group use Japanese papers exclusively. You can get
sample packs from Daniel Smith, McClain's or our newly discovered Hiromi
Papers. Paper suppliers can be found at:
http://www.printmakingstudio.com, then go to Links/Suppliers.
Usually lighter papers or less sized papers are misted while very heavy
or heavily sized papers should probably be soaked (especially in Vegas).
I have experimented with dry papers lately and the impressions are
lighter and show the texture of the paper more, which I like.
As far as wet vs. dry, it depends on what you are after. It is easier to
perfectly register multiple colors on dry paper because there is no
variation in the stretch of the paper, but some of the more experienced
printmakers in the group get perfect registration no matter what.
Some of my Western all time favorites: Arches88, Magnani Pescia, BFK tan
and black, Hanhemuller, Twinrocker, and Nideggen. Dave and Graham and
others can probably suggest some Japanese papers better than I, so I
won't even attempt this one.
Regards,
Maria (from Vegas too)

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From: John Ryrie <j.ryrie@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 11:34:33 +1000
Subject: [Baren 5738] Re: 25 Nudes 

Julio
        I have an original 1938 printing of the 25 Nudes and the eg is reversed
as you said so it must have been Mr Gill's mistake.  Funny you'd think some one
who spent so much of his time designing letterpress would get this right.
        John Ryrie

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From: John Ryrie <j.ryrie@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 12:01:56 +1000
Subject: [Baren 5739] Re: woodcuts and printing 

I wouldn't wet the paper wen printing on an etching press I have a friend that
dose and also roles up in etching ink and prints with a blanket.  He said that
it gives a better impression but I don't like the result it lacks the sharpness
that woodcut needs.  There are many papers that can be used I generally use
Somerset but it's a mater of the finish that you are after.

Julio
        About running a woodcut with a Pontiac I have tried printing a woodcut
that way and it didn't work it was a bout 4X5 foot and I couldn't get the
presser even that way.  I have printed smaller blocks by placing  them between
two boards under a jack and jacking the car up but not with a Pontiac there
quite rare hear.
        John Ryrie

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From: Aqua4tis@aol.com
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 00:43:26 EDT
Subject: [Baren 5740] Re: wet or dry 

hi daryl and maria
   just wanted to say that i always ran my woodcuts dry through the press   i 
use oil based inks and i do the western style woodcut  (no hanga yet)   ive 
used arches cover, lana, bfk heavyweight, fabriano   and none of these were 
wet
            georga

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From: "Jean Eger" <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 14:31:33 +0900
Subject: [Baren 5741] 

Julio,
You can get basswood planks at MacBeath hardwood in Berkeley (on Ashby Ave.)
Sounds like you are diverting your printmaking energy into pressmaking
energy.  I bought a used no-name press for $400.  It has a 13 inch by 26
inch bed.  I can print a full bleed etching or woodcut up to 12 inches by
around 18 inches.  Once in awhile I want to make something larger.   If it
is a woodcut, I can make it by hand, with baren or spoon.  I get much better
results printing woodcuts by hand, than with a press.  However, that was one
of the best $400 I ever spent, I must say.  I should have spent the last
$1000 on a Patrick Press instead of the damned laptop that almost killed my
ulnar nerve.

Right now I am writing a beginners lesson on two-color block printing using
Japanese kento registration for my web site.  I'll let you know when it goes
up, because I definitely want critique on that.  And I know you are going to
want to critique it, because I am advocating using tracings, not pasting
down the photocopies.  Well, it's for beginners.  Like me.

Jean E.

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From: John Ryrie <j.ryrie@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 18:32:19 +1000
Subject: [Baren 5743] Re: press 

Julio,
        someone in Melbourne several yeas ago made a replica of Johann
Gutenberg's wooden Albion Press.  It's now in Monash University and is lent out
wen ever there is an exhibition related to early printing.  I think it's Oak. 
It works as well as a modern Albion and is about as heavy.   It's been used to
print many books.
        I have seen a press that was like a bookbinding screw down press made
with the screw part of a vice,  plumbing pipe and heavy ply wood.  
        Of corse lots of people use old laundry mangles like an etching press.
        Has anybody noted that instead of the mail settling down after the
competition ended it has actually increased?
        John Ryrie

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From: Gregory Robison <grobison@swiftuganda.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 14:26:40 +0300
Subject: [Baren 5744] Re: wet or dry 

Kampala, 11 September 1999

I have been inching forward on my first solo hanga, and am
having trouble with the wet/dry paper problem in printing.
 I had intended to print on a traditional Japanese paper
(I think called Kitakata), but it appears to be unsized. 
The moisture of the paint is sucked into the paper and
destroys the print's fine edges.  I've never sized paper
before, and with all the other imponderables, I would
prefer not to have to. (I remember Mary Krieger's graphic
description of capillary action at the cellular level, and
see in my mind's eye a vision of my paper like the
Titanic's boiler room. Why are my bulkheads not holding?) 
Even with the paper dry, there is some bleeding.  Maybe
I'm using too much pigment?  But the colors are very pale
as it is.  Maybe more pigment, less water?  More rice
paste?  Tomorrow I'll do another proofing session in an
attempt to get to "bon-a-tirer", which is French for
"nirvana."

I learned a great deal from the carving process, much of
it done (as this morning) starting at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m.
before the kids get up, or around 6:00 p.m. in the garden
where the rays of the setting sun rake across the plate at
an excellent angle to reveal imperfections.  It has taken
me since Monday to do seven blocks and proof them. A whole
week of nothing but carving!  This is an extravagance for
a guy whose previous experience is mostly monochromatic
linocuts, using a method best described as
"sketch-cut-proof-print-sign-seal-and-now-what's-for-lunch?


I was surprised at how much "clearing" I had to do: that
perfunctory chipping away at all the excess bulk in the
non-print areas--and I remember how good Wanda and Barbara
and John and Marco Flavio were at doing that in Sidney. 
You have to be as assiduous with the weeding as you are
with the pruning.  Essentially, we have to be like the
rabbi at the circumcision: get the job done without
cutting off an essential bit. But what a pleasure to use
the tools I bought from Graham!  And this little insight
for the accident prone: the best way to avoid injury with
carving tools is (1) maintain them -- which, for us,
simply means keep them sharp; and (2) use them precisely
and only in the way intended.  I forced myself to grip
that "to" with my fist, the way I see it in the pictures
-- even though it seemed unnatural at first -- and keep
the relief area to the convex side of the blade, even if
it meant spinning the block around every few seconds.  I
was astounded at the control that is possible.

Gregory Robison


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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 21:39:23 +0900
Subject: [Baren 5745] Re: Short notes ... 

Gary wrote, re the print draw earlier this week:
> I think there's something fishy going on here.

The draw was fair and square, and proceeded exactly as I described it in
the email.  I know you might not trust _me_, but please believe that I
wouldn't involve my two daughters in any chicanery!  (Actually, they had
their 'favourites' who they hoped would win - a result of the hakobi
orders they got from a number of you - but that didn't go beyond 'finger
crossing'!)

Jeanne wrote:
> "We three", gals won the prints fare and square!!!!!!!

This is not quite true.  No 'fares' were paid! ;-)

Gary then added: 
>     What are we going to discuss now in his absence to keep things rolling?

You were kidding, I hope!  Keep things rolling?  


> Whatever happened to the "critiques" you were all 
> expecting from your exchanges?  

A _great deal_ of commentary - hundreds of emails - was passed back and
forth in the weeks immediately following the publication of the second
exchange folio on the web site.  Far and away most of it was private,
kept between the people involved.  

When we did a bit of 'sample' critiquing for the first exchange, I
posted an example of how such things could be made public.  To see what
I had in mind, visit the main web site, head over to the Exchange #99
pages, and look at Jean Eger's print.

But for the second exchange, I did not make these comments public (and
indeed, I myself did not see them, as the web site critique forms send
mail directly to each artist, with no copy coming to me here).  

So if any participants in Exchange #2 received comments and critiques
that you would like to have included on your Exchange web page, please
edit them appropriately (see Jean's sample that I just mentioned), and
send them to me off-list.  I will update your page as required.

As far as the upcoming Exchanges go, I think that in the interests of
having the criticisms be as useful and pointed as possible, I will stick
with the 'private' policy (of course maintaining the option for anyone
to choose to have the critiques added to their page later).

Dave

P.S. Great hike this week!  Did something funny to my knee though, had 
to limp back down the hill, and might have a bit of problem sitting for
printing tomorrow morning ...

P.P.S.  The Message Board is starting to get use.  Head over to the 
main web site, and find the link for 'Members' Message Board' to 
check it out ...

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End of Baren Digest V8 #699
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