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Message 1
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 18:21:25 -0600
Subject: [Baren 29425] Re: Update and Questions
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Roy wrote:
>3. I plan to use Speedball water-soluble printmaking ink for
>pigment. Is that a good idea? How much should it be diluted? I am
>trying to many new things besides trying to grind pigments this
>time. Besides I don't have a muller.

Speedball is not a good choice for moku-hanga -- the Speedball
'water-soluble' is designed to be an oil based ink substitute,
optimized for roller application. Better alternatives to Speedball
and easier than dry-pigments: prepared water colors in
tubes(relatively expensive), or pigment dispersions from Guerra
www.guerrapaint.com or 'Createx Pure Pigment' (dispersions) widely
available from Daniel Smith at www.danielsmith.com and others (much
less expensive and excellent colors). Unless you plan to use a
brayer for rollup, the Speedball (or other brands of water-soluble
inks should be avoided. Moku-hanga color, by the way, is _brushed_
into the block, not rolled...

>4. I make my own rice paste from rice flour in the microwave.

This works 'OK', but "rice starch" is just as easy to prepare and
makes a far better paste (in my opinion).

>6. Skipping ahead to the last phase -- for the exchanges, should or
>should not they have edition numbers on them. Should the prints be
>exclusively for the exchange or can I try to sell more elsewhere?
>Yes, I read David Bull's article on edition numbers.

However you prefer is fine with respect to the exchange.

>9. And, by the way, I entered one of my woodcut prints in our
>community college art show, got juried in (80/400) and sold it!

Congratulations, Roy! You ought to feel very proud and happy!

-- Mike


Mike Lyon
Kansas City, Missouri
http://mlyon.com

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Message 2
From: Lynn Starun
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 20:21:39 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 29426] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V33 #3284 (Dec 5, 2005)
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Greetings Everybody!
I've posted a couple of times but never really
introduced myself. I'm a portrait artist, plein air
painter and getting more and more interested in
printmaking. I'd had an etching press for years that
was discarded by a school. So I rehabilitated it and
then took a survey type class in printmaking
(non-toxic). I really like intaglio but I want color
so I found and took a course in Moku Hanga with a
wonderful instructor from Brooklyn named Takuji
Hammanaka. I'm about to embark on my first solo
woodblock print as a Christmas card and I find I'm
petrified. I've finally decided on my design and I
wanted to try glueing a hanshita onto the blocks (5 of
them) so I remembered what an artist friend told me
about getting a printer to accept delicate paper and I
used book mending tape and taped the front edge of the
hanshita paper (McClain's) to regular paper and
tentatively fed it into my laser printer. It WORKED!!
I'm so worried about mistakes that I made one extra
and one for each block. Mistake #1 is that I didn't
reverse the location of the registration mark so it's
on the left instead of the right. I guess I can work
around that and I'm out of hanshita paper and time is
short so I glued the images to the shina plywood
blocks with rice paste. I guess it looks ok but I
don't know if I am supposed to try to rub off some of
the paper or not. My guess is that would only be if
the paper was thicker... Is there a minimum distance
between the edge of the print area and the
registration mark? I have it at 1/2" because the
image is 4"x6" and has to fit in an envelope for 5"x
7". I've visited Graham's website often and bought
his dvd which was wonderful. I built a version of his
woodcarving desk thingie out of a wooden slanted
desktop thing from a garage sale and I'm looking
forward to using it. It's snowing and the snow blower
broke down so I'm stuck here and can't avoid moving
ahead on this project tomorrow. I just thought I
wanted a little internet hand holding before I start
carving. I'm afraid of getting confused about which
parts to cut out on each color block. Maybe I should
use a highlighter on the parts I shouldn't cut away?
I'm doing a block of black lines and I've never done
that before because Takuji discouraged us from trying
that on our first print. Do I need to use Sumi ink?
I have some Sumi drawing ink. I also have some Akua
inks and watched April Vollmer on their video so I
might try that. I found the watercolors we used in
the class awfully wishy washy/dull. Takuji talked
about getting pigment powders but I didn't understand
exactly how I would mix them up. Something about gum
arabic. I do have some powdered pigments. Whew, I
feel better now! This forum thing is a great idea!
Maybe I should try to find one for portrait people so
when I have a nose or eye problem I could write about
it to kindred spirits.

Lynn Allison Starun

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Message 3
From: Blog Manager
Date: 6 Dec 2005 04:55:05 -0000
Subject: [Baren 29427] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification
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This is an automatic update message being sent to [Baren] by the forum blog software.

The following new entries were found on the listed printmaker's websites during the past 24 hours. (11 sites checked, just before midnight Eastern time)

*****************

Site Name: Printmakingblog

Author: Printblog
Item: SUPPLIERS YOU SHOULD KNOW
http://printmakersmaterials.blogspot.com/2005/12/suppliers-you-should-know.html

*****************

[Baren] members: if you have a printmaking blog (or a website with a published ATOM feed), and wish it to be included in this daily checklist, please write to the Baren Blog Manager at:
http://barenforum.org/contact_baren.php

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Message 4
From: Sharri LaPierre
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 21:42:30 -0800
Subject: [Baren 29428] Re: tool question
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The Japanese tools have handles designed to be altered to fit the
individual's hand. Measure according to the instructions in the
McClain's catalog and cut them off and sand them smooth and rounded
until they feel comfortable. It takes longer to type this than it does
to alter the tool. Western tools come in one size which often times
does not fit all! (They are made to fit the average male hand - the
rest of us are out of luck -)
I have an array of tools (40 yrs. of collecting) and find that I use a
small "to" and a medium "u and v" gouges and a good size chisel for
clearing and, of course, the flat thing for cutting kentos. All the
rest of this collection pretty much sit in the drawer and collect dust.
I have not learned to carve in the conventional manner for moku hanga,
I still mix it up with the Western ways. I have arthritis in my hands
which is getting more pronounced by the minute, therefore I have also
invested in a Foredom tool with the chisel attachment. It is great for
clearing large areas and relatively easy on the hands. Whoever said
that we will find a way to do anything we want to do was absolutely
right on.

BTW - for the newbies, I am affectionately (I hope) known as the "ink
snob" around Baren because I detest Speedball water based inks. If you
are doing moku hanga you would be better off to use student grade tube
watercolors for roughly the same amount of money. The Speedball water
based inks are intended to be used in the Western manner with brayers,
as far as I know, and I suppose you can use them for hanga by diluting
with water, but they are mostly opaque and one of the beauties of moku
hanga is the transparency factor. Well, maybe that's only one little
individuals humble opinion offered for what it is worth. . .

Cheers!
Sharri

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Message 5
From: juan Guerrero
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2005 00:11:16 -0600
Subject: [Baren 29429] Re: New Baren Digest (Text) V33 #3283 (Dec 5, 2005)
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JENNIFER:

Hi, I just visited your web page, and I was very impressed by your
landscapes. They brought to my mind both the impressionists and also the
Mexican 19th. C. Jose-Maria Velasco. Have you ever seen Velasco paintings?
His landscapes illustrated for long time the mexican matches boxes.


Juan Guerrero

Alternative e-mail:
2ojos#ozu.es
www.juanguerrero.tk

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Message 6
From: T & P Rashid
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2005 01:15:41 -0500
Subject: [Baren 29430] LPE3 Update
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12/6/05

Hello everyone. If you are in LPE 3, this is for you. Please check the info
below to make sure its correct. If you have sent your prints and I don't
have you posted please contact me off list at tprashid@bellsouth.net.

I have received almost all the packages for the exchange. I have received
work from:

1. Barbara Patera
2. Dale Phelps
3. Gatto Gillyin
4. Jeanne Norman Chase
5. John Center
6. Jan Telfer
7. Mary Kuster
8. Melissa Read-Devine
9. Rudolf Stalder
10. Sharen Linder
11. P. Rashid (myself)

I'm still waiting for prints from the following:

1. Eli Griggs
2. Gilda Zimmerling
3. Julio Rodriguez

I know everyone has worked hard to participate in this exchange . I
appreciate all the effort. Many of you have communicated to me about
conflicts in schedule and in sicknesses and other health issues. Thank you
for overcoming those issues and getting the work in. For those of you still
working....don't give up. I'm sure your work will be worth the wait but I
would like to wrap this up before Xmas. And so I hope to receive the works
within the next 2 weeks. Keep me posted on your progress and any problems
you may be having.


Thank you,

Your LPE3 Coordinator,

Princess Rashid

LPE-3 Coordinator
tprashid@bellsouth.net

3338 Millcrest Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32277

http://www.theswordandbrush.com

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