Baren Digest Tuesday, 24 September 2002 Volume 20 : Number 1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John and Jan Telfer Date: Mon, 23 Sep 02 22:15:40 +0800 Subject: [Baren 19303] Re: Puzzle Print >Jan, you're in. Please go to the puzzle page and send in your addy. Someone >pointed out that I had a duplicate sign up in there. >http://www.1000woodcuts.com/puzzle/project.html >I have one other participant from Australia, two from Canada, Italy, Ireland >(with alt NY address) and Japan. No problem! I will label the thing "gift", >set the value at zero and cross my fingers. Thanks, Maria, great news. You will possibly need to write "woodblock" or something on the envelope with "no value" as well. I just send my prints from here as "printed Matter only" and the folios as well as "printed matter" and "Economy Class" which gets there as quickly as air express!!!!! I will be notified if Customs are unsure, believe me!!! Thanks, Jan ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 10:36:47 -0500 Subject: [Baren 19304] Re: Baren Digest V20 #1966 Design, Carve, Print... I guess I spend quite a lot of time in the 'design' phase. I enjoy the carving immensely, feeling as I go along the most accurate and safest and FASTEST ways to clear what shouldn't print. . But there are infinite ways to carve and the printed result will be the same. In hanga, it is the PRINTING which rules over the print, even more than design, and much more than carving. In hanga, the printing is more similar to painting and less similar to western printing tradition... My first hanga teacher was Hiroki Morinue... Hiroki is a wonderful guy, sweet disposition, quiet, unusually patient. He liked to say things like, "listen to your knife as you carve -- isn't that a wonderful sound?" I attended one of his two-week hanga courses at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado. By the way, Anderson Ranch really is a wonderful school in a most beautiful location! One of the students in that class was an older woman who hadn't been involved in art since childhood. She'd signed up for the course hoping for some interesting way to pass a few weeks and had expected lectures and slide shows. She was terrified and inhibited and reluctant to commit to ANY activity in the class beyond asking 1,000 questions, turning a deaf ear to 1,000 responses, and worrying and complaining and being totally 'bored'. She 'wasted' three days in this kind of procrastination, finally managing to draw some crude sort of design onto her blocks. Almost completely lacking experience with her knives or any similar tool, she pushed into her block, tearing more than cutting a little bit of the wood from each block in very shallow splinters. Her hands ached and shook, she made painfully slow progress and often lost her temper, sometimes throwing down her tool and loudly exclaiming what a stupid class this was and how she just didn't "get" it. After a couple of more days, her blocks were almost intact except for small areas where she'd managed to worry parts of the surface. She 'gave up' carving and began to print -- I wish I could tell you that her prints were miraculously wonderful, but they were NOT! They were just icky! She was so completely frustrated and disgusted! Her papers were soppy, ink oozing and running everywhere -- you might want to believe that the results were interesting in some random way, but honestly -- they were not. She just made a dozen or so soaking wet papers which appeared to have been daubed with mud and unaesthetic globs of wet watercolor. She had inked and printed each block onto her papers a single time and had managed to get color where in all the places she had not intended to put color and had been unable to print solidly in those places where she wanted intense color... And in an hour she announced that she was 'finished' and what was she supposed to do "NOW"?... The teacher announced a printing demonstration, and he gathered us around his little printing station in the middle of the floor and asked if anyone had a "nice set of blocks" he could borrow for his demonstration. Most of us students offered up blocks, but teacher selected the crude blocks of this one adult whose attempts I have already described. And he also got permission to 'borrow' three or four of her worst prints for the demonstration. He sat for a few minutes looking quietly at her blocks and prints, and then began. He inked one of her ugly little blocks with a pink-gray bokashi in a sweeping curve and began to print the three or four sheets... He printed some iterations with great pressure of the baren, he printed others using the baren as if it and his arm were completely weightless. He looked briefly at each print before deciding which block to print and where and how to apply color. In half an hour or an hour, he'd passed her papers over the two or three blocks 30 or 40 times, improvising the most stunning and beautiful and subtle images --abstract hanga monoprints. We were deeply impressed with his lesson -- that the 'art' is mostly in the printing. Our teacher had a well-developed ability to 'respond' to the current condition of the print (and of the students!) and managed to make some improvement with each pass of the paper over block until he decided he was 'done'. Even the 'backward' student became a bit more liberated and her level of satisfaction improved along with her prints. Design, carving, printing -- all are important -- but it is the printing more than anything which can 'make' or 'break' the print, I think. Plus, there is that overwhelming meditative aspect to printing hanga -- moving meditation -- the body working hard, the rhythmical motion, the mind fully concentrated in the moment. Very uplifting and very satisfying activity! - -- Mike Mike Lyon mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com http://www.mlyon.com ------------------------------ From: "Rudolf Stalder" Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 11:38:08 -0700 Subject: [Baren 19305] anatomy Hi all, not about woodcuts "The Human Anatomy" http://www.rst-art.com/ana-ind.htm a short outlay for artists, in collaboration with Darrell Madis. Off-line comments welcome best wishes Rudolf ------------------------------ From: G Wohlken Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 12:13:33 +0000 Subject: [Baren 19306] Help with ink on book pages Do we have bookbinders and paper workers among us? I recieved this email and thought, though it doesn't have to do with printmaking, and especially doesn't have anything to do with woodcuts, it could be interesting to know the answer since we do work with paper. You can write to me off list or answer here as others may be interested in the answer. Gayle >Dear Gayle Wohlken, > >I have a question that I thought you or someone you know could answer. Please >help me if you can in any way. > >I have an old book, which has pen (ink) markings on its cover (Somehow my >"careful" friend let his 4-year-old boy doodle all over it!) I am very upset. > It happened to be a very valueable book to me. The ink is from a regular >black ball-point pen. The book is a hardcover book with thick paper material >wich is colored. > >Is there anything I can do to clear the ink off? Please help. Thank you for >your time. > >Haig Nersesyan > > > ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 11:22:44 -0500 Subject: [Baren 19307] Re: Baren Digest V20 #1956 Hi, Marilynn... Contact me, Mike Lyon, if you feel that you haven't received enough postage (or have any other problems) to cover mailing costs and I'll see that you come out "whole"... The Baren Exchange "rules" are here: http://www.barenforum.org/exchange/rules.html The Exchange 14 "details" are here: http://www.barenforum.org/exchange/exchange_14/exchange_14.html If you'll let me know OFF-LIST (click here to send email directly to me: mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com ) who it is who did not send return postage, I'll try to expedite it... For what it's worth, my experience is that many participants are kind enough to send more than the required amount of postage. That usually makes up for those who 'forget'... Exchange coordinators need the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, and the forgiving nature of a Saint, don't you think :-) ?? - -- Mike At 09:03 AM 9/22/2002 -0700, you wrote: >A reminder to all I am following all the rules of the regualar Baren >exchanges. I have not opened these last packets as I am in the moving >process and will wait until I can take them over to the studio. Please >please remember to include your return postage. I have one set of prints >that did not include postage. I sent a nice note to the individual and >that person responded on Sept 6, but still I have not recieved the >postage. As I recall, and I could not find the rules for the exchanges on >Baren, anyone who does not send return postage does not recieve prints >back until the postage is recieved. Is this correct and if so who on the >Baren administration do I contact about this if I do not recieve the >return postage by the first part of October??? >Marilynn Mike Lyon mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com http://www.mlyon.com ------------------------------ From: Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 10:07:14 -0700 Subject: [Baren 19308] Re: Help with ink on book pages Gayle, your friend Haig, didn't say if the ball point pen marks were across printed type or not. And with colored pages. I tried an experiment on some rag printing paper with good results. I have some "EXTRA LEMON" in a squirt bottle [much like the orange cleaner advertised on TV, I think] I put that on, rubbed it with a paper towel, then put some mineral spirits on and again rubbed it with a paper towel, dried it under my halogen lamp and the ink marks were gone. But on a book, where pulp paper is used, I don't know. Then there's the type to deal with. Good luck. Philip Hammond, OR USA ------------------------------ From: "Maria Arango" Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 17:20:02 -0700 Subject: [Baren 19309] playing with wood First, some of my blocks are all fattened up and going to market; thought it might be of mild interest to see them framed all dressed up and ready to go party. http://www.1000woodcuts.com/galleries/blocksgallery/blocks2001.html The other woody issue is the wood for the puzzle. I am now in possession of two gorgeous solid cherry blocks (joined panels 18 x 24 inches/45.72 x 60.96 cm). Ladies and gentlemen, sharpen your tools! For those who have never cut cherry before, it might seem at first a bit tougher than shina or birch. But when you realize that there is no splintering and no crumbling and your cuts can get as sinuous and sexy as you wish...oh my... Anyhow, I thought the project was deserving of solid cherry wood. As soon as the rest of you puzzled-ones mosie on over to the confirmation page, I will know for sure how many pieces. I even bought some new jig-saw blades for the ocassion, the good kind. Tha page is here: http://www.1000woodcuts.com/puzzle/project.html, or just send me an email if you are having browser problems to confirm your participation and send me your mailing address. We are on schedule, the design is fluttering from my head to the blocks... chop chop, Maria <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Maria Arango Las Vegas, Nevada, USA http://www.1000woodcuts.com maria#mariarango.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------------------ From: "Maria Arango" Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 20:12:53 -0700 Subject: [Baren 19310] variable humidity WANTED: HUMIDITY EXPERTS! Okay, so I posted on Baren (yes, I know twice in one day, this is an emergency!) earlier about my cherry blocks. These particular blocks are around 3/4" thick (1.90 cm) and are of joined planks. Did I mention they are beautiful? They have been seasoning in my humble studio for around 9 months, having originated in the East Coast of USA and milled in Mexico (that's where the wood was shipped from). Anyhow, my previous post was received by a knowledgeable and trusted source who immediately warned me about warping. These blocks will travel to places of various humidities, then travel back to my single humidity environment. Having been split from their original stable whole, is it fair to assume that warping will be a big problem? Would plywood be a more stable matrix? PHlywoooooood? For our master-phieceeee? Oh oh, say it ain't so! Whilst the forum answers my desperate queries, I will go chop some experimental blocks and toss them in the pool tomorrow (any excuse to go swimming...). Then I will dry them out in the sun and see what happens (any excuse to lay out in the sun...). The experiment was also my benefactor's idea, by the by. Maria, anxiously awaiting a flat answer <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Maria Arango Las Vegas, Nevada, USA http://www.1000woodcuts.com maria#mariarango.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------------------ From: Artsmadis#aol.com Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 00:22:16 EDT Subject: [Baren 19311] Re: variable humidity In a message dated 9/23/02 10:11:36 PM Central Daylight Time, maria#mariarango.com writes: << Would plywood be a more stable matrix? PHlywoooooood? For our master-phieceeee? Oh oh, say it ain't so! >> I think it's so. And with 7 or 8 months to knock around various studios in ghastly conditions there's no telling what the result might be to individual blocks. Darrell ------------------------------ From: Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 21:29:10 -0700 Subject: [Baren 19312] Re: variable humidity Maria, don't use your good cherry wood on this project, Play it safe and use plywood. Everyone will be happy with that I'm sure. Save that cherry wood for something special, of yours. My dos centavos. Philip Hammond, OR USA ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 23:40:14 -0500 Subject: [Baren 19313] Re: playing with wood - the math 09/23/2002 11:44:05 PM Maria writes: "...I am now in possession of two gorgeous solid cherry blocks (joined panels 18 x 24 inches/45.72 x 60.96 cm). " Someone help me with the math here...let's see...2 blocks..at 18X24" equals 864 sq. inches..divided approx. by 42 participants...equals approx. 20.5 sq. inches per participant give or take on Maria's overall design...or individual carving blocks of an approx. carving size of 4X5" ???? Is that about right ? Is that accurate enough to start the design ideas flowing ?...oops I forgot about orientation !!! Gonna have to wait, Darn it ! Julio ------------------------------ From: Jack Reisland Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 18:52:37 -1000 Subject: [Baren 19314] Re: variable humidity Hi Maria, I see no reason to expect the rather small pieces of 3/4" cherry to warp when shipped around. They may -marginally- expand, but only by very small amounts, and when shipped back to your environment, they will all stabilize back to a consistent size fairly quickly. The problem with shipping wooden things around are when you are dealing with objects that built up of several pieces of wood, with opposing grain directions. Then expansion and contraction can wreck havoc. Jack R. Maria Arango wrote: > WANTED: HUMIDITY EXPERTS! > > Anyhow, my previous post was received by a knowledgeable and trusted source > who immediately warned me about warping. These blocks will travel to places > of various humidities, then travel back to my single humidity environment. > Having been split from their original stable whole, is it fair to assume > that warping will be a big problem? > <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------------------ From: FurryPressII#aol.com Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 01:06:46 EDT Subject: [Baren 19315] Re: variable humidity how small will the pieces be? if small not a problem and besides the blocks will be back were they came from. humidity causes wood to expand but as they will be back home they will be back to normal. john ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 00:12:16 -0500 Subject: [Baren 19316] Re: variable humidity 09/24/2002 12:16:08 AM Maria writes: "..Having been split from their original stable whole, is it fair to assume that warping will be a big problem? " Uhmmmmm ...warping ? Maria I don't know about 3/4" thick blocks warping unless the changes are really drastic...specially with the small size you are mailing...after all the small blocks are not going to be printed or go near water. I think maybe I be more concerned with external pressures in the wood released after cutting and expansion, specially since you said they were joined-blocks...but even that I don't think would happen. Besides by the time you mail we will be in October....? so not the contrasts of summer/winter.....and you should get the blocks back in the spring...again...not the too extreme.....(except of course in Vegas where is always extreme!) Maybe....I am not sure....since I keep all my wood down in the basement where is a cool 69 degrees all around... bla, bla, bah.......Julio ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V20 #1970 *****************************