Baren Digest Friday, 17 October 2003 Volume 25 : Number 2409 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Brad Teare" Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 08:41:20 -0600 Subject: [Baren 23086] Lino etching Has anyone had any luck with etching linoleum? What chemicals do I use and what are the brand names? I thought I might try lino etching to get a more controlled texture over a flat wood cut impression (like rocks). ------------------------------ From: Barbara Mason Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 08:51:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 23087] Lino etching Brad, I think you can use caustic soda, lye. But I have never done it so can not give guidelines. Why not use sandpaper and glue it to a backing....or pound stuff into the linoleum to make texture....lye seems like it could be danerous to use. Isn't this the main ingredient in drain cleaner? If you try it wear gloves and glasses and be careful. If you surf around on the net you might find directions. I think it was used more in the past than it is today. Best to you, Barbara ------------------------------ From: MccarthyDb#aol.com Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 12:06:18 EDT Subject: [Baren 23088] workshop Bareners- there is a great workshop in the Boston area and a slot has opened up- check it out- Annie Silverman will be offering a weekend Woodcut Workshop at Mixit Print Studio. She is a wonderful teacher with a playful, improvisatory approach to cutting and printing woodcuts. this is a great chance to "cut loose". Catherine Fall workshop at Mixit Print Studio Improvisational woodcut and stencil weekend Annie Silverman November 1-2 9:30-4:30 Fee: $200.00 Maximum 8 people Contact : 617-625-1791 Experiment with non-traditional woodcut techniques that yield contemporary, expressive results.Using primarily hand tools, but also trying out some electric ones, participants will experiment with various mark-making techniques. Several blocks will be created,which can be used in conjunction with one another , with stencils created out of various materials, or with existing relief printing plates. A dialogue will ensue between the carving and printing processes where shapes,textures, overprinting, ghost and off-set rolls call ot and respond to successive layers of colored inks. Participants will learn the uses of various ink modifiers for building up layers of color. Special topics as the mystery of chine colle' will be addressed. Annie Silverman is a studio artist and educator who has been working in the filed of experimental relief printmaking for the past 15 years. Her prints and unique artists'books have been collected and exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in Havana, Cuba. Her multiple plate woodcut VERNAL POND ,was awarded First Prize in the National Works on Paper Show at the South Shore Arts Center in Cohasset, MA, ,juried by Howardena Pindell. Annie has been printing at Mixit Studios for 9 years. She is an experienced and lively instructor who has taught at Mass College of Art, the Penland School of Crafts, Art new England, Pyramid Atlantic, and the South Shore Arts Center. ------------------------------ From: Charles Morgan Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 08:50:17 -0700 Subject: [Baren 23089] Re: Lino etching At the grocery store or hardware store in the cleaning supplies section, you can buy pure lye. It comes in a powder form. Mix a very strong solution according to directions on the package. Or, if you are brave, keep adding the dry product to the water till no more will dissolve. WARNING: THIS IS VERY NASTY STUFF. THIS IS VERY NASTY STUFF. THIS STUFF IS HIGHLY TOXIC AND DANGEROUS. IT WILL LITERALLY EAT THE SKIN RIGHT OFF YOUR HANDS. IT WILL KILL YOU IN A MOST UNPLEASANT WAY IF YOU DRINK THE SOLUTION OR EAT THE POWDER. IT WILL BLIND YOU IF YOU GET IT IN YOUR EYES. MIX IT IN A GLASS CONTAINER. THIS IS VERY NASTY STUFF. THIS IS VERY NASTY STUFF. THIS IS VERY NASTY STUFF. BE VERY CAREFUL. DO NOT SPILL IT ON ANYTHING. IT WILL ETCH FORMICA COUNTER TOPS ... SAD EXPERIENCE ON MY PART. BE VERY CAREFUL. THIS IS VERY NASTY STUFF. Good directions can be found at: http://www.art.eku.edu/programs/print/tech/linoleum.html Good luck ....... Cheers ..... Charles This from the web: "Some printers have used (and may be still using) an acid to etch linoleum. Nitric acid is the acid used as it breaks up and burns linoleum. When this procedure was chosen the stopping out (acid resist) was done with litho ink. These linoleum etchings were then put on a block of wood 20mm (.8in) and used for regular typographical printing. One of the interesting properties of linoleum is the possibility to etch it with an alkaline solution, which results in a "grainy" surface.. The roughness of the surface can vary from a very fine grain to a very coarse grain. The whole block of lino can be processed, or only certain area's. Etching can be used as a supplementary technique. It is fair to say however that this etching technique is unpredictable as far as results are concerned. The alkaline solution is dangerous, so be careful with children! " "Edward Bawdon was the first to etch linoleum and used a paint removing liquid. Michael Rothenstein experimented with "caustic soda" and that appeared to be a flexible mordant. The caustic soda is sold as a cristallized powder to re-open sewers and drain pipes. It si a very aggresive alkaline (NaOH) and should be treated carefully." At 08:41 AM 10/16/03 -0600, you wrote: Has anyone had any luck with etching linoleum? What chemicals do I use and what are the brand names? I thought I might try lino etching to get a more controlled texture over a flat wood cut impression (like rocks). ------------------------------ From: Robert Swain Charles Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 13:30:15 -0400 Subject: [Baren 23090] A Winning Haiku/Build A Plank Questions This won a bottle of sake at the Ding Dong Lounge haiku slam; Old, cold D.N.A. Resurrect a mastodon Watch it fight Tyson Penned it at the event. May be a print in there somewhere... Anyhows, may I have some advice as to the best way to build a good size (10-12" wide for example) plank for woodcut by using 3/4"x2" cherry strips identically planed smooth on all four sides? What would be considered a mistake when building this for printing oil/water based ink? Have you had disastrous results that only made themselves known after cutting? Don't want to be presumptuous but I would like to thank you in advance for any advice. Thanks folks! - -RSC ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 13:03:22 -0500 Subject: [Baren 23091] Shunga Album Gayle Wohlken, John Center, Gilda Zimmerling and I all submitted our sign-up for #19 (erotic/shunga) having checked the "Choose me, choose me!" coordinator box... My inclination as Baren's exchange manager is to select John Center to lead coordination of this exchange. John proposed our 'pillow book' theme last June during the Baren Summit in Kansas City, and at the same time he also asked to be allowed to coordinate it so that he could bind the prints into fan-fold albums (like antique Japanese books were often bound and sold). As we talked about it David Bull suggested that he might be able to arrange to have a blank album made in Japan so that the prints could be mounted into the pages inside -- sorta how his surimono albums are put together and on reflection, John thought he might want to be one of a group of several coordinators. So I'd like to discuss this a bit in the open forum and maybe reach consensus how best to proceed... One 'problem' (besides geography if we have multiple coordinators) which comes to mind is cost... These bound albums may be somewhat more expensive than the boxes we're accustomed to for exchange prints. We almost certainly will want to handle 'albums' of shunga in the same way we handle portfolio cases of prior exchanges. That is to say, the purchase of the 'album' is strictly voluntary and because of the required additional cost... Those who do not wish to receive their prints bound into an album will receive their exchange prints in a loose bundle as usual. This exchange will be chuban, I imagine that the album pages will probably be made a couple of inches larger than that in order to mount the prints and leave some border... So... What do you think? And even though I've sent Gayle, John, Gilda and Dave their own copies of this, let's be sure to carry on any discussion ON-LIST using the subject "Shunga Album" so we can receive the benefit of everyone's ideas before we decide who will coordinate and whether to proceed with some sort of album format... Thanks, and looking forward to hearing your thoughts - -- Mike Mike Lyon mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com http://www.mlyon.com ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 13:47:48 -0500 Subject: [Baren 23092] Re: Build A Plank Questions At 01:30 PM 10/16/2003 -0400, RSC wrote: Anyhows, may I have some advice as to the best way to build a good size (10-12" wide for example) plank for woodcut by using 3/4"x2" cherry strips identically planed smooth on all four sides? What would be considered a mistake when building this for printing oil/water based ink? Have you had disastrous results that only made themselves known after cutting? Dear Robert, A good lumber yard will usually stock already-laminated cherry such as you have described in widths up to about 30" -- it has the advantage of already being 'flat' so that all you have to do is sand through to 400 or 600 or whatever grit being careful to maintain flatness. Those ready-made glued-up planks should work fine for oil-based printing, but there can be problems with water based printing like moku-hanga. I used something like that for my 16" x 18" reclining nude http://www.mlyon.com/prints/relief/2003_08.htm Notice the 'line' running horizontally about 1/5 or 1/4 of the way from the top of the print? You can see it most clearly on the right hand side and it disappears in the dark area at the left side of the print... That was where there was a bit of sapwood (sapwood is younger and lighter and more absorbent than the older heartwood in the core of a tree) along the joined edge of one of the boards and that part swelled with water during printing much more than the adjacent board, so it was impossible to press the paper into the block along that joint and a mark was left. It doesn't really bother me, but I'd have preferred not to have printed that line. There is NO way I know of to join two or more planks edge to edge without leaving the surface of one board a bit higher or lower than the adjacent surface of the other board. You can get close, especially if you have access to a biscuit joiner (a very quick, accurate, and easy way to make a mortise for a ready-made elliptical floating tenon), but you will not be able to join them anywhere near 'smooth'. Adjacent surfaces just will never be flat the way you need them to be. Usual procedure is to take the boards to be joined or laminated and run them over a jointer planer so that the edges to be glued are flat and perpendicular (you can do this pretty well with a good table saw and also with hand plane, too, but that (hand planing) is a skill which requires long practice). If you're going to biscuit join (or tongue and groove or other techniques intended to keep the boards held as close to flat as possible during glue-up) now is the time to do it. Then you spread a good glue (Gorilla Glue or other urethane glue is terrific because it is very strong and expands when it sets, neatly filling any gaps, but any good water-proof wood glue should work) over surfaces to be joined, align them on some clamps (bar clamps, pipe clamps (cheap!), my favorite: Bessey K-body bar clamps) as close to flat as possible -- use the clamps on a level surface and let the bars 'self-level' the planks if you aren't using biscuits or the like -- then tighten and come back in a couple of hours. Dried glue squeeze-out will be everywhere -- scrape it off, then plane the joined plank smooth -- if you're a LOT better at this than I am, you will be ready to chop off the lengths you need and begin carving -- otherwise, sand with care through 400 grit or finer and go from there. Or, you 'could' just go to the store and buy some already made up and ready to plane or sand... - -- Mike Mike Lyon mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com http://www.mlyon.com ------------------------------ From: FurryPressII#aol.com Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 15:13:40 EDT Subject: [Baren 23093] Re: Lino etching i agree 110% with charles lye is very nasty stuff it will eat human skin etc. And is not very controlled eather. john (of the non-lino etiching press) center ------------------------------ From: "Brad Schwartz" Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 12:35:28 -0700 Subject: [Baren 23094] RE: Lino etching Best thing I've found for 'etching' lino is a furniture stripper called Zip Strip. It is a thick gel that you can brush onto lino... it will basically soften the lino and then you can take a plastic tool (i use the plastic end of a toothbrush) to then scrape out the softened lino You get a random sort of sandy texture from this. Obviously the time will vary... and when printing with oil based inks if you use a stiff ink like a litho ink you'll be able to retain the detail of the grain it creates. Brad > > Brad, I think you can use caustic soda, lye. But I have never done it > so can not give guidelines. Why not use sandpaper and glue it to a > backing....or pound stuff into the linoleum to make texture....lye > seems like it could be danerous to use. Isn't this the main ingredient > in drain cleaner? If you try it wear gloves and glasses and be > careful. If you surf around on the net you might find directions. I > think it was used more in the past than it is today. Best to you, > Barbara > > Brad Teare wrote: Has anyone had any luck with > etching linoleum? What chemicals do I use and what are the brand > names? I thought I might try lino etching to get a more controlled > texture over a flat wood cut impression (like rocks). > > ------------------------------ From: FurryPressII#aol.com Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 15:42:37 EDT Subject: [Baren 23095] Re: Build A Plank Questions I agree with both of mikes posts (i must be in an agreeable mood) I can readily see how glued boards would be affected by the water in Japanese printing so you would have to use marine glue such as what is used on boat making. Then it should be of no major problem. With oil based printing it is much less of a problem you just have the get the damn things smooth and flat if printed by a press or just smooth if printed by hand. I just got a 10' board of cherry 16" wide and not warped or with knots holes. (not dreaming) All most all wood engraving blocks are glued together with the exception of half rounds and really small blocks. I have had a major problem with blocks made in England as the weather conditions are much different. The moisture level is much more varied here and they tend to split along the glue lines. second post.< On the shunga exchange I like Dave Bull's idea. You can order the book and tip them in or get them as a set of loose prints. john (thinking of pillows) center ------------------------------ From: Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 11:28:03 -1000 (HST) Subject: [Baren 23096] Re: Shunga Album Aloha, all: I personally like the album option, being a book person when I am not a print person. I think the intimacy of the format is quite in keeping with the nature of this particular exchange. Would we be able to get an estimate of cost from David? Will you offer both options (i.e., album or box?) Could I also opt to get the blank album and do my own tipping in? Thanks in advance to any and all who end up serving as coordinator(s). Marcia Morse >Gayle Wohlken, John Center, Gilda Zimmerling and I all submitted our >sign-up for #19 (erotic/shunga) having checked the "Choose me, choose >me!" coordinator box... > >My inclination as Baren's exchange manager is to select John Center to >lead coordination of this exchange. John proposed our 'pillow book' >theme last June during the Baren Summit in Kansas City, and at the same >time he also asked to be allowed to coordinate it so that he could bind >the prints into fan-fold albums (like antique Japanese books were often >bound and sold). As we talked about it David Bull suggested that he >might be able to arrange to have a blank album made in Japan so that >the prints could be mounted into the pages inside -- sorta how his >surimono albums are put together and on reflection, John thought he >might want to be one of a group of several coordinators. > >So I'd like to discuss this a bit in the open forum and maybe reach >consensus how best to proceed... One 'problem' (besides geography if we > have multiple coordinators) which comes to mind is cost... These bound > albums may be somewhat more expensive than the boxes we're accustomed >to for exchange prints. We almost certainly will want to handle >'albums' of shunga in the same way we handle portfolio cases of prior >exchanges. That is to say, the purchase of the 'album' is strictly >voluntary and because of the required additional cost... Those who do >not wish to receive their prints bound into an album will receive their >exchange prints in a loose bundle as usual. This exchange will be >chuban, I imagine that the album pages will probably be made a couple >of inches larger than that in order to mount the prints and leave some >border... > >So... What do you think? And even though I've sent Gayle, John, Gilda >and Dave their own copies of this, let's be sure to carry on any >discussion ON-LIST using the subject "Shunga Album" so we can receive >the benefit of everyone's ideas before we decide who will coordinate >and whether to proceed with some sort of album format... > >Thanks, and looking forward to hearing your thoughts > >-- Mike > > >Mike Lyon >mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com >http://www.mlyon.com > > ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V25 #2409 *****************************