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Message 1
From: FurryPressII # aol.com
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:13:55 EST
Subject: [Baren 24296] collecting objects
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Print making obsessions.

Can you have too many small objects made with wood, ferrous metal & non
ferrous metal? You know those pointy little objects that make fornicating wood
chips.

I think not.
john center

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Message 2
From: "marilynn smih"
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:20:56 -0800
Subject: [Baren 24297] RE: more ink
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Question from an old oil painter. We used linseed to cut our oil paints,
will this also thin oil based inks? I have heard several of you refer to
stand oil??? We mixed linseed with paint thiner as a painting medium and I
used another chemical gaads can't remember. Guess the question is can I use
this same stuff with my oil based inks or will that just mess things up?

On a personal note I can't wait to share my phone call yesterday. Our
daughter thinks she is 2 months pregnant, can't see the doc til March 26,
but it sounds positive. I am really going to be a grandma soon!!!
Marilynn

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Message 3
From: JEANNE CHASE
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:13:34 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 24298] Thanks Julio
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Just copied the list of the Monkey participants. Sorry to be soooo late but that computer break down has caused me to be late for ALL exchanges that I am in. And thanks to all those neat people who, in spite of not signing up for the exchange, have still sent me their New Years Monkey cards!!!
I would like to share a "Monkey" story. I usually get my mail and then eat breakfast while catching up.
I was opening mail and eating cereal. Whoops , I bit on something hard and discovered that it was a little plastic monkey that fell out of Franks card. So you see Frank, I almost had a monkey breakfast!!!!! Very clever of you.

Jeanne N.

Julio
Thanks for all the hard work you put in for the Calendars. The Nude calendar came and I was delighted!!!
Thanks heaps!!!!!

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Message 4
From: Sharri LaPierre
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:27:44 -0800
Subject: [Baren 24299] Re: more ink
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I love Barbara's description of the ink looking like cut velvet. I
used to tell my students it should look lie poie de sois. I never did
learn to spell that word, but is sounds lie Poe de Swa. It is a kind
of satin with a very fine dimpley surface. What is it with us that we
identify the look of the ink with fabric? What is the deeper
psychological implication here? Is there a doctor in the house?
The swish, swish, swish is right on - like a petticoat swishing across
a stone floor when a woman walks. So, there, John - just don your
petticoat and go out and walk up and down the sidewalk and you will
have the sound you're after. Could you film that so we can all enjoy
it? I think we really need that doctor.

Cheers,
Sharri

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Message 5
From: Jsf73 # aol.com
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 14:17:39 EST
Subject: [Baren 24300] Re: more ink
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Sharri writes:

> The swish, swish, swish is right on - like a petticoat swishing across
> a stone floor when a woman walks. So, there, John - just don your
> petticoat and go out and walk up and down the sidewalk and you will
> have the sound you're after. Could you film that so we can all enjoy
> it? I think we really need that doctor.

Sharri, you really are not that old are you?

If it wasnt for movies I wouldnt know what a petticoat was. While I might
molest cold stone statues of mermaids, I do not dress up in drag.... so perhaps
we could get someone else to make that video for us....

Regarding the ink answers, thanks everyone. I tried a few more proofs and
have gotten a definite improvement. Barb your answers were better than anything
else on ink I had read over the past 6 months.

John F

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Message 6
From: Woodblocksteve # aol.com
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 17:28:37 EST
Subject: [Baren 24301] Re: more ink
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Hi Everyone,

I've been using some linseed oil based relief inks available in the UK from T
N Lawrence but I've found that there is a big variation in the quality of the
inks depending on the pigment used. Some of them are quite runny and some
are incredibly sticky and go stringy when you try to roll them out. The earth
colours are hard to roll and tend to go clumpy and I swear some of them, like
indian red, are thixotropic and go 'harder' when you roll them.

The other thing I noticed is that when printing wet on wet some combinations
work and some don't. For example I can print blue/grey on yellow ochre but not
the other way round. I guess it's to do with relative stickiness. I suppose
its best to wait for each colour to dry but I'm too impatient.

I should say that the thing all inks stick to are my fingers.

Cheers
Steve

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Message 7
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 17:54:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 24302] Re: more ink
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Steve,
This is true, all manufacturers are a bit different. The ochres tend to be runny but as to not overprinting, it might be you need to add a touch of white to them. Sometimes they are just too transparent. Usually the same brand will not have this much variance between colors and all will work together well...I am not familiar with this brand. You might try mixing a little magnesium carbonate with the really runny ones and adding a little burnt plate oil to the stiff ones. I think you might contact the manufacturer and ask what you can use to make them work together better, they might have a medium made for their ink, like easy wipe or miracle gel. If the earth colors go clumpy, maybe they are not mixed enough and just need more mixing. Usually the same brand of the same ink will not resist between colors...maybe you just got some bad ink or it got too hot or too cold and that changed the chemical make up. Are you in the land of great sun or the frozen north? Ink needs to be stored at
normal room temps, maybe above 40 degrees and below 90 degrees F. If your temps are more extreme than this it could effect the ink.
Where is Dean from Graphic when we need him???? Probably out running the county with his volunteer jobs.

Maria lives in the land of very hot...Maria, Maria...have you had problems with ink that has gotten too hot?????They have triple diget heat all summer in Las Vegas! They keep it a secret...you never hear it on the news. It might be bad for tourism, they wait until you get there before they say, "oh yes, it really is 112 today, sorry, but we do have air conditioning and a nice pool!"

Anyone had problems with ink that has frozen??? I would think either heat or cold could really dry out ink and make it hard to work with.
Best to all,
Barbara

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Message 8
From: b.patera # att.net
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 01:58:33 +0000
Subject: [Baren 24303] Self Portrait
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HI, For many of you this message will be redundant....however, I had so many bounces that I'm sending this out to everyone this way.

One other change. I'm sorry to report that Sharen Linder, who has been nursing
an injured arm for the past month and a half, finds that she is unable to
complete the exchange. Darn, and hope she will recover soon!

B.P.

THIS IS THE LATEST UPDATE ON THE SELF PORTRAIT EXCHANGE:

18 SETS OF PRINTS IN:
ROBERT S.
MARIA A.
ROBERT H.
JEANNE C.
GAIL A.
JULIE S.
JAN T.
JOHN S.
CHARLES M.
DAVID M.
MIKE L.
CAROLE C.
KRIS A.
JEAN W.
MURILO P.
MELISSA R-D
JULIA A.
ME

IN THE MAIL:
CLAUDE A. V.
JOHN F.

CLOSE TO DONE/IN MAIL???
DAN D.
GEORGA G.

BEING WORKED ON....ALMOST DONE????
MARGARET S.
MARY W-G
RAYLENE J.
SHAREN L.

SO FAR UNREACHABLE, BUT HAVE TRIED AGAIN TODAY TO CONTACT:
SHIRLENE D.
RICHARD C.

THAT'S IT. SHOULDN'T BE TOO LONG NOW.

REGARDS,
BARBARA P.

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Message 9
From: b.patera # att.net
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 02:02:01 +0000
Subject: [Baren 24304] Re: more ink
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John,

Try Charbonelle Etching ink. Great colors and the swish is just right... no additives needed.

Regards,

Barbara P.

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Message 10
From: Shireen Holman
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:18:54 -0500
Subject: [Baren 24305] monkey envelopes
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This is a question for those who sent monkeys in clear envelopes - where
did you find them in that size? Thanks,
Shireen

***********************************************
Shireen Holman, Printmaker and Book Artist
email: shireen@shireenholman.com
http://www.shireenholman.com
***********************************************

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Message 11
From: Aqua4tis # aol.com
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 23:16:43 EST
Subject: [Baren 24306] Re: monkey envelopes
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shireen
did you check clearbags.com?
georga

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Message 12
From: "marilynn smih"
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 20:41:37 -0800
Subject: [Baren 24307] RE: monkey envelopes
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clearbags.com for envelopes. thanks for the chemistry lesson Barabara.
I have a dear friend here in the baja, a very good fine artist (if we should
ever have the smithsonian ask for our work , that is how grand he is). He
is 81 and says among many things an artist must be, among them is a chemist.
And yes one reason I never used linseed was the lack of gesso so it is good
to know that is your opinion also. Barbara, have you thought about writing
a book on printmaking, you have a lot of knowledge.
Sooo looking forward to being a grandma
Marilynn

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Message 13
From: Mary Brooks-Mueller
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:20:47 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 24308] Re: more ink
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Steve & Barbara,
Living south of Tucson for the last 6 years and I
prefer the ink in the hot weather becasue IF it is
good ink it rolls easier & dries quicker. I think if
it cakes up on you it's a bad lot and you should
return it. From my experience the more opaque inks are
the ones that possess some tendency to cake up or go
stiff. Seems like the oil and the ink separate due to
poor processing and then won't remix once it happens.
Also, print it wet, I do that alot, and I find that I
am more successful if I print transparent over opaque
rather then opaque over transparent. The transparent
doesn't reject whereas I have found opaque to separate
or reject the transparent. I compare it to viscosity
printing (intaglio).
Mary

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Message 14
From: "Maria Arango"
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 22:19:26 -0800
Subject: [Baren 24309] Re: more ink
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Barbara wrote:

>>>Maria lives in the land of very hot...Maria, Maria...have you had
>problems with ink that has gotten too hot?????They have triple digit
>heat all summer in Las Vegas! They keep it a secret...you never hear it
>on the news. It might be bad for tourism, they wait until you get there
>before they say, "oh yes, it really is 112 today, sorry, but we do have
>air conditioning and a nice pool!

The studio is around 85-90 in the summer, just a bit hotter than the house since it is located at the end of our air conditioning ducts. I have never found any downside to the heat in printing; ink flows well, mixes better with additives, rolls out great and dries quickly. A bit more challenging than the triple-digit heat is the single digit humidity; it is not unusual for the so-called humidity to hang around 3-6% in the summer. I go through ink much too quickly to have it dry in the can but when I attended the University we found a few old cans of ink that were dried solid. Keeping paper damp is a challenge, but plastic bags and more water than you ever thought paper would hold works well. Mold is non-existent, if I get any mold in shipped paper I simply leave it outside for a couple of hours and the poor mold packs its bags and moves to Chicago (flakes off). Now, getting up at 4:40 AM to keep up my walking routine is a bit of a downside and in the deep of summer, it is already 85-90 F at that time. It does get to 115 sometimes, rarely over that, although the temperature 3 feet off a paved street (where my "core" is, while walking) hovers around 135. Having said all that, we are enjoying a very "cold" winter; average temperatures have been in the mid 50's to low 60's...brrrr...and it's raining tonight! :-) Maria

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Message 15
From: "Richard Farrel"
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 22:34:54 -0800 (Pacific Standard Time)
Subject: [Baren 24310] ink
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Following this thread. I use a bit of a different approach. Ink preference
is Daniel Smith relief and Daniel Smith oils (i.e. painting) for oil base ink.
You will find straight oils too loose for printing and needs to be modified using their
transparent base. At times depending on what I need I will add up to 60% base higher the
percent the more transparent. Some further modifications may be needed using miracle gel
and or mineral sprit and or burnt oil light . I use a lot of layers in many of my prints
sometimes over seven the print must only be dry to touch and not allowed to dry fully or
the ink will not print well. Also using this many layers I find drawing off as much ink as
possible by laying a clean sheet of newsprint over the wet print this avoids getting a heavy
build up of ink. This is taking the oil medium to the limit. For more complex layers nothing
can beat waterbase this is where it really shines.

Richard

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