Baren Digest Monday, 5 March 2001 Volume 14 : Number 1343 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cucamongie@aol.com Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 08:33:06 EST Subject: [Baren 13701] pva PVA can be purchased from Light Impressions, 1-800-828-6216. Since I already ordered it, that's what I'm going to use. I have no idea what ELVAIS is. April? Sarah ------------------------------ From: "eli griggs" Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 18:15:10 -0500 Subject: [Baren 13702] relief ink for block printing charset="iso-8859-1" Hi there: Does anybody use etching ink for block printing? I tried it recently, and was less than happy with the results. I was printing onto damp, soften Kitakata, as I do with block inks, by hand. I thickened the ink, Renaissance Black from Graphic Chemical, with corn starch and the prints seemed fine when I pulled them from the block. When the prints had dried, the ink had gone a bit 'splotchy.' The ink seems to have a body similar to that of the Speedball Block Ink (oil base.) and so seemed fine to me. Would I have been better off not using the corn starch? Should I have use something like sureset? Could the Burnt Sienna, that is part of the ink, and the corn starch have had an accelerated siccative effect on the oil base? Any suggestions will be welcomed. Eli Griggs Charlotte N.C. USA ------------------------------ From: B E Mason Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 17:24:17 -0800 Subject: [Baren 13703] Re: relief ink for block printing Eli, I use litho ink all the time and it works well, put a little setswell into the ink, roll it very thin on the slab and slowly build up the layers on the block. You do not need corn starch. I think etching ink would work the same. The secret is to get the ink on in very thin layers, taking several minutes to roll up a small block. If you can hear the ink on the slab, it is too much ink. It should look like velvet when it is rolled out with almost no sound at all when you roll the roller. If you hear it going slurp, slurp you have way way too much ink. Take your time and do not put any pressure on the roller, let the weight of even a very small roller be all the weight you use. Just take you time and you will have good prints. I usually use Kitikata dry with this ink. The setswell should help with the spolotchy look, if you need to thicken ink I would recommend mag carb instead of corn starch.Most blacks will be stiff enough and not need thickening. I usually put transparent base in my inks, which I think makes them a little loser, although they say not. If you are printing by hand, just work from the center out with oil based inks. I have successfully used a baren, but a wooden spoon or rice paddle gives you more pressure. The print I am doing for the endangered species #9 is done on Kitakata with litho ink, are you in this exchange? If not let me know off list and I will send you one to look at when I am done with them so you can see how thin the ink is. Best to you, Barbara ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 21:23:02 -0600 Subject: [Baren 13704] Re: Elated! 03/04/2001 09:22:52 PM Ring!....Ring!! .........Ring!!!... who the heck could be ringing at my front door so early on a Sunday morning ? COMING!!! Mr. Postman....what it's that you got there for me ? Is that a package ?....say what ?........ from JAPAN ! NO WAY! There's no possible way that my BarenMall order could be here so soon, I just ordered three days ago... you sure you got the right house ?.....yeap...that's me....Mr. Julio Newbie Printmaker........... Honest, I was so surprised I had to post on Baren. I wanted to try some new tools for exchange #9 together with by hand made Yamaguchi paper....so I put an order thru on the BarenMall on the afternoon of March 28th. I had heard from others that the shipments were speedy, but I figured at least a week or so....at best......no way I would expect my tools to get here less than 4 days later. I have already tried out my new hangi-to knife and unfortunately also the water stones sharpening kit {;-( The brushes and the baren will wait till later this week. Not wanting to sound goofy here, but that's really amazing considering that just two days ago this package was sitting 1/2 way around the world and the tools on a shelf of a japanese shop. Great packaging also! My congratulations to Mr. Matsumura for running a tight ship and to BarenMall for making it all possible. Julio Rodriguez (Skokie, Illinois) ps. for those interested in hanga....go to this link, click on "online gallery" and go near the bottom of the page.....something not seen everyday...a complete set of Hasui's woodblocks for one of his most famous prints.... link courtesy of Gary and David. http://www.harashobo.com/english/index.html ------------------------------ From: Kris Alder Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 21:45:15 -0700 Subject: [Baren 13705] Re: pva and etching ink Hi! There was a question earlier about PVA glue. PVA stands for polyvinyl acetate, a plastic-based glue that stays flexible when dry. Yes, it is archival. It is widely used by book artists as a medium for gluing up books. Thanks for all the helpful info on choices for fixatives. Ray, Any word on the exchagne #8 prints? Cutting and printing, Kris ***************************************** Kristine Alder Printmaker/Art Educator/Book Artist Logan, UT email: krisalder@cc.usu.edu imakeprints@hotmail.com ***************************************** ------------------------------ From: Aqua4tis@aol.com Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 00:18:10 EST Subject: [Baren 13706] Re: pva glue this may already have been answered but where does one buy pva glue? can i get it at the hardware store? thanks georga ------------------------------ From: Gerald Soworka Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 16:41:14 +1100 Subject: [Baren 13707] Re: pva glue Aqua4tis@aol.com wrote: > this may already have been answered but where does one buy pva glue? can > i get it at the hardware store? > thanks > georga Yes Here (australia) it goes under the brand name "aquadhere" Gerald - -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stewart House Artist in Residence Program web site http://artist.batcave.net applications for 2002 close 30th November, 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ From: Jim Bryant Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 23:07:25 -0700 Subject: [Baren 13708] Re: pva and etching ink I have to throw in my thoughts here--i see the word archival being used in conjunction with PVA glue. And unless you have a different PVA glue than i, i don't believe it is archival. Archival infers that it will do no permanent damage to the book/paper/whatever, which usually includes being reversible. A glue like wheat paste is archival, as it can be completely removed from the paper at after it dries. PVA dries permanently. PVA glue is, however, acid free. Which means that it shouldn't break down the fibers in the paper. PVA is available at in the US at bookbinding supply stores and Light Impressions. jim- ------------------------------ From: Lawrence Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 17:55:52 +1100 Subject: [Baren 13709] Re: pva and etching ink <200103050438.NAA31420@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> Thanx, that's the question I wanted answered... And so then, it follows that the desirable quality of archival PVA is that it ought to be reversible without damaging the paper. Weird, as all the archival PVA's that I have used still damaged the paper, and were imposssible to remove, they were just more expensive to buy. Thanx L **** ------------------------------ From: Ray Hudson Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 05:47:26 -0500 Subject: [Baren 13710] Exchange 8 update I'm sending this to the general readership. The long delayed exchange 8 is about ready to sent to the participants. 3 prints are promised this week and any others that may be yet to come will simply have to be returned unless they arrive soon. I'll try to have all the prints mailed out near the end of the week (now I'm sounding like certain printmakers!) Thanks to all for their participation. I think you'll be delighted with the collection. Ray ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest v14 #1343 *****************************