Baren Digest              Saturday, 6 January 2001      Volume 14 : Number 1276


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From: "Bridget Henry" <bridgetmaryh@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 15:45:54 -0800
Subject: [Baren 12846] Re: Baren Digest v14 #1275 

Hi Stephanie Walters, are you still living in Santa Cruz?  Zarina was one of 
my teahers as well as Paul Rangell.  I am still printing in the UCSC 
Printshop what a gorgeous place to work!

Bridget Henry
__________________________________________________________


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From: GWohlken <blueman@pantek.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 18:51:08 -0500
Subject: [Baren 12848] Re: Baren Digest v14 #1275 

Bea, when you say you print on moist paper with no paste and no sizing
on the paper and get the results you want,  can any paper work?  Could
kitakata paper work?  I don't believe kitakata is sized.    

* * *
Julio, are you doing hanga on a press?  I didn't think we could do that successfully.

* * *
I'm loving these daily snakes inching their way in.  I'm still working
out the design on mine and find the small size a strangely difficult
challenge for a snake which is long.  But curled is the way snakes rest, so...

* * *
Good post, Maria, using the hotel analogy.  So much good information
from each other here on Baren.  A day without Baren is a day without
inspiration, information, sunshine where it's gray, and once in a while
a little joke.

Gayle

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From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 17:14:08 -0600
Subject: [Baren 12849] Re: Taking the Chinese Plunge 01/05/2001 07:31:37 PM 

Bea, maybe it's the combination of cheap inks and no paste that created my
problems....I reread the articles on the
chinese methods and find it very interesting, would like to try it
out.....I guess the big difference is the unsized paper and the possible
interplay of colors mixes ?

Ray, Bea.....do you guys find the end result different than regular
japanese hanga ? I mean can you tell the difference as to which print came
from each ?

thanks...Julio




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From: "Jean Eger" <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 18:51:16 -0800
Subject: [Baren 12850] supplies for students charset="iso-8859-1" 

Hi Greg,

How about sharing the information you get with the list?

In my search for multicultural printmaking techniques, I've taken several
workshops on Japanese style printmaking.  Tomoko Murakami gives workshops in
the Bay Area constantly.  She teaches us to use the rice paste that comes in
the tube from McLains, plus pigment plus water, or some kind of water-based
paint, probably student watercolor, I don't remember now.  However, rice
paste is not hard to make if you follow the recipe in the Walter Phillips
book on Dave's web site.  The secret is to pour the boiling water in all at
once.

In Tomoko's workshop, we used Shina plywood from McLain's, but you could use
birch plywood just as well (watch out for warping).  We painted the pigment
on the block with ordinary brushes, not the special, expensive, hand-bound
Japanese brushes that McLain's sells, or similar flat-bottomed stencil
brushes.  We were not looking for precision, a la Dave Bull traditional
style, but rather a looser, more spontaneous aesthetic, if you will. It's
one step up from rolling up the plate with Speedball ink, but a very big
step.  I think Power Grip tools are very good and sharp.   The paper used
was all different kinds, as I recall.

My research into multicultural printmaking showed me that immigrants to this
country are anxious to absorb and assimilate Western culture.  They are not
as interested in Asian techniques as we are.  However, the non-toxicity of
it is very important, I think.  Also the valuing of the culture of the old
country.  In San Francisco they teach those techniques but they do not label
them as coming from any particular culture.  Of course it is difficult not
to label Chinese Brush Painting, because that's what it is called.

I, mself, saw a beautiful print in a show from Vietnam, which was called a
clay print.  So recently I have been making clay prints, in which I draw on
a clay slab which has dried, then it is bisqued.  Then I seal it with a very
thin layer of acrylic matt medium (mixed with water).  Otherwise it will
totally soak up and instantly dry the ink.  The line produced this way is
really pretty and irregular.  I printed it on damp Japanese paper with
Speedbal inks which worked pretty well.  I think it would work as well or
better with home made ink plus rice paste.  It's interesting because the
clay slabs break easily, so then they are fired separately and pieced back
together later.  I was thinking about how I could make a really large print
using clay, because I need to push the size of my prints up a little bit.
The little block prints we do for Baren exchanges are wonderful studies for
larger prints.

I had a funny experience printing my snakes.  There were so many to make
that I used my little proof press to print type-high linoleum.  However, the
block did not go through the press well, but jammed on the roller.  I was
completely mystified until my mechanic husband pointed out that the stuff
the linoleum was mounted on could have swolen with the water I had washed it
off with.  I had set it out to dry upright on one end--so it was sitting in
a puddle of water, swelling up.

If we run out of things to talk about on Baren, we could always discuss
paper sizing vs. no sizing.  I don't know how Bea gets such a good flat
color out of unsized paper and no paste.  Do you want to share your secret,
BEa?
Jean Eger-Womack
http://www.jeaneger.com



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From: Cynthia Wilson <cywilson@juno.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 19:37:45 -0800
Subject: [Baren 12851] Re: Lino 

Regarding warming up linoleum....I've been putting the unmounted stuff on
top of a heating pad.  Works great!

Cyndy

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From: b.patera@att.net
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 07:27:51 +0000
Subject: [Baren 12852] Clay prints 

Jean,

Have you posted any of your clay prints anywhere? Would 
love to see them. Something I've been meaning to try 
(after I finish the snake and exchange 8).... saw some 
done once using leather hard clay... it was incised and 
inked or possibly inked and then incised. Will have to 
try your bisque method too.

Barbara P.

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From: BBlitstein@netscape.net (Bonnie Blitstein)
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 04:33:16 -0500
Subject: [Baren 12853] Re: Baren Digest v14 #1254 

Dear Gillyin
That was a nice and passionate essay about Lino...I love lino
I like buying a huge piece like a small carpet and laying it out on the floor 
and being in the work so to speak. I've worked on pieces 30" x 40" and I 
sorta have to sit on the floor and carve it....very absorbing
What is also wonderful is to take many of strips and carve 'em, print 'em and 
then place the prints to together in a large mural.
I work in oil base inks for relief, although Manhattan Graphic Center where
I do my printmaking is a non-toxic shop, but with lino its hard to get
the intensity of line with water-based inks...I like rolling the ink
onto the large linos with a roller nearly as large as the piece....
I am very much into very crisp prints...I get nuts with smudge and 
fingerprints....I love the image to shine out of the beautiful paper with
out any thing distracting from the printed image..

I like the knife carving suggestions very practical.

Bonnie
- --
www.geocities.com/terrificartist

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From: Ray Hudson <rhudson@together.net>
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 06:02:29 -0500
Subject: [Baren 12854] "Chinese" method 

Julio--I certainly am no expert on Chinese woodblock printing.   With
the size of China, its ancient history, its vast number of artists, I
suspect there are great variations in the art there.   (The recent link
we had to an exhibit of Chinese woodcuts had no examples of this "water
printing" or shui-yin.)   I suspect a woodcut done with the "water
printing" technique does appear different from traditional Japanese
hanga.  For one thng, I don't think you will find the extremely fine
outlines present.   The images are usually composed of larger plains of
color and the prints are frequently done with far less blocks.(In part
this is due to the scarcity of good wood, much of the ginkgo having been
burned for charcoal production during the Cultural Revolution.)   I wish
I could find a site on the web that illustrated Lu Fang's work, but so
far I haven't.   It's breath-taking and frequently shows the grain of
the wood; the color washes across the paper.  But much of this is due, I
suspect, because of his own nature as an artist, his particular vision
of things.  And, of course, there are probably exceptions to everything
I've just said among folks who use the "water printing" technique!
Ray

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From: Legreenart@cs.com
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 06:54:44 EST
Subject: [Baren 12855] Re: Baren San Antonio Snake and Dragon 

The Snake and Dragon exchange opening tonight was well attended, with some 
delighted reactions from many visitors. It was a warm and pleasant evening. I 
am too keyed up to sleep, so I am catching up on the digest, and thought I 
should say "Congratulations to the artists who had snake prints to me on time 
for this opening. I put up a sign crediting Baren, (Thanks to Carol), and 
included a statement that the show was a work in progress, with more prints 
coming for next monthes First Friday opening. 
    I am finally sleepy now, so I'll update later.

Yawning happily, 
Le Green
Stonemetal Press
Email: legreenart@cs.com
Website:  www.stonemetalpress.homepage.com

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End of Baren Digest v14 #1276
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