Baren Digest Saturday, 6 January 2001 Volume 14 : Number 1275 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cucamongie@aol.com Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 09:07:05 EST Subject: [Baren 12825] lino printing Hi, Dan I haven't tried lino w/Akua Kolor, it should work OK but I would roll it up instead of brushing it on like we do w/hanga, if I have a chance I'll try it out- best wishes Sarah ------------------------------ From: GraphChem@aol.com Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 10:14:19 EST Subject: [Baren 12826] Re: All linos are not equal... Frankly, I'm not sure to whom I was replying. With my eyesight being what it is, it could have been a mis-read on my part, although I do remember (a mean feat in its own right) a posting about the brown battleship lino from Glasgow, so maybe there was a German reference afterall. Dean ------------------------------ From: Vollmer/Yamaguchi Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 12:45:55 -0400 Subject: [Baren 12827] Cut! Print! Huh? I don't get it, it's e-mail, not a personal attack!!!! This is a forum about woodcut! I hate to see so much personality getting in the way of cutting and printing. And hate to loose dedicated printmakers like Josephine and Graham. I certainly hope Jeanne doesn't think any of us really thought any less of her for her 000000 indescretion. It can happen to anyone. (Especially on New Year!) So, thank you, Roxanne for the exhibition info, I'm sure Sarah will get one of her crazy dogs in that show! I just got an invitation from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to participate in their Sakura Matsuri, the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival. It will be the weekend of April 28 and 29, a big Japanese party under the cherry bloosoms of beautiful Brooklyn. Sarah Hauser will be there too. The craft demonstrations are in the afternoons from 1 to 4. 1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11225-1099, 718-623-7200, http:/www.bbg.org I understand that in Japan, the Sakura Matsuri features much drunkenness under the blossoms....unfortunately (or fortunately?), alcohol is not permitted at the BBG. Even in the renovated Japanese Garden! I hope some of you in the New York area can make it! April Vollmer 174 Eldridge St, NYC 10002, 212-677-5691 http://www.aprilvollmer.com ------------------------------ From: Greg Carter Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 11:53:47 -0500 Subject: [Baren 12828] Taking the Plunge I have been thinking it was time to take the plunge into Hanga or some varation exploring waterbased inks applied with a brush. I want to learn for my self but also so I can eventually I introduce it to my college students in the simplest and most cost efficient way. There is a lot of info that I am working through but but I would appreciate suggestions on varations that could simplify it for general printing students and that I would be able to afford for 15 students. What equipment do I really have to have and what water based inks are the best for the student environment. Your specific comments would be welcome with both emails to me or pointing out a specific page on the web that would be helpful. Thanks, Greg Carter ------------------------------ From: Sunnffunn@aol.com Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 11:57:58 EST Subject: [Baren 12830] Re: lino printing I know this is a woodcut forum, so please be patient with this one last remark on lino. When I use akua kolor on a plexy plate and roll it on for a monotype print i coat the plate first with dish soap, glycerin i guess. that helps the paint to release. i have not tried this yet but would it help the paint to release more fully if a linoblock was coated first or even a wood block. just a thought?????? also remember the other day when i said something about a person in baja mexico that was selling giclee prints for a high price. Here is the website address : www.jilllogan.com this is not a printmaking site. i am leaving in about an hour for the coast see you all the end of next week. marilynn ------------------------------ From: "Maria Arango" Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 09:21:47 -0800 Subject: [Baren 12831] RE: Cut! Print! Chat! Live n Let Live! charset="iso-8859-1" Welcome new members, congrats to April. Took me a while to catch up to all the recent excitement. I guess all I have to offer is an analogy of what I feel a forum is and what it is not. Long post follows, so use your DEL button at your discretion. Picture yourself in a huge hotel with an infinite number of floors and a near-infinite number of rooms in each floor. This is the Internet Hotel, where you can find everything for every interest. The Internet Hotel holds conventions all the time. There is an ongoing Art convention in the 15439685th floor, with a Printmaking convention going on in rooms 345-349581. Inside the Printmaking convention, there are talks and workshops and open forums going on in diverse rooms. Etching and engraving (metal) are being discussed in about 39 rooms, serigraphy is being hashed over in another 24 rooms, general printmaking in a couple of hundred rooms, relief in a few others, woodblock printmaking in the Baren room. It is expected that intaglio printmakers will either attend the General Printmaking or the Intaglio Printmaking sessions, and avoid the Digital Printmaking sessions. It is usually bad practice, although it has happened in every convention that I have attended, that those that have animosity toward a particular subject, say "car-prints," will avoid the Car Print sessions altogether, rather than try to impose their point of view in a room that they have no business being in (bad grammar, sorry). The Baren room is where woodblock printmaking and related subjects are being discussed and it is large, about 400 folks are sitting in chairs in an open discussion forum. This means that everyone can talk, although in reality only about 20-30 folks say stuff and the rest sit and listen. It's okay. As in a convention, folks come and go freely, they sit and listen for a while, exit when they please or when the topic of conversation is of no interest to them. There are those who come to conventions to question everything or to get folks riled up about a specific topic. Because of these trouble makers, the Baren room (and every room in the Great Convention Internet Hotel) has moderators. These moderators are not policing or censoring anything, but merely keeping the conversations civil and to the general topic of woodblock printmaking and related subjects. When conversation strays, moderator steps in. When forum attendees forget that there are 400 people "listening" and make inappropriate public remarks, the moderator steps in. No censorship or police or big-brotherism, but moderation. We are an international group with many variations on the theme of woodblock printmaking and it is difficult sometimes to not become defensive over our particular interpretation. The back of the Baren room is a bit aside and allows people to have a drink (open bar and all) and talk about anything they like. Dogs, drinks, dances, music, weather, trees and flowers are all appropriate topics of conversation in the Baren-after-5. Outside of this Baren rooms, there is the big Internet Hotel, full of good and nasty people. If on the way back to your room you get mugged, it is hardly the responsibility of the Baren room moderator to get your money back or kick the attacker in the... If you receive threatening phone calls from some other Hotel guest, take your phone off the hook, leave the Hotel, or get their number and call them right back for a fun exchange of pleasantries. Back to our peaceful Baren room, where woodblock printmakers are welcomed to discuss woodblock printmaking and related subjects. If you get tired of listening to people chat or find that the ongoing conversations bother you, do what I do: leave the room, go into your studio, draw, print or carve something and get back to the convention some other time. Health to all, Maria <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Maria Arango Las Vegas, Nevada, USA http://www.1000woodcuts.com maria@mariarango.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------------------ From: "Tyrus Clutter" Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 11:17:11 -0700 Subject: [Baren 12834] Re: Lawrence's brown lino ** High Priority ** ** Reply Requested When Convenient ** I went to a bookmaking workshop a couple years back and one of the = printers, out of NYC, works only in lino on old typr presses. She was on = the last few 8x8" squares that she she had found when she moved into her = current home. The previous owners had taken up old lino and refloored and = that was what she was working with. ------------------------------ From: Ray Hudson Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 15:19:30 -0500 Subject: [Baren 12835] Name of Chinese printing Bea! Your friendly snake just slithered through the snow to my mailbox along with Meagan Dew's sunny Floridian delight. Wonderful creatures! Mine are about half printed. You asked a question that perhaps the rest of Baren may be interested in so I'm posting this to the general audience. I think the Chinese name for the type of printing we attempt to do is Shui-yin. Here's a quote from Michael Sullivan's "The Chinese Art of 'Water Printing', Shui-Yin" from Art International, Sept-Nov. 1984: 26-33 "My concern, however, is not with these foreign-style woodcuts [he's talking about the type of work common to the Woodcut Movement launched in 1927-1928 by Lu Xun] , but with a far older Chinese tradition that has seen a revival in the twentieth century--the technique of 'water-printing'--shui-yin. In this process the ink or colour is mixed with water, as Chinese ink always is. For book or line-block printing (such as all Chinese book illustration up to the end of the sixteenth centry) the ink or colour is even and flat, without any gradations; but as soon as an area rather than a line is printed, the ink or colour can be applied to the block with a brush allowing gradations of tone, and even the mixing of colour, as in a Chinese flower painting, in which the artist may use a broad flat brush tinted with red at one end and yellow at the other, and allow the clours to run together where they meet, giving a blending of tone and colour. If in addition to this the paper is moistened before printing, delicate, diffuse tones can be achieved. By painting in ink and colour on the block, or blocks, the printer is able to achieve an effect almost indistinguishable from that of the watercolour painting from which, very often the print is derived." The article includes prints by Lu Fang, Huang Xuanzhi, and Zhao Zongzao. The best to all, Ray (Vermont) ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 14:50:52 -0600 Subject: [Baren 12836] Re: Taking the Plunge 01/05/2001 02:50:40 PM Marilynn........re the watercolor & lino experiment....I think using straight watercolor w/o "rice" paste will not work. You need the paste to achieve good coverage and allow the color to take and get rid of blotches....also a moist paper is a big help. Since you are rolling and not brushing....not sure how you would achieve even coverage of this mixture....here's one of many recipes...I use regular baking flour or fine baby rice cereal.....don't let it get to thick.... http://barenforum.org/encyclopedia/entries/onepoint/018_04/018_04_frame.html Greg....of course I would suggest the Baren encyclopedia as a starting point....it is nicely broken down into general overview, carving and printing topics.....don't forget to read thru the One-point lessons for additional details. As a newbie, I have a taken a number of shortcuts thru my inexperience and lack of proper tools.... my first print was done on regular plywood & pine blocks, exacto knives and woodworking chisels for cutting, Speedball block ink for pigments and a cheap $8.00 baren from the local art supply store. Since then I have with each new print converted somewhat....I am now using real japanese carving tools which are just wonderful....real block printing inks courtesy of Gary L. in Kansas and a better quality baren purchased from Aiko's for $12.00. If the block/impression size is large.. I still use my Vandercook Model 02 press to print as I find that gives me a better shot at even coverage and continuity within the edition (besides it saves wear and tear on my pitching arm!). Small areas are done with the baren. Eventually I hope to own a better quality baren and progress to the point where I don't have to run to the garage and the safety of my press.... http://www.skokienet.org/bandits/jcrstuff/photojr/van0201s.jpg Two tips I found invaluable...don't try to print w/o paste (unless you want special effects!) and make sure your paper is moist & soft.....(not wet!) It is not as difficult as it sounds and it's a lot of fun not having to mess with chemicals and oily cleanup...even if you are not doing it 100% in the traditional style.... Good luck.....Julio ------------------------------ From: Daniel Dew Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 16:20:15 -0500 Subject: [Baren 12837] Slithery Babies One quick little post regarding the snakes some of you are starting to recieve from Meagan. She is my wonderful, angelic daughter. She is 11 years old and would love to hear your comments! Her e-mail is: megsmail@tampabay.rr.com P.S. I do check all her e-mail, but I don't think I need to worry about any of you Baren folks, right? Big Smile :-) dan dew ------------------------------ From: =?iso-8859-1?q?dimitris=20grammatikopulos?= Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 13:55:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Baren 12838] Re: All linos are not equal... Hello, Dean, how can I contact this Dutch firm? Do they have a site? Dimitris ------------------------------ From: "Walters, Stephanie J. (Nevada Color)" Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 15:45:22 -0600 Subject: [Baren 12840] Re: Lawrence's brown lino charset="iso-8859-1" I've used the 12x12 industrial tiles before, and they work pretty well. Just tough on the tools. Very cheap, though. What was the printers name, by the way? Hello, everyone! My newyears resolution is to contribute more to Baren. Despite all I beleive it to be a great forum! Until now, I have been a silent majority. My name is Steph. ------------------------------ From: "Tyrus Clutter" Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 15:03:28 -0700 Subject: [Baren 12841] Re: Lawrence's brown lino I've used the 12x12 industrial tiles before, and they work pretty well. Just tough on the tools. Very cheap, though. What was the printers name, by the way? I think it was Barbara Henry I went to a bookmaking workshop a couple years back and one of the = printers, out of NYC, works only in lino on old typr presses. She was on the last = few 8x8" squares that she she had found when she moved into her current home. The previous owners had taken up old lino and refloored and that was what she was working with. ------------------------------ From: Bea Gold Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 14:14:42 -0800 Subject: [Baren 12842] Re: Taking the Plunge Hey Julio Dear, I am printing without paste on moist paper just no sizing. Love it and you don't see adifference unless you want to. When I used paste, I used rice flour purchased in an Asian maket. It worked very well. Great fun to experiment. Have fun. Bea Gold ------------------------------ From: "Walters, Stephanie J. (Nevada Color)" Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 16:32:03 -0600 Subject: [Baren 12843] Re: Lawrence's brown lino charset="iso-8859-1" I was just asking because one of my teachers at UCSC was Zarina Hashmi and she returned to New York (her home) a couple of years ago. She taught intaglio and book making. She is a wonderful printmaker and bookmaker. ------------------------------ From: Kris Alder Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 16:24:56 -0700 Subject: [Baren 12844] Re: Cut! Print! Chat! Live n Let Live! Thanks, Maria! Once again, you have addressed the situation eloquently and expressed thoughts that many of us wish we could do as well. It's good to hear your voice again. I also wanted to thank you for the beautiful holiday print and thoughtful wishes. When I joined Baren a year ago, I found it to be a great resource for artists of all abilities and skill levels. There have been "testy" bits here and there, but I have felt it was worth what I got from the forum to hang in there. I've even encouraged several of my fellow printmakers and students to sign on. We've all found information and resources that we can use to help us reach higher as artists. Even though most of us don't contribute often, we are still listening! Baren is still great and I intend to hang in there for another year, and even more to come. Looking forward to a creative and challenging new year in printmaking! Kris ***************************************** Kristine Alder Printmaker/Art Educator/Book Artist Logan, UT email: krisalder@cc.usu.edu imakeprints@hotmail.com ***************************************** ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest v14 #1275 *****************************