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

Baren Digest              Saturday, 22 April 2000      Volume 11 : Number 981

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From: Gayle Wohlken <blueman@pantek.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 09:58:00 -0400
Subject: [Baren 9387] Re: Baren Digest V11 #980 

Thanks, everyone, for tips on making a little roller or using one of
those craft shop ones.  I did find the page on the Dick Blick website
that has the tiny ones, l/4 inch diameter and went ahead and ordered
one, so thanks Roxanne.  However, half my fun is creating useful tools
from stuff I find on hand, and the one I made yesterday hasn't been put
to the test yet, but I'll let you know if smooth wine cork jammed into a
skewer and put onto a found handle might work.  I think it will roll in
a loppy way since I didn't get the skewer in it dead center, but it may
work.  

Gayle

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From: "Rich" <darich@prodigy.net>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 09:52:41 -0700
Subject: [Baren 9388] press 

If anyone is looking for a used press I recieved a notice today about a 
motorized ettan press, 30"x72".  This is the press I have been useing 
for years so I can heartily recommend it. 

The owner lives in southern California and is selling it for $5,500.  
About half price.  His e-mail is rlingren@earthlink.net    

Gayle, about your little roller, I see you have already recieved several 
suggestions.  I have bought little speedball rollers and cut them down 
with the mat knife to the size I wanted. It's cheep and works very well. 
 I have also made my own very large rollers useing the black foam they 
use to insulate pipes stretched over plexiglass tubing.  Were there is a 
will there is always a way.

Andrea Rich

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From: Kat Pukas <toyinblood@netscape.net>
Date: 21 Apr 00 10:00:05 MST
Subject: [none]

> Hope we overlap, please introduce yourself!

April, 
I have been a member of Baren for over a year, and I did introduce myself
to the list a year ago or so, but since then I've mostly been lurking.  Now I
am a senior art major (with an emphasis in 2d and a tendency toward loving
printmaking) at the University of Arizona in Tucson.  A year and a half ago, I
was attending the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where I took
Drawing II and Printmaking I with Lloyd Menard.  
   I think that we will definitely overlap at Frogman's, because I am going to
that workshop **SPECIFICALLY** to take the Japanese woodcut class that you are
teaching!  I registered online, however, and I have been anxiously awaiting
some sort of word on my placement in the class (I didn't *really* have a
"second choice" [because I only ***really*** want to learn about Japanese
woodcuts], but I felt that I was required to mark another class for that,
anyway).  
   I think that participants are supposed to receive a supply list soon? =
Perhaps since you are the teacher of the class that I am so so SO excited
about being in, you have some strings to pull or a role of the names that are
in your class please...?  :)  Or maybe a preview of the supplies I should be
collecting?  I've got some rice paste (as well as a bottle of methyl
cellulose), many small "grab bag" pieces of shina, many small "grab bag"
pieces of washi, one 6 or 9 (printed on the handle--I think it's 6) size
surikomi bake from McClains...
:)

Love <3 & Lint * !
Kat

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From: ArtfulCarol@aol.com
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 13:57:33 EDT
Subject: [Baren 9390] Re: infomatio/Straightening paper 

For straightening out heavy paper on which are  watercolors, I turn paper 
over and brush water on the reverse side; really drench it.  Clip onto a 
board or plexi.   Let dry.
Flattened!  Works for me.  Good luck
Carol Lyons   Irvington, NY   USA

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From: ArtfulCarol@aol.com
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 14:10:24 EDT
Subject: [Baren 9391] Re: Hi Matthew 

Regarding experimental/traditional:
     I am Experimental, but not bizarre, while honoring Traditional art 
values.  That is my challenge and excitement.  
Carol Lyons

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From: "eli griggs" <eli.griggs@worldnet.att.net>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 16:27:20 -0400
Subject: [Baren 9392] Re: me, ephemera &stuff.

Hi there Mathew,

Your project sounds like a lot of fun and I'm going to suggest printing 
on clear sheet plastic, that three to five mil. stuff you get at the 
hardware for whatever.

Spray a base coat(s) of ordinary Rust-oleum paint (or several  layers in 
different colours,) onto the plastic and print directly with oil base, 
or apply a coat of Golden Absorbent Ground (with just a tint of acrylic 
) and print with water base.  Perhaps Speedball inks?

 If I understand correctly, your images are 4.5 inches x, small enough 
to print by standing on the blocks, so keeping the plastic flat should 
not be difficult, although crumpled, flattened tin foil or the like 
under the ground (plastic) might add a curious wrinkle.  Mounted onto 
the cubes, (which could themselves be covered with collage that would 
show through any exposed plastic,) and the real fun begins!

The underpaint will begin to deteriorate almost upon completion, and if 
you subject it to heat/movment, ie. hair dryer, volleyball,  car trunk 
on a Sunday drive, etc.  you will really speed up the process. 
Just think of all the lovely bits of coloured paints and inks that will 
show  through (or fall off) as time goes by!

Man,  I sure miss art class....

p.s. How about essential oils in oil based inks or salt sprinkled onto 
damp water base prints?

 Eli Griggs
Charlotte N.C.
USA

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From: Vollmer/Yamaguchi <jy6@columbia.edu>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 15:40:10 -0400
Subject: [Baren 9393] archival saliva? 

Where do I send my check? Barbara M, are you treasurer? Keeper of the Baren
cash? After hearing about the Skokie exhibition, I can see Julio went all
out, it sounds wonderful. And I know it costs money to do educational/art
projects like this.

I was just catching up on all my mail, impressed as usual with Gregory's
commentary on the place of art in the world...where not everyone is lucky
enough to have a name. (should I send a check to Barbara to add to the
prizes?)

And as usual with Jack's sound advice on hinging. Do you think the
commercial rice paste (in a green tube) would work with washi hinges? I've
been using linen tape. Maybe my saliva isn't archival! Should I switch to
washi and rice paste with distilled water?

Julio asked about my digital prints, and since we are all in debt to him, I
should answer! Yes, digital prints are art, if they are made by an artist.
I'm quite sure of this because I tried it, (though I couldn't tell you how
to judge who's a real artist!).

I printed mine at Silicon Gallery on their large format Iris printer. It's
in the ink jet family, spraying dyes onto paper attached to a large drum.
The beauty of this printer is that it can use good quality inks (Lysonic)
that are quite long lived. And it can print on any flat substrate that you
can attach to the drum, up to about 40".

Making a good Iris print requires time and effort. In general the color is
less saturated than woodcut, because you can't use pigments. (I think
perhaps they are too coarse to spray. Anyone have any ideas?) However, you
can do other stuff you can't do with woodcut. In my case I wanted large
scale and fine detail. Lightly sized washi (Uwazen from Hiromi) took the
ink beautifully for a saturated surface that still showed the handmade
paper surface. My Iris prints were more influenced by tantric Buddhist
diagrams and scientific treatises on the origin of the universe than by
Escher.

I think the reason digital prints have such a bad rep is that most of them
ARE pretty lame. Technical perfection is a button push away, not like
woodcut! Still, either way, you get out what you put in!

April Vollmer

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From: Vollmer/Yamaguchi <jy6@columbia.edu>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 16:59:36 -0400
Subject: [Baren 9394] Trade 

http://aprilvollmer.com/images/kala.html

Here's the link to the picture of Jean Eger and me at Kala. Should it be on
the Bulletin Board? (technical question: can I just FTP a jpeg directly to
the bulletin board without putting it on my website first?) Anyway, the
students in the class made small prints, and we traded. Jean made the most
ambitious print, three colors. Mine is an avocet, orange,sumi black  and
goma zuri black.

Also wanted to give a quick report on Sarah Hauser and my show "Patterned
Behavior"which opened last night at OIA gallery here in New York. Great
success. What else? We each had seven woodcuts in the show, so a good
variety. Lots of color and pattern. I'll post some photos of it on my
website when I get them.

Thanks for all your good wishes,

April Vollmer

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From: Jack Reisland <reislandj001@hawaii.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 11:28:35 -1000
Subject: [Baren 9395] Re: archival saliva? 

> Do you think the
> commercial rice paste (in a green tube) would work with washi hinges?

I've got some of that stuff, i used it for printing. Unfortunately, mine
doesn't seem to say what's really in it, so I would be more comfortable with
home made paste for mounting.

> I've
> been using linen tape. Maybe my saliva isn't archival! Should I switch to
> washi and rice paste with distilled water?

Probably. It is better to use a paper that is close to the paper being
mounted, as linen tape may have a different shrinkage rate and cause buckling.
Also, it's better if the hinge material is weaker than the paper being
mounted, so if something pulls, the hinge tears first.

Jack
Aiea, Hawaii

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From: Jack Reisland <reislandj001@hawaii.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 11:31:42 -1000
Subject: [Baren 9396] Re: me, ephemera &stuff.

> Hi there Mathew, Your project sounds like a lot of fun and I'm going
> to suggest printing on clear sheet plastic... The underpaint will
> begin to deteriorate almost upon completion, and if you subject it to
> heat/movment, ie. hair dryer, volleyball,  car trunk on a Sunday
> drive, etc.  you will really speed up the process. Just think of all
> the lovely bits of coloured paints and inks that will show  through
> (or fall off) as time goes by!

Man, you guys are an art conservators nightmare!  ;-)

Jack
Aiea, Hawaii

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 08:01:10 +0900
Subject: [Baren 9397] Administrivia ... 

April wrote:
> Here's the link to the picture of Jean Eger and me at Kala. Should it be on
> the Bulletin Board? (technical question: can I just FTP a jpeg directly to
> the bulletin board without putting it on my website first?) 

For those who don't know ... April is talking about the 'Show & Tell'
board accessible from the front page of the main web site at
woodblock.com

April, yes it should be up there!   But no, you can't FTP pictures
directly to the board - they must be on your own web site (or
_somewhere_ on the net) first.  What you send to the board is your
message and the image address. (Instructions on how to do this are on
the 'Add a message to the board' page ...)

People who have activity pictures to show but who don't have a web site,
can send them to me and I will put them in a temporary directory on the
[Baren] website for you ...

***

It seems as though it's time again to make my periodic request that
members please _not_ use HTML formatting in their posts.  Although I
know that you like to have formatting control over your messages, this
still causes many problems for a group mailing list - the Digests
especially become very difficult to read.

The font size you select is also a major problem for many viewers.  I
don't want to get into Mac/Win things here, but I should let you know
that when those of you using Win systems select a type face that _you_
see on your screen in a reasonable size, users of other computers see
something _very_ different. (Win and Mac screens display at 96 points
per inch, and 72 points per inch, respectively.)

As an example, I have taken a 'snapshot' of my screen showing part of a
[Baren] message that came in to me this morning, and have uploaded it
to:
http://woodblock.com/temporary/problem.gif

If you can read it, you've got better eyes than I do (and Graham too!).

Please send [Baren] postings in unformatted mail. Modern mail readers
all allow you to set this _per address_ in your book.  You don't have to
change your settings for all your other mail too ...

Thanks!

Dave

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From: "Matthew Parks" <mtthw@intrepid.net>
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 07:21:58 -0400
Subject: [none]

wowsers. thanks to everyone for the warm welcome.

more info on my current project (trying to answers all the ? posted:
  --my time line is as follows: the images on the flat pieces of 
cardboard are all pulled. currently i am having difficulty keeping them 
stacked six feet tall. at about 5.5'  they always fall. the grouping 
(making the cubes) are currently bound with twine and then tied 
together, but this still does not provide a strong enough foundation to 
keep the steady (i guess this is where physics would have been a handy 
thing to know?)   so that's really the only obstacle that keeps this 
half of the installation from completion.  the cube (hollow boxes) im 
shooting to have all the images pulled for that by september, giving me 
five months to assemble the boxes,  take slides and transport the work 
to the gallery.

 --the images i have chosen are:
     a cicada shell (or locust, depending on where yur from)  why? 
because it one,  further enforces the idea of shell (shedding 
protection, bla bla bla) and also because the sheer # of prints is 
similar to these insects travel pattern & of course the biblical 
references of "the end"  (a little residual pre-millennial tension) a 
wall paper pattern why? because it is reminiscent of transitory hotel  
(ever seen or read the play HOT L  BALTIMORE?)  also it is very 
decorative, in  a physical, organic yet not alive sorta way.  a list of 
words (why? because i like words and its just what i do)  the list is: 
ephemera, solipsism, solider, homogenous, famine, assimilate, repair

 --how does woodblock work conceptually for this piece?
      just like what im talking about reductive woodblock are 
impermanent. you destroy the plate in the process of printing.  i had 
considered using lithography for this, but it wouldnt have had the 
tactility that   the thick ink from a woodblck does.

 --other impermanant papers:
      thanks to everyone offering up suggestions,  ideally i would like 
to find a paper that would completely disintegrate in water, yet nothing 
as chintzy as paper towel or toilet paper.  really diggin on the tar 
paper idea, but donno how well woodblock would work (and am not very 
smooth at  screening)

- --pics?
     yeah yeah. i will work on scanning some of the individual square in 
& getting them posted somewhere. 

- --i'll take one serving of concept & two of archival impermanence?
     since, as printmaker we are allkinds if thinkin about the archival 
quality of prints, here a little sumfin sumfin to chew on:   april 2000, 
Art in America, "planning for impermance,"  page 112.  great article 
about the inability to store & archive alot of contemp art. it was 
fascinating.  (also talks about my hero, felix gonzoles-torres, a 
photography/printmaker/installation artist. )
      
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End of Baren Digest V11 #981
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