Baren Digest Wednesday, 5 February 2003 Volume 22 : Number 2119 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 18:11:39 -0600 Subject: [Baren 20638] Re: Rebecca's book Hi Dean, is this the book that has woodblock prints from many bareners ? Rebecca Salter's book Japanese Woodblock Printing (GCI product 70710 -$17.00) I been looking for a copy...I'll put an order thru your website tomorrow.... thanks...Julio ------------------------------ From: Cucamongie#aol.com Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 19:58:39 -0500 Subject: [Baren 20639] hanga and scams (not together though)! Hi all - thanks Louise and Maria for your thoughts and advice on the marketing email which I received, I really appreciate it. Of course I can't resist my 2 cents in the pigment/paste discussion. Ignasi, if you're getting too much texture, sounds like you probably have too much water in your pigment and adding some rice paste will help. Mixing on the block should work better for you than pre-mixing as you will have to do some experimentation to achieve the right mixture of pigment/water/paste. There's also the consideration of how wet your paper is. The paper should be like a damp sponge - damp but not dripping wet. You might try dampening some smaller scraps of paper and just experimenting with printing a small section of the block to get the mixture of ingredients right. Again, the Baren Encyclopedia is FILLED with great info. best of luck to you! Sarah ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 18:56:21 -0600 Subject: [Baren 20640] Re: Can this be ? Yet another Baren project .... Sorry for the multiple posts today, I must be playing catchup for the time out....anyju... I been trying to get a project off the ground for a couple of years now but it never seem like the right time. We have Maria's puzzle project in the carving stages w printing to occur later in the fall.....there is also Sharri's and Rudolph's LPE2 scheduled for sometime in 2003-4 ? I thought perhaps if there was interest from the membership we could have a window of opportunity to get my project done somewhere in between.....I am talking about making a Barenforum calendar printed by participating baren artists. Over in Japan they make blank calendar sheets with the dates/days preprinted....they have a blank area on the top for you to print your own image.....they are sold by the month in large stacks and are very popular with printmaking groups. These would be woodblock, lino, engraving as per our rules...but you could do oily or hanga or a bit of both. Size would be limited by the pre-printed forms available. See these photos from Dave's website: http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/017_05/017_05_frame.html My idea would involve taking on participants, ordering and redistributing the pre-printed sheets here on the US....and then collating the separate months into calendars. A calendar is something that can be displayed year around, is something also that can be given away to family and friends,,,,and if made out of original hand-printed art work...a little treasure to keep forever. We probably would not want to limit to just twelve members (each person prints a specific month) so we could probably just have an open-ended list of participants....you signup...ask for a month or we assign the month at random...each particpant gets maybe 20,30,50 ? sheets to print....then we get them back ala Maria's puzzle project...and we put the calendars together. Each participant can get back a few copies for their trouble and the rest of the calendars can be made available for sale at the BarenMall to benefit Baren...... I think the pre-printed forms (minimal costs) are available in May-June...perhaps earlier....we could probably have them here in late spring, carving and printing to be done during the summer/fall....and the finished months sent back to me by November and returned to you by /December....????? Suggestions ? ideas ? are you interested ? any problems I missed ? Please check the lovely prints on Dave's website. Open for discussion.......... {;-) thanks..Julio Rodriguez ------------------------------ From: Aqua4tis#aol.com Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 20:30:17 EST Subject: [Baren 20641] Re: Can this be ? Yet another Baren project .... julio im interested!!! georga ------------------------------ From: "April Vollmer" Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 23:03:57 -0500 Subject: [Baren 20642] Lending Ears "Especially in times of crisis and political friction, it is vital to lend an ear to artist from home and abroad." Michael Schneider, as usual, is very articulate! I only hope the upcoming events in Iraq don't prevent my own travel to Berlin to give a hanga class this March. We shall see...I hope this is not another case where oil triumphs over waterbase! ;-) (I know, what a thing to joke about!) Dean, I was impressed to hear you carry Rebecca's book. It is great to have a modestly priced book IN PRINT on this subject! I'd love to be able to recommend Yoshida, but it's just not around! "Rebecca Salter's book Japanese Woodblock Printing (GCI product 70710 -$17.00) is a great book, and one that I would recommend to most printmakers involved in relief work." April www.aprilvollmer.com ------------------------------ From: Sharri LaPierre Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 21:10:21 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20643] Re: Baren Digest V22 #2117 for cleaning plates use plain cooking oil and then take the last oily residue off with white spirit/turps. Try the using rubbing alcohol for the final wipe-up when cleaning your plates - it is much safer than turps or mineral spirits, and will do the job very effectively and efficiently. It is also economical - watch for it on sale at the local super market or drug store and purchase several bottles at once. I use the top from a dishwashing detergent bottle on the bottle of alcohol - the push, pull, squirt method. Works like a charm! Sharri ------------------------------ From: "kate courchaine" Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 06:12:28 +0000 Subject: [Baren 20644] Re: Baren Digest V22 #2117 Preserving lino blocks In response to Ray's question about how to preserve degrading lino blocks - They can be cast in metal and printed quite a bit more. I know a person that does this and also prints small edition books with these kind of plates. Looking forward to seeing exchange #15, and welcome to new bareners! Kate Courchaine ------------------------------ From: "Maria Diener (aka Arango)" Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 22:14:21 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20645] Re: Baren Digest V22 #2117 Also for general try non-ammonia window cleaner or home-made glass cleaner (water and white vinegar) as a last spiffier upper. And for a wonderful cleaner/ that will last all year, don't throw away that spent bottle of dish washing detergent just yet, fill it with water instead and you have a wonder degreaser that needs no rinsing. Works on your hands too. After the refilled water is gone, try it once more; then recycle. M <||><||><||><||><||><||> Maria Arango Las Vegas Nevada USA www.1000woodcuts.com <||><||><||><||><||><||> > > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-baren#ml.asahi-net.or.jp >[mailto:owner-baren#ml.asahi-net.or.jp]On Behalf Of Sharri LaPierre > Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 9:10 PM > To: baren#ml.asahi-net.or.jp > Subject: [Baren 20643] Re: Baren Digest V22 #2117 > > > for cleaning plates use plain cooking oil and then > take the last oily residue off with white > spirit/turps. > > Try the using rubbing alcohol for the final wipe-up when cleaning your >plates - it is much safer than turps or mineral spirits, and will do the job >very effectively and efficiently. It is also economical - watch for it on >sale at the local super market or drug store and purchase several bottles at >once. I use the top from a dishwashing detergent bottle on the bottle of >alcohol - the push, pull, squirt method. Works like a charm! > > Sharri > ------------------------------ From: Charles Morgan Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 23:28:12 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20646] Re: Water-based paint >A bowl of pigment (specially if it has a little alcohol mix in there) will >last for a very long time and can be continued to be used during the many >days a printing session runs. But once you combine the paste and the >pigment you have put a death sentence on that bowl of pigment. The paste >is only good for a day or so and it almost always starts to >harden/solidify/whatever...making it very hard to control...also I try not >to get too much paste on my good brushes....I always make fresh paste >since it takes only a couple of minutes to boil a tablespoon of flour in a >pot of water. This is just not true ... I have no idea where this got started. I have kept a small tea bowl with rice paste and pigment mixed sitting on my studio table for more than two weeks and nary a sign of mold. Consider that many of your pigments are poisons and will kill any mold. Also consider that your pigment dispersion is most likely in alcohol ... else it too would be getting moldy. I have been using the rice paste that comes from Japan in those big green tubes. It probably has some anti-fungal agent in it, because it sure does not mold on its own. If you are worried, mix in a little alcohol with your pigment/paste. Someone else suggested a few drops of formalin, but I have found that hard to find. If you get really desperate, put your paste/pigment in the fridge or in the freezer. You know, I used to try to do traditional Chinese brush painting. I once bought some water color blocks from China, supposedly used by professional artists. After use, you had to leave the lids off the containers, or that stuff would grow mold and tiny mushrooms. I suspect the paints were concocted from vegetable matter. So, if your pigments are all vegetable sources, you might have a problem with the premix method. But such pigments are certainly not going to be very light fast, and you probably would not want to use them anyway. And you could always add a bit of alcohol to solve the problem. When not in use, I cover the tea bowls with plastic wrap. That prevents most evaporation, just as it does with your pigment dispersions. The mixture remains quite fluid. Before use, I check the consistency and add a little water if necessary. Besides, it is not as though you are going to mix up a whole gallon of the stuff. Of course you mix only what you are going to need in the short term. We are talking about a few tablespoons full. Even if it did go bad, it would not be a great loss. Your pigment/paste mix will be mostly paste ... does not take much pigment. >Re control....unvariably..somewhere along your printing run ( if you are >doing more than 10-15 prints) ...the block/brush/paste/pigment balance >will go a little off....you will notice the block a little >runny/sticky......whatever...a way around this is to not add paste for a >sheet or two to let the block/mixing-brush balance itself out. I have some >video where the japanese printer skips the paste every other sheet... Well, I have never found this to be a problem with the premix method. I can control very well the thickness of the mixture just by adding a small bit of water. I try to be sure that the pigment/paste mixture is on the thin side before I start printing. I have NEVER had a paste build-up on the block using this method, not ever. Having said that, I do not make runs of more than 15 or 20 at a time, just because I find it too tiring, my mind wanders, etc. I print another 15 or so the next day, or some time in the next couple of days, or the next week ... and so on until I have the edition finished. Although I only print 15 or so at a time, I often print a color two or three times to get even coverage. And I repeat, I have never had a paste build up. I just rinse the block off after a run and set it aside while I do the next color. For each batch, I start out with two sheets of newsprint just to "condition" the block. I think you are MUCH more likely to get paste build up on the block if you follow the traditional technique. You have that thick shoe brush gizmo loaded with paste and pigment, and you keep adding more paste directly to the block and then scrubbing it with that big brush. That shoe brush is BIG and carries a lot of paste. No wonder you get a big build up on the block after a while. My little foam "brush" has very little paste/pigment in it, and most of it gets deposited on the block each inking. I easily control how much paste/pigment it carries by carful dipping and gently wiping on the edge of the container. If it ever did get "full" of paste/pigment, I could just rinse it out under the tap and dry it by squeezing it with a paper towel ... but I have never had to. And when I print, almost all of the pigment/paste mixture goes into the paper. There just isn't anything left on the block to build up. There is nothing mystical about the traditional way of doing hanga. The traditional methods obviously produce excellent results in the right hands. That does not mean that variations on the traditional methods would not produce just as good results. I dare say that very few bareners transfer designs to the blocks using the traditional technique. And I dare say that few do their printing sitting on the floor, as is the traditional technique. Think about it this way ... when you use oil based inks, you do not put dollops of pigment and dollops of plain linseed oil on the block and then scrub around with a big brush to mix them and smooth the mixture out on the block. You use premixed pigment/oil ... and you carefully apply it with a roller to the block. Perhaps it might be useful to try a similar approach to hanga. Once again ... different strokes for different folks ... If you like doing dollops of paste and dollops of pigment and scrubbing with the big brush to mix and smear things around, then by all means do it. I have done it, and I do not like it. I find this technique works for me. I suggest those who are not happy with the other method might find the premix method easier. Cheers ......... Charles ------------------------------ From: "Ignasi Serrahima" Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 09:54:46 +0100 Subject: [Baren 20647] Re: Water-based paint Dear friends, Thanks to all of you who responded with your advice to my question. It really is a matter of finding what suits me better, I guess, and there's only one way of finding out: experimenting! I'm short of experience, and that may be my main problem. Anyway, I already got myself some rice flour to test with the different possibilities you guys suggested, see how it goes... Regards, Ignasi ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V22 #2119 *****************************