Baren Digest Saturday, 12 February 2000 Volume 10 : Number 901 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Graham Scholes Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 06:51:42 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8354] Re: Who-done-it ? I got to thinking about this thread...... Things could have beauty and no value..... Things could have value and no beauty..... You can enjoy things for their beauty...... as Dave points out. You can enjoy things for the value ....... as Graham eluded to. You can have both...... win win situation. Respectfully. Graham End of thread ?.... probably ------------------------------ From: inklinepress@inetnebr.com (Jaime) Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 10:22:54 -0600 Subject: [Baren 8355] other print rooms Hi all- I am enjoying reading the messages but at the same realizing that I want to expand all of my print knowledge not just woodcuts. Do you know of other online chat groups like this for other methods? Thanks, Jaime Hackbart ------------------------------ From: "Jean Eger" Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 00:23:58 +0900 Subject: [Baren 8356] Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 07:25:08 -0800 charset="iso-8859-1" Jack wrote: > If you leave enough room around the printed areas, they won't get inked, the > standard space is two fingers with, says Dave. Also, a paper mask can be used > during inking to keep ink off unwanted areas, but that slows down printing a > little. Thanks for your response, Jack. I was referring to an offset of the ink from previous prints printing on to the islands and then corrupting the next print. If you used paper as a barrier, it would absorb the ink and lighten the print in that area. Perhaps waxed paper would work. I forgot about shaving or sanding the edges of the island supports. Thanks for reminding me. I showed the dragon prints to two high school classes yesterday, in honor of the Lunar New Year. The other teacher showed them to two more classes. They were well-received. Of the students who voiced a preference, the dragon of Queen Mariah Arango was the favorite. I didn't have a chance to ask them WHY. Maybe I'll put a real Baren exchange show up and ask them WHY do you like that one the best? As for moi, I like them all. If I were going to buy one, it would be a toss-up between Horacio's and Gayle's, with David M's coming in a close third. I'm glad there are no prices on these. They are all extremely valuable, in my eyes. I know I could never afford to buy them all. Jean Eger ------------------------------ From: B Mason Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 07:57:56 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8357] Re: other print rooms Jamie, I belong to three other list serves on printmaking and non of them are active. Printmakers at www.onelist.com is the next best but nothing like baren. Just give up and make wood cuts and keep your other printmaking alive in secret.....it seems the only way! if you have questions about certain types of printmaking the people on printmakers will answer, but you probably won't find the exchange and companionship from other printmakers that you find here! This is an amazing group of people! Barbara Jaime wrote: ------------------------------ From: B Mason Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 08:05:14 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8358] wood engraving OK, you engravers, I have a question. Can you print a wood engraving like an etching? Can you wipe ink into the lines and then wipe the plate clean on top? I dreamt about this last night and can come up with lots of ideas why it won't work, but has anyone tried it? Thought I would save myself hours of frustration by just asking if anyone had. Am I the only one who dreams about printmaking? Are we obsessed or what? Thanks in advance for answering this! Barbara ------------------------------ From: RMiltonS@aol.com Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 11:30:37 EST Subject: [Baren 8359] Re: wood engraving I believe it is possibly. I have had success with some of my students do this with linoleum cuts and Relief Etching .You will need a felt blanket and a fair amount of pressurer, and to use damp paper. I hope this helps Ron Milton. ------------------------------ From: "Philip Smith" Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 09:34:02 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8360] Re: Who-done-it ? charset="iso-8859-1" Graham,....you missed one,...things can have no beauty AND no value, and you will never enjoy them! I do alot of these!!! Philip, Hammond,OR USA ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 10:00:24 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8361] Re: Who-done-it ? Philip wrote.... >Graham,....you missed one,...things can have no beauty AND no value, and you >will never enjoy them! >I do alot of these!!! You know.... I think we all do.... It's the learning curve. It makes the learning curve on computers childs play. (<; Graham ------------------------------ From: B Mason Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 10:15:52 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8362] technical stuff Andy, Thanks for answering so fast, I have an idea for #5 with lots of small lines and I know I cannot carve them with my rudimentary skills. I keep trying and failing, the top of the wood just seems to peel off. I had secretly hoped this wouldn't work as an intaglio process because everything new is a learning curve, now I will have to figure out how to do it. And do it well enough in time to have the editon done by April 1st. Is there a lot of plate tone on the samples you have seen or are the plates wiped down to white? Dave, If this works, I will use this block as the key block in oil and do the rest in Hanga, or water based. Have you heard of this working, or will I have a problem with the paper stretching when I put it through the press and then doing the rest of the colors with a baren? Guess I will have to try it, maybe this is the combo of east and west the world has been waiting for. Maybe not. Barbara ------------------------------ From: Jack Reisland Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 09:08:05 -1000 Subject: [Baren 8363] Re: Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 07:25:08 -0800 Jean Eger wrote: > > > Thanks for your response, Jack. I was referring to an offset of the ink > from previous prints printing on to the islands and then corrupting the next > print. If you used paper as a barrier, it would absorb the ink and lighten > the print in that area. Perhaps waxed paper would work. Ah-ha! You must be printing with the oily stuff. The color doesn't come off in Hanga. Jack Aiea, Hawaii ------------------------------ From: =?iso-8859-1?q?dimitris=20grammatikopulos?= Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 11:59:20 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Baren 8364] Re: wood engraving Hi, Barbaren! after performing this acrobatic act, I realised why various techniques exist.And one of the reasons is that there's a borderline you shouldn't cross.Had I tried printing first the lino and then the etched plate I would have saved me time and peace of mind,getting at the same time better results. I would like to point out that I have pretty fair knowledge of the mentioned techniques. reagrds, Dimitris ------------------------------ From: =?iso-8859-1?q?dimitris=20grammatikopulos?= Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 12:01:53 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Baren 8365] Re: other print rooms Hi, Jaime! Since you asked, I'd like to chat with you about your beyond-the-Baren interests,inside or outside the Baren. regards, Dimitris > Jaime wrote: Do you know of other online chat groups like this for other methods? ===== Dimitris Grammatikopulos Th. Sofuli 4 , Ampelokipi Ioannina , Greece 454 45 aenaonartst@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Maria Arango Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 13:34:30 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8366] incomunicado, bummer Hi all, I seem to be e-mailess for about the past 24 hours. I feel soooo lonely... Anyhoo, if anyone needs to get a hold of me for a reason, my alternate e-mail address is: mariten@lvcm.com hello ello ello ello (boy, life is lonely without my Baren posts) Maria - -- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Maria Arango, Printmaker Las Vegas, Nevada USA http://www.printmakingstudio.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------------------ From: "Jandi Goshert" Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 13:37:31 PST Subject: [Baren 8367] Re: Who-done-it ? Yes, but isn't the reason we do things that have no beauty or value to make the things we enjoy (those things with beauty & value) possible? So, in actuality, things with no beauty or value really do have beauty and value because they make beauty and value possible..... ??????? heh heh. jandi kooky, usa ------------------------------ From: Studio Dalwood Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 09:17:11 +1100 Subject: [Baren 8368] Other Print Rooms and barentines day I am enjoying reading the messages but at the same realizing that I want to expand all of my print knowledge not just woodcuts. Do you know of other online chat groups like this for other methods? Thanks, Jaime Hackbart ****** Jaime there is a list of discussion groups that you might like to look through at http://www.acay.com.au/~severn/discussi.htm Prints-l tends to have more notices of events and lots of academics, print collectors, I havent seen much discussion of technique, but it is a good resource and questions always get a good response. The onelist monoprint group talk about technique as does the onelist printmakers group. The latter is hosted by a baren person and they are currently organising a print exchange of home made money. Its a print your own dollar bill event and I am annoyed I am too busy right now to join in. Both are archived. I recommend all three lists. And you will see some familiar [baren] faces there too. We tend to get around ;-) And there is now the new printaustralia list which is full of bareners too. I also recommend the bookarts-l list if you are interested in artist books and the onelist papermaking group if you want to make paper. There is the paper-l group too which is more like prints-l. There is also a list of sites that specialise in printmaking methods at http://www.acay.com.au/~severn/methods.htm Also many bareners are multimethodic persons. What do you want to know? As for Barentines day.... *groan* Love the concept but not on feb 14th. Is there a particularly godlike hanga person whose birthday we could choose? [Watch em hold up their hands for that one ;-)] On principle I do not celebrate 'hallmark' days, its just another ruse to part the great unwashed from their hard earned cash. But I'd go for this one. Or perhaps there is some significant hanga day we could choose? Then of course you'd need a mascott and a theme and the equivalent of the easter bunny. Mr hanga perhaps? Come on Maria, take this one and run... Josephine ------------------------------ From: "D. Dew" Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 17:26:18 -0500 Subject: [Baren 8369] Re: Other Print Rooms and barentines day A Durertine Day ? Dan Dew USA ------------------------------ From: Woodblock News Services Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 07:45:37 +0900 Subject: Special News Bulletin Good evening. Here is the CSB evening news, with Ran Dather. Russian forces continued their advance across Chechnya towards the capital Grozny, encountering only sporadic resistance from ... Excuse me, I've just been handed a special bulletin. We interrupt this broadcast to bring you some important news. Our correspondent in Las Vegas is standing by ... Hello, hello, are you there? Yes Ran, this is Barbara Waters in Las Vegas, and I'm here in the studio of artist Maria Arango, who is a member of [Baren], the well-known internet woodblock printmaking circle. It seems that there have been some dramatic developments in woodblock printmaking in recent days, and Maria, who is a member of the guiding 'council' of [Baren], is here to tell us about some of them. Hello Maria. Hello Barbara, nice to have you here in Vegas. Drop much over at the tables this afternoon? Just a couple of grand, nothing to get excited about. And can you believe it, they wouldn't take my cheque; I had to leave my diamond bracelet ... Anyway Maria, tell us right up front, what's going on in [Baren] these days? Well Barbara, as most of your viewers are aware, the Exchange program that [Baren] has been running for a year now has been a run-away success. Literally thousands of prints have been flying back and forth around the world, as a result of our members' enthusiasm for making prints. Maria, how does this relate to the special announcements that [Baren] is making today? As successful as the Exchange program is, we've found that many of the members don't feel able to participate as freely as we would like. There are a few reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that making 30 woodblock prints, and doing it within a tight time-frame, is just a bit too much for them. Even printmakers have lives, you know. Our purpose is to make sure _every printmaker_ that has the desire can get involved in one of our exchanges. So is the Exchange program being replaced? No no, not at all. Rather than being replaced, it is being adjusted and expanded. The expansion news will be announced by my colleague James Mundie a bit later, but for now, let me outline for you the adjustments we've made to the main exchange program. The major difference is that from now on exchanges will take place on a fixed schedule, instead of being suddenly announced each time. People will be able to see the schedule up to a year in advance, and can plan their printmaking activities to fit. The 'active period' for each exchange will be three months, as before, so we will thus be scheduling four exchanges each year. So if someone wants to participate later in the year, they know exactly when the deadline will be. That sounds like a good idea. Is that the only change? Well Barbara, actually there has also been considerable discussions about whether exchanges should have 'themes' or should be open to the artist's whimsical imagery. Both of these approaches have considerable merit, and we have decided to go to a system of alternating between the two. The current exchange (#5) is a themed exchange, so the next one will be 'open'. Maria, I'm sorry to interrupt you here, as I'm sure you've got more to tell us, but I'm getting a signal from our producer that we have to switch back to the studio. Just let me add then that before you go, you can let your viewers know that more details on this and on other new aspects of the exchange program can be found on the new 'Exchanges' page of our website at: http://barenforum.org/exchange/index.html I'm sure everybody will head over there and check it out. Thank you Maria Arango. Now back to Ran Dather in our news studio ... Whew! someone give me some water! Don't you guys have any humidity in this town? Oh - what? Still on the air? ... Thank you for that report Barbara. Too bad about that little 'setback' at the blackjack table this afternoon ... For the next part of our special report on developments in woodblock printmaking, we take you now to Philadelphia, where Walter Cracknut is standing by. Hello Walter, are you there ... This is Walter Cracknut, on special assignment here in Philadelphia, home of one of America's earliest printmakers - Benjamin Franklin. I'm not with Ben at the moment, but am standing in the brand new studio of printmaker James Mundie, looking at an almost empty filing cabinet. Tell me Jim, what's so special about this filing cabinet? Well Walter, it may be empty at the moment, but this cabinet will soon be the home of the brand new [Baren] SwapShop program. We expect it to very shortly be crammed full of prints from around the globe. SwapShop program? What's that all about? As Maria mentioned earlier, we've found that our main exchange program has been a bit intimidating for some members. For some, making 30 prints is a lot of work, and then the deadlines are a bit of a problem for others who would like to participate but simply cannot find the time. We also know that members are very interested in simply 'swapping' prints with each other, and in fact many of them have been doing a lot of this privately. The [Baren] SwapShop is a way to help organize and promote that kind of activity. How does it work, Jim? The whole process will be very simple. When people send a package of prints to the SwapShop, they get a package of prints in return. I'm the new SwapCoordinator, and this filing cabinet here at SwapCentral is where it all happens. I receive all the prints, and then ship them back out to their new homes. What kind of prints will people get back? Of course, that depends entirely on what people send in. We expect to see the same sort of thing as with our regular exchange program - an interesting bunch of prints at first, which will gradually improve in quality as time goes on. Each participant will have their envelope filled as new submissions come in. Will people have to send in 30 prints? Absolutely not, though that would also be welcome. One main point of the SwapShop is that you can get started without that kind of pressure. The minimum at present is five prints. A submission of five prints will yield four prints. What happens to the fifth print? We will retain one print from every submission for the "Archives". We haven't yet found a suitable home, but it is our hope that we will be able to donate these prints to a worthy institution. We feel that such a collection will provide a valuable picture of the current state of woodblock printmaking to people of future generations. Where can people see what sort of prints are being submitted to the SwapShop? Well, you're asking me that question just a bit too soon Walter. We'll be setting up a series of webpages where all SwapShop submissions are exhibited after they've been swapped, but that's not quite ready for prime time yet. What your viewers _can_ do, is head over to the new SwapShop page on the [Baren] website: http://barenforum.org/swapshop/index.html ... and read all about it there. Well Jim, this all sounds pretty interesting, and I hope your new SwapShop program is a success. It's too bad I'm not a [Baren] member; I'd kind of like to participate myself. Good thing you mention that Walter, because one very nifty thing about this program is that it is not restricted to [Baren] members only, but is open to _any_ woodblock printmaker anywhere in the world - we're _serious_ about promoting and encouraging woodblock printmaking! So get out your tools Walter, and ... CUT! ... PRINT! I just might do that Jim ... Good luck with your new SwapShop program. This is Walter Cracknut, now returning you to Ran Dather in our main news studio in New York. Thank you Walter. As for the rest of the news, we don't have anything else that can compare in importance to tonight's [Baren] announcements, so we've cancelled the rest of the broadcast. Turn off your TV, get to your computer, surf over to the barenforum.org website, check out the details of these new [Baren] programs, and then Get Swapping! Goodnight. ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 18:14:07 -0500 Subject: [Baren 8371] A Fine Line charset=ISO-8859-1 Dave, I noticed in your last surimono print a few things I had questions about. I hope you don't mind my airing them on Baren, but thought maybe a few others would be interested to hear the answer also. The mist or clouds which seem to be rising from the lake are done in the finest of striated lines of white, almost as fine as hair. I imagine when you carve something like this, some thought must be given to what type of wood the block ought to be so as to permit this detailed carving without chipping out. Did you use a different type of wood block for this? Also, I imagine the grain direction of the wood is also a key factor, as it may tend to pull your knife into it if the direction of grain is only slightly at a tangent to the lines you are carving. Can/do you orient your block for this particular type of carving? If so, does it want to expand in a direction not in line with the other blocks when it is wet for printing? On something as finely carved as this, every factor must be crucial to maintain your registration throughout the printing process. When carving out the white "lines", how do you maintain them in parallel, particularly when there are many of them and they are so close together? Some special technique, or fierce concentration? I think it would be easy to hiccup here and end up having to throw the block out and start over. Is the red seal in the lower left something that is printed from a block also, or is it "stamped" onto the print? I haven't seen any others to judge whether it is in exactly the same location or not, so can't tell. Is this from a "chop" or a block? Gary ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 15:23:49 -0800 Subject: [Baren 8372] Re: Who-done-it ? Speaking of beauty & value, Jandi - I got your dragon today! He's very colorful & wonderful! Did I remember correctly - that this is a reduction print? And the first thing you printed on your new press? Well done! Wanda ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V10 #901 ****************************