--- Go to the Opening Page of the [Baren] web site ---

Message 5
From: "Robert Viana"
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 16:15:56 -0200
Subject: [Baren 30243] Hello everyone!
Send Message: To this poster

I like the etsy website! It is really well laid out. I got the idea from Dave Bull. He mentioned it once and I got hooked.

• [Back to message index]

Message 6
From: Julio.Rodriguez # walgreens.com
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 12:32:52 -0600
Subject: [Baren 30244] Re: Baren Member blogs: Update Notification
Send Message: To this poster

"....am certainly beginning to wonder why I subscribe when 90% of emails
are from the blog manager."

The Baren blog manager does not have a personal blog and I suspect neither
does about 95% of Baren membership.

Posting in general has been down a bit every year since the early days
(see below)...back then the forum was a bit more 'open' and back & forth
'discussions' (for lack of a better word) were more common....also we had
an incredible rush of members coming onboard and with that growth came
introductions, hellos, welcomes, lookie-lookie-at-my-website, etc...all
very nice but not with much printmaking-how-to impact. The forum has grown
from an initial ten members to current membership of over 300. Special
projects such as the 911 Exchange, the Calendar project, the Puzzle
prints, the 2003 Kansas Summit, etc...always brought out an increase in
postings...there has been no new projects to bring out response in the
last two years. I am sure the upcoming Baren get-together in Vancouver for
Summer 2006 will bring out some lively discussion in the months ahead. The
forum is whatever the members want to make it...if they want to
post...post...if they want to lurk (the majority !!!)...lurk...if they
want to blog...blog...for quite a while there was a small minority (the
old guard) doing most of the daily posting...it is good to now see new
Baren blood coming onboard with members like Annie, Ellen, Robert, Tom,
Marissa, etc......

It's up to all of us to make it happen !!!!


Just the facts, in case anyone is interested:

number of Baren posts from 1/1/06 to 3/10/06 (69 days) = 530
number of Baren blog notifications same period = 69 (one per day)
% of Baren blog notifications vs 'real' posts = 13%
avg # of Baren posts per day (not including blog notifications) = 6.68
posts per day

number of Baren-after-five posts from 1/1/06 to 3/10/06 (69 days) = 169
*After-Five is at an all-time high for posts and becoming increasingly
popular


YEARLY BREAKDOWN FOR SAME TIME PERIOD:

1/1/06 - 3/10/06
number of Baren posts = 461 (avg. 6.68 per day) *not including blog
notifications

1/1/05 - 3/10/05
number of Baren posts = 649 (avg. 9.41 per day)

1/1/04 - 3/10/04
number of Baren posts = 749 (10.86 per day)

1/1/03 - 3/10/03
number of Baren posts = 642 (9.30 per day)

1/1/02 - 3/10/02
number of Baren posts = 870 (12.61 per day)

1/1/01 - 3/10/01
number of Baren posts = 1118 (16.20 per day)

1/1/00 - 3/10/00
number of Baren posts = 1402 (20.32 per day)

1/1/99 - 3/10/99
number of Baren posts = 1042 (15.10 per day)

1/1/98 - 3/10/98 (First year for Baren)
number of Baren posts = 345 ( 5.00 per day)


Total number of days Baren has been online = 2,658
Total number of Baren posts as of 3/10/06 = 30,244
Avg. posts per day = 11.38

• [Back to message index]

Message 1
From: Lynn Starun
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:33:54 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 30245] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V34 #3394 (Mar 10, 2006)
Send Message: To this poster

Hi All,
I like blogs but dialog is what I come here for! So,
I'm wondering if any of you have ever used a
letterpress printer to print your woodblocks? I fell
in love with the look of letterpress when I printed my
daughter's wedding invitation as a letterpress using
my small etching press. It wasn't an ideal way and I
was using a polymer letterpress plate. So in the back
of my car is my Sigwalt tabletop letterpress printer I
bought on ebay which was just finally delivered after
meandering its way across the country. I still have
to move it to my studio so I'm afraid to take it out
of the box but I'm DYING to see it. I don't even know
whether it's the 5 x 7 size or the 6 x 9. So while I
wait for people to help me move it I'm getting out my
frustration by posting this question.
Lynn

• [Back to message index]

Message 2
From: Annie Bissett
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:36:09 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30246] How Do You Do It?
Send Message: To this poster

Maria Arango, I'm so glad you stopped in this morning. I think you're just
the person I need to talk to! I've seen your work - how your designs seem to
follow the grain of the wood, the way you experiment, and also your goal to
do 1,000 prints - and I think you might be able to help me with a woodblock
problem I'm having. I bring this up here in the forum because I believe
there are others, too, who can help me. (400 others, Barbara says!) So here
it is:

I've done a bunch of prints, moku hanga, and I'm feeling kind of "so what"
about them. I've been trying to understand where that feeling comes from,
whether it's a problem of content or a problem of process, and I think it's
both, but especially process. I've been a digital illustrator for 20 years,
and I think the *&$%#@# computer has messed up my sense of time. It's just
too easy, and the culture I work in rewards speed. Over these 20 years
deadlines have gotten shorter and shorter and it's not unusual at this point
for a client to call me on Friday afternoon and want a completed
illustration on the following Monday or Tuesday. I'm just really accustomed
to banging stuff out.

So I don't even know how to value or evaluate time spent working on a print.
I've been designing my prints on the computer, then executing them in
woodblock, and that process is dry dry dry. I think I need to just go
straight to the wood, definitely without digital intervention and maybe even
without a pencil, just drawing with a knife.

I guess I have two questions for everyone:

1. What's your process? Do you design first or design as you go?

2. How long do you generally spend on a print, from start to finish?

I've been watching with awe as David begins a year-long process on his
scroll project. Yet I know he can also work quite fast. And Maria's goal of
1,000 prints - how many years is that???

Thanks for your help,

Annie B in Massachusetts

• [Back to message index]

Message 3
From: "Marissa "
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:49:03 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30247] Re: How Do You Do It?
Send Message: To this poster

Since you want to here from everybody I will give my imput.

I see where you are coming from with your prints. While I do think that they
are quite beautiful, they are so close to the digital image that I can
understand your frustration.

1. My process usually starts with a loose sketch. Sometimes it is on paper,
but often it is on tiny blocks that I do "test prints" I find working small
as very freeing. Keeping things loose and fast moving is very important to
me. I carve various blocks with patterns and shapes, then print them in
layers where I mix them up. I construct my prints and do most of the
creation during the printing process. Sometimes I may use block A with
blocks C and B and sometimes I will use A,B,C, D or maybe just A, C and D if
you get my meaning. Some prints work but many do not. I never do large
editions, I rarely do editions at all.

2. How much time I invest in making each print is impossible for me to say
because there are so many variables for each one. I often use a block of
pattern that took me 20 hours to carve, but I can't say the print took me 20
hours because I use that same block over and over. Some blocks only take me
20 minutes to carve. Printing time varies too.

I hope this helps and good luck! You are quite talented, you inspire me to
try moku hanga someday, your colors are so delicate and beautiful.

--
~marissa lee

www.mleefineart.com

• [Back to message index]

Message 4
From: Charles Morgan
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:57:20 -0800
Subject: [Baren 30248] Re: Baren Member blogs: Update Notification
Send Message: To this poster

Maria, I could not agree more. I do not have the time to keep jumping all
over e-space, reading everyone's monologues, hoping to come across some
small item of interest to me. As for posting images ... fine, post them on
your blog ... then you can refer us here on the list to your images if they
are relevant to a particular discussion or if you just want feedback ...
for example "Hey, I am having trouble. I have been grinding pigment from
old tortoise shell and mixing it with concrete as a binder. But the paper
keeps sticking to the block, and the prints are very grainy. I have posted
some examples to my blog www.brilliantblog/me/me/me so you can see what I
mean. Any suggestions???"

As for a bit of chattiness, I ask just what is the harm? Of course there
are extremes we would all like to avoid; no one should be posting 35
messages a day about their grandchild's first toe nail clipping. But as
long as the chat is about relief printmaking, what difference does a little
chattiness make? There is no real hard line here ... it is a bit fuzzy ...
but IMHO, it would be better to loosen up a bit, be more open and
welcoming, and err on the side of liberality.

And where is the harm in posting more than one message a day? If two people
post messages about completely different topics, and I want to reply to
both, it is much less confusing for everyone (and easier to find in the
archives later) if I post separate responses. Or if two or more people are
exchanging views, why should they have to wait a full day to respond to
each other? What is the point of inhibiting a conversational interchange?

Cheers ...... Charles

• [Back to message index]

Message 5
From: "Ellen Shipley"
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:05:11 -0800
Subject: [Baren 30249] Re: How Do You Do It?
Send Message: To this poster

Hi Annie,

I love your work for its incredible planning and detail. That is something
completely alien to me. I do make vague plans -- sometimes even chalk-trace
an image onto the wood -- but after that it's serendip. I love the surprise
of discovery or innovation or just ah-ha! I would go mad if I had to follow
a plan to the letter, tho I have great admiration and awe for you because
you do.

So I can understand if you feel constrained by your organization. You might
try doing a block with just an idea and see where it takes you. But I have
to say, I love where your planning takes you now. I check in every time you
have something new to show.

Ellen


http://pressing-issues.blogspot.com/
http://thepickledpen.blogspot.com/

• [Back to message index]

Message 6
From: FurryPressII # aol.com
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 14:23:24 EST
Subject: [Baren 30250] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V34 #3394 (Mar 10, 2006)
Send Message: To this poster

Lynn a small table top clam shell press works for type but may not give
enough pressure to print wood blocks unless the block is on the small side. Now
a table top sign press would work or a undercook proofing press such as the
undercook no 1 which you have to hand ink works very well.

Now i like the addition of the blog format as it give additional information
such as the link to Mike's drawing machine. To me it is + + thing each ads
new info. Some of us are more word people some of us like the images
that can be on people's blogs. Today we have had more posts than we have had
on a long time I think since the fireman project.

I like it.

john c.

• [Back to message index]

Message 7
From: Kris Shanks
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:52:44 -0800
Subject: [Baren 30251] Re: How Do You Do It?
Send Message: To this poster

Annie,

the part of your blog that I've appreciated is seeing your technical
progression. You've given me the opportunity to share your process
of becoming more confident with the technique part of printing. And
that's pretty cool.

As to your question, I like to work from digital photographs that
I've taken. I sometimes rearrange them a bit in photoshop and then
print them out at a pretty low resolution. Then I transfer the image
to the block just by tracing on the printout with some transfer paper
underneath. I feel like the multiple steps helps to remove the
mechanical nature of working from a photograph. The photograph
doesn't have fields of solid color, so I have to make decisions on
the fly as I trace and then as I carve. I also really like using the
texture of the wood as part of the design. I hunt through my pile of
scrap lumber and try and find a beat up piece that has a good pattern
and then just ink it up.

Kris
http://www.shanksart.com

• [Back to message index]

Message 8
From: "rsimola # netzero.net"
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:55:12 GMT
Subject: [Baren 30252] Re: Dog gone it, one of the address labels fell off
Send Message: To this poster

Kent,
I have not yet received a print from you. When did you mail them out? My mail can sometimes be irregular.
Robert Simola

• [Back to message index]

End of [Baren] Digest