Today's postings

  1. [Baren 26949] RE: Baren Digest (old) V30 #2940 ("marilynn smih")
  2. [Baren 26950] Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit (Mike Lyon)
  3. [Baren 26951] Re: intro and a quick question about commercial ink (Mike Lyon)
  4. [Baren 26952] Re: intro and a quick question about commercial ink (pulpfic # sunshinecable.com)
  5. [Baren 26953] Re: Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit (Barbara Mason)
  6. [Baren 26954] Re: Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit (Mike Lyon)
  7. [Baren 26955] Re: Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit (sunsetbrew)
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Message 1
From: "marilynn smih"
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 07:22:50 -0800
Subject: [Baren 26949] RE: Baren Digest (old) V30 #2940
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These are post-modern times - we are
free to do just about anything under the sun and the Art Police will
just walk right on by, munching their Krispy Kremes and slurping their
Starbucks........
Sharri, I agree that using a small portion of someone's work is not really
using the work. But I would not say we can do anything we choose, ummm!!!!
I would be unhappy if someone ignored the copy right laws and just used my
image. In this case I think the work is more hers than not and she should
claim it because she only used a tiny part of the image and changed it i am
sure, That would make it hers.
Barbara, thank you for your hard work, the mall is great.
As for inks and grinding your own it is easy and inexpensive. The biggest
expense I had was getting a good mortar and pestle. If you check the Mall
the powdered pigments cost just a little bit. Than all you need is water
and I used alcohol, 50-50. You can choose to make up as much as you need
for a printing session or make up more to store in a sealed jar. It really
is not much harder than mixing a medium into a paint. Personally I am glad
I finally chose this option, my pigments are much nicer and very
inexpensive.
Marilynn
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Message 2
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 10:54:11 -0600
Subject: [Baren 26950] Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit
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Chuck Pennington is a Seattle artist who attended my Anderson Ranch Arts
Center Japanese technique printmaking workshop last summer.

Two of the prints he made during the workshop will be exhibited in a
Seattle woodcut exhibition which opens February 3! You can view his
beautiful woodcuts (each somewhat larger than oban size) here:
www.mlyon.com/workshops/2005_02_03-28_Pennington.htm

Woodblock Print Exhibit
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Message 3
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 11:09:21 -0600
Subject: [Baren 26951] Re: intro and a quick question about commercial ink
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Paco wrote:
>I do have a quick question to ask right away. I've been using Speedball
>waterbased block printing ink, not the most sophisticated option, I know,
>and I'm trying to get an effect of transparent layers of color. Apparently
>Speedball sell extender and retarder for block printing that would have
>this effect but I'm having difficulty finding anyone that actually sells
>the stuff. Are there any other options (maybe some kind of acrylic
>medium?) that wouldn't require mixing my own ink from scratch(I'll get to
>that sooner or later).

Dear Paco,

The Speedball water-based inks are formulated to behave similarly to
oil-based inks (but allow water clean-up)... They are not ideal for
transparent over-printing as they are intended to be opaque...

You can get terrific results using prepared water-color -- these work best
on WOOD, not lino -- but for lino you can add some rice-paste or
methyl-cellulose mixed to approximately the consistency of heavy cream and
'dull' the lino surface by sanding with 400 grit sandpaper prior to carving
in order to provide sufficient 'tooth' for the watercolor. Use a stiff
many-haired brush (a small shoebrush if you don't have genuine hanga
brushes handy) to apply the color all over the printing areas -- don't try
to use a roller with water-color! The water-color film should be quite
thin with a matte, not glossy-wet surface and the paper just damp (not
wet). Then use a baren (not a press) to print...

I think that if you try this you'll be impressed with the speed and ease of
printing as compared to 'western' technique... You can over-print
transparent layers almost without limit (depending on the paper you use) so
long as you don't allow the paper to become water-saturated.

The same (or even better) results can be obtained if you use dry pigment or
pigment suspensions -- plus rice-paste (or similar) to act as vehicle and
binder. Dry pigments are readily available from Daniel Smith among others,
and the best pigment suspensions I've found so far come from Guerra Paint
and Pigment in New York City:
http://www.barenforum.org/encyclopedia/entries/007_04/007_04.html#guer

There's TONS more to tell, but TRY IT and you'll understand 75% immediately!

Good luck!

Mike


Mike Lyon
Kansas City, Missouri
http://mlyon.com
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Message 4
From: pulpfic # sunshinecable.com
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:23:15 -0800
Subject: [Baren 26952] Re: intro and a quick question about commercial ink
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Paco wrote:
>Hi,
>My name is Paco and I'm new to this forum and new to
>woodblock printing,
>I do have a quick question to ask right away. I've
>been using Speedball waterbased block printing ink,
>not the most sophisticated option, I know, and I'm
>trying to get an effect of transparent layers of
>color. Apparently Speedball sell extender and retarder
>for block printing that would have this effect but I'm
>having difficulty finding anyone that actually sells
>the stuff.

Hi Paco,

I use the Speedball waterbased inks all the time. I dunno about
"sophisticated", but they are mostly fine inks, except for a couple of
non-lightfast colours (magenta and orange).

I use the transparent extender in vast quantities. To get a good degree of
transparency, begin with the extender, adding just a _tiny_ bit of
pigmented ink at a time. Unfortunately, Speedball isn't selling the
extender in 1 lb. jars anymore, so I go through bjillions of those little
tubes. I'm probably using the extender about 4 - 10 parts extender to 1
part pigmented ink, on average.

I don't know where you're located, but if you look on Speedball's webpage
http://www.speedballart.com/stores.asp you'll find this list of North
American retail stores selling their products. If you don't find the
extender on the shelves at a store near you, try getting the store to
order the extender for you. I'd suggest ordering by the case lot if you can
get a better price that way. I buy mine (mailorder) from Opus in Vancouver, BC.

Best wishes,
Randi

--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ms Randi DeLisle
papermaker, bookbinder, publisher, printmaker & gourd artist
pulp fictions & pulp fictions press
Grand Forks BC Canada pulpfic#sunshinecable.com
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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Message 5
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 10:00:49 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 26953] Re: Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit
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Mike,.
How did he get the feathery edge on the one image? Is it chine colle paper or what? These are really nice...guess he had a good teacher!
Best to you,
Barbara
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Message 6
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 14:38:40 -0600
Subject: [Baren 26954] Re: Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit
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Barbara Mason wrote:
>How did he get the feathery edge on the one image? Is it chine colle paper
>or what? These are really nice...guess he had a good
>teacher! www.mlyon.com/workshops/2005_02_03-28_Pennington.htm

Chuck's paper had some areas where there was a bit of 'free' water on the
surface and the sumi he'd printed immediately 'ran' into those areas
producing the random but very beautiful effect which he liked a lot! The
paper is Yamaguchi hosho from baren mall. It's just a regular old
moku-hanga print -- no fancy technique (other than a bit more water than
you'd normally want in the paper)... His blocks were also
'assembled'... Wait a minute... They were NOT just regular old
moku-hanga... He'd selected some plywood scraps which he thought had
interesting surfaces and he cut out his 'Isamu Noguchi'-like shapes
directly... Then selected and arranged his cut-outs in aesthetic ways and
taped them to the table and registered using kento which had been carved
into a mobile 'L' shaped bar (which was similarly taped down)... That
marriage of stereotypically dogmatic and highly developed Eastern technique
with stereotypically innovative and individualistic Western energy often
produces some novel and interesting work, don't you think?

-- Mike

Mike Lyon
Kansas City, Missouri
http://mlyon.com
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Message 7
From: sunsetbrew
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 21:49:35 -0500
Subject: [Baren 26955] Re: Chuck Pennington prints on exhibit
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Darn Mike, your stuff is insane! I am sure i said it before, but i
just can help but be so impressed.

Thomas