Baren Digest Sunday, 18 March 2001 Volume 14 : Number 1360 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Maria Arango" Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 09:51:11 -0800 Subject: [Baren 13928] RE: birch charset="iso-8859-1" Hola amigos :-) Graham, you are absolutely right about birch in a way. If you are used to the ease of carving of basswood (without the splintering) and the tightness of cherry, birch can be a bear. It is, however, workable. I have not tried shina, so I can't compare to that. Baltic birch varies in quality, so it's a crap shoot when you go to the lumberyard what you will get. Siberian birch was much better to carve and did not splinter hardly at all, unless I got careless. One block had those ridges I talked about, which I had not gotten in Baltic before and did not "see" prior to printing. This is how I prepare my Baltic or Siberian birch to avoid excessive splintering. I don't seal my blocks, but do sand them to about a 400 or 600 smoothness to get rid of the fibrous look. Then I place the block flat on a surface, bathe it in linseed oil rather generously (I use a rag to wipe the oil on the block), and let it stand for a few hours, sometimes overnight. No splintering problems unless I get a bit crazy with the combination of Flamenco and chisels. I will have to try some shina blocks to compare, I just like going down to the lumberyard and getting a 4' x 8' sheet for $30. Makes a lot of blocks! HOWEVER, be warned that I don't hanga, this is for oil-based ink printing so the oil doesn't affect anything. I have also found a curious fact: Flexcut tools cut the birch better while Japanese tools cut the cherry much better. The tools must know tradition. Bright sunshiny SPRING day here; I'm going to go smell the flowers now... Maria <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Maria Arango Las Vegas, Nevada, USA http://www.1000woodcuts.com maria@mariarango.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------------------ From: Sunnffunn@aol.com Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 13:33:28 EST Subject: [Baren 13931] Re: answer - --part1_43.121ffcf5.27e507f8_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am going back to the question about linoblocks and sho made them early on. Because of the reference to Picasso. In February at a visit to our coastal home I went in the rare and used book store, new to our little community. I asked if she had any art books and she had one called Picasso Linocuts 1958-1963. (yes I fell in love instantly and bought it) This has black and white and color reproductions of all his linocuts from that period and an explanation of his process and a little linoblock history. Whether the author is indeed correct, I can not be certain and some said there were reduction prints on the same block being done before Picasso. This book states that he tried the different block method and wanted something easier for him to work. So, "Out of what likely had been a frustrating experience, and wanting to continue to refine and expand his work in linoleum, which now gave full indication of its color and design potential, Picasso invented, by sheer creative necessity, a new method of multi color graphics - all colors printed from one and the same block." There is an explanation as to the origin of linocut. the linocut it seems was considered not sophisticated enough to be used by mature artists but one artist Henri Matisse who did Head of a Woman used it. Another artist was Joan Miro', but most of their work was one color. And they did not create a lot of them, then along came Picasso. Linoleum was invented in 1860 and in the 1920's artists began using it to make prints. Interesting history. Marilynn ------------------------------ From: Ray Hudson Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 16:00:28 -0500 Subject: [Baren 13932] Exchange 8 at last The last print I was waiting for to complete Exchange 8 has just arrived from across the Atlantic! Must have been a few icebergs in the way. And one that was lost in the mail has surfaced and arrived in good shape. So all is ready; most of the sorting is completed and the prints should be off to you by early in the week. Thanks for your patience, one and all. Ray ------------------------------ From: "Daniel L. Dew" Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 23:22:49 -0500 Subject: [Baren 13933] New Stuff Well, I hope one and all are doing fine? I just uploaded two new prints. The first one is for The Salon De Refuse, Endangered Species: http://www.dandew.com/Iste_Stultus_Darwin.htm The other is an oldy but goody, another print of Hannah and Meagan: http://www.dandew.com/Revelations21_4.htm Will let you know when more arrive! Let me know what you think and please sign in! dan dew ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest v14 #1360 *****************************