[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Sunday, 12 September 1999 Volume 08 : Number 701 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Gregory D. Valentine" Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 20:45:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 5760] build your own press Building your own press, its an idea been on my back burner awhile, along with the paper beater; have to wait for more time-space-$, but, a book called THE COMMON PRESS (check Oak Knoll for author-date) included plans for building a Gutenberg-style press. I support libraries-- the book is valued a shade rare. Incidentally, if you look at contemporaneous prints of printshops using same, you notice the presses are braced against the ceiling, and accounts mention the loud creaking of the beams. Were I to build one and brace it in my garage, I'd probably bring down the house. ------------------------------ From: "Jean Eger" Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 15:13:18 +0900 Subject: [Baren 5761] I can't imagine what the big deal is about sizing. It is one of the EASIEST things to do in hanga printmaking. And it yields proportionately infinitely better printing results. There is a recipe for size in the Walter J. Phillips book online. The gelatin he mentions is the plain unflavored kind you get in the supermarket. http://www.sharecom.ca/phillips/technique.html Here's what he says: "SIZING PAPER. The following mixture (Mr. Urushibara's recipe) is sufficient to size about fourteen sheets of Torinoko paper (Imperial) on both sides: Alum 1/8 oz. Gelatine 1/4 oz. Water 35 ozs. Hosho paper should be sized only on one side, with half the quantity of water. Heat the water but do not let it boil. Add the gelatine and when that is completely dissolved add the alum. Different papers and different woods require slight modifications of the recipe. So does a change in atmospheric conditions. The necessary amount of modification is slight and is best decided by experience. Mr. Urushibara advises a pinch more of alum for soft woods such as whitewood, or for a soft paper or for a dry climate. A BRUSH FOR SIZING. Brushes for Printing and for Sizing A broad brush is needed, neither thick nor long in the hair. My own is of Japanese manufacture, six inches in width, the hair one and a quarter long and three-eighths of an inch thick. Lay a sheet of Hosho paper upon a drawing board flat upon the table, smooth side uppermost. With your brush full, but not too full of warm size, cover the paper evenly. It is a delicate process; use the brush as carefully as though you were painting a portrait. Starting at one edge continue until you reach the other with a band the full width of the brush. The second stroke must touch the first but not overlap it. If possible do not go over the same place twice. Do not flood the paper. Keep the size warm. The brush strokes should follow the same direction as the lines which constitute the watermark. Lay a second sheet over the first, and proceed in the same way. Creases made during sizing are permanent. Therefore carefully avoid making them. Leave the pile of sized sheets for a while, so that the size may spread evenly through it, but not too long, say half an hour. Now lay each sheet to dry upon newspaper spread upon the floor, or suspend it from a line strung across the room as clothes are hung up to dry. Use wooden clips for the latter purpose. The rate of drying varies of course. Once in my experience in England, notoriously humid, a whole winter's day and a night failed to harden a sheet, whereas an hour on a Canadian summer's day will suffice. .... Torinoko paper must be sized on both sides with the weaker mixture. " Enjoy, Jean Eger ------------------------------ From: John Ryrie Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 16:10:19 +1000 Subject: [Baren 5762] Re:big woodblocks Wen I did my undergraduate studies art the Victorian College of the Arts we had John Walker as Dean. He is now living in Boston USA. He did a series of combination woodcut/mono prints in 1986 at Santa Barbara, California with Gunta Tullis using an industrial metal press Like the one used at the end of Terminator to kill the Terminator. These prints were 185X107 cm. There were some bigger prints that I helped to print by hand they were lino cuts that were about 5X12 ft there is one of them in the Tate- London. I think that there should be a section in the Baren Encyclopedia devoted to printing with cars. There is a big advantage in this method. No longer do you have to put up with presses taking up room in the studio or RSI from recovering your Baren. Simply tern your Garage into a workshop. You can even rotate your tires as you print. John Ryrie ------------------------------ From: Arye Saar Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 13:35:13 +0200 Subject: [Baren 5763] Re:big big big press & woodblock It seems Printers do have dreams... Once I calculated the needed pressure for a woodblock prints: My findings were between 10 to 21 kg per square cm! And I had dreams. In a kibbutz most of everything is easier: We had several huge iron rollers, about 1.8 m diameter and about 2.5 m wide (you fill it with water), ,tractor pulled. We have a modern metal workshop in the Kibbutz. A modern carpentry shop. I can mobilize good friends for help... My dream was: To put the packing, block. paper and everything needed on my studios' (15mX15m) floor and pull the roller over it. As for the plywood, I could put my hands on almost limitless plywood size: In a near by kibbutz they had a big modern plywood factory for producing good quality plywood. The manager was a good friend of mine ... So the block size was of no problem: The minimum was 182X244 cm. The minimum, mind you. According to my calculations, the pressure was enough. I only had to plan, draw, ask for the right sized block, and the rest was easy. I was planning to do it, but my plans didn't coincide with the plans of the Big Administrator (Remind me some other time to tell you this wonderful folk story). I was alone at that time. I went for a vacation, met a wonderful woman. Got married. And moved to another Kibbutz. (Had to. you know). * I don't blame my wife. Its only that I had other dreams after I got married. Today I know that when you are 20 years old - you are afraid of what others will say, when you are 40 - you don't give a damn, when you are 60 - you know no one cared. And I am older than that. Arye ------------------------------ From: Gregory Robison Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 15:01:32 +0300 Subject: [Baren 5764] Re: Baren Digest V8 #699 Kampala, 12 September 1999 Thanks Gayle and James for the bad news about kitakata. Actually, I use it a fair amount for various applications, including printing on it with oil-based inks, but it seems a shame not to be able to use it for hanga. Some day. I have found some sheets of Rives lightweight and, although it's three times as thick as kitakata (and this matters because the application is a tip-in frontispiece), I'm going to give it a try this afternoon. James, I've been meaning to ask you this for eight months: Whence, wherefore and what means "Mise le meas"? John wrote: "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." Actually, I'm sure this is on purpose. I've seen Pablo Picasso prints with a reversed signature and read someplace that certain artists used to do that regularly, but I can't remember the reference. Bea: Thanks for the thoughts on sizing. Graham also recommended an "applicator" like the one you mention, and didn't push me to buy the $8,000 (Can.) traditional sizing brush made by shinto monks on mount sushi. I use it for moistening paper. Good description of the "to" handling technique. Now it just takes 10 years of regular practice to make it work productively...but what else are you going to do for the next ten years that you know will be so much fun? Kids need the computer. Gotta go. Gregory Robison ------------------------------ From: Gayle Wohlken Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 08:59:42 -0400 Subject: [Baren 5765] Re: Baren Digest V8 #700 Maria, I saw a slide show once in my printmaking class and the artist who was telling us about his work, showed us one he had done on a bed sheet. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen-- printed in black and white-- an image of a woman in a patterned full skirt, sitting on an elaborate quilt-covered seat. The light and dark areas were dramatic and the artist was so skilled he bored himself and actually took up very abstract imagery later. Last I heard he was slowly coming back to touches of realism in his prints. Gayle ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V8 #701 ***************************