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Message 1
From: Annie Bissett
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 10:24:51 -0400
Subject: [Baren 33695] Re: washing brushes
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Hi JB,

I've never used soap to wash the maru bake brushes. I have one brush
for each basic color and I just use water to clean them. Only problem
I've discovered is that it can be hard to get the paste out of the
base of the bristles, and if the paste dries and hardens there it can
ruin the brush.

Annie
Northampton MA

http://www.anniebissett.com
http://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com

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Message 2
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 08:02:14 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Baren 33696] brushes
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I think how the brushes work is more important than
how they look..I wash mine with water and occasionally
a little soap...but I really rinse them well and lay
them on their sides to dry. I shake as much water out
as I can and then blot them on paper towels or old
cloth towels..this also lets me know if there is still
a lot of pigment in them...washing until they are
clean is pretty important.
Annie, how do you get so much paste on the brush that
it gets up to the wood? This sounds like way too much
water and paste to me...it should just be on the first
1/4 inch or so of the brush.
If the brush is dragging marks into the area you are
printing, it needs to have the hairs sharpened on the
dragon skin or sharkskin to give them that nice
diagonal slice they need. If you look at a sharpened
brush hair under the magnifiying glass it will be at a
sharp angle and not fuzzy.
I am not the most knowledgable person to answer this
as many more on this list have more experience than I.
Brushes do wear out, but they should last years before
they do. I had one that the hairs fell out of..no
matter what I did, but the rest seem just fine so I
assume it was just a lemon....maybe I should just use
it for yellow.
My best to all
Barbara

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Message 3
From: "Jeanne Norman Chase"
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 11:32:36 -0400
Subject: [Baren 33697] Re: Exchange #34
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Mike

Jumping in again after about 2 years of being MIA. Crashed computer, family , heaped plate (not printing plate) sooo here I am again.
Question;
Is it ok to use a tad bit of chine colle in your print?????

Thanks
Jeanne

And belated kudos on all of your successes in the past year.!!!!!!

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Message 4
From: Darrell Madis
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 11:27:50 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Baren 33698] Re: Exchange #34
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I'm not Mike but I'm sure its ok to us chine colle, I know a previous exchange I was in had at least one print with it.

Darrell

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Message 5
From: Tom Kristensen
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 04:46:27 +1000
Subject: [Baren 33699] Re Washing Brushes
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JB asks about using soap when washing brushes and I think it is
probably not a good idea, but then again I am guilty of using soap.
There is no doubt that soap does speed up the cleaning but it is
probably not the best way to look after the timber of the brush. I am
not sure that soap is ruinous to the condition of the bristles,
shaving brushes get soaped up every day and they can keep working for
decades. Maybe there is an issue of stripping oil from the bristles.
I like to rub the damp brush on my skin so that I can feel if it is
ready to print, maybe oil goes into the brush at this stage.

The nicest way to treat the brush is to clean it with luke warm water
and avoid wetting the timber. You could rub the brush against the
bottom of a laundry tub while running a little water from the tap. I
am too impatient for this and I just want the brush clean, so I tend
to get the thing wet. If the pigment is particularly sticky, like
sumi, I will use a little soap. Whatever it takes to get the job
done. I think it is more important to try lots of colours and make a
nice print than worry too much about the life span of the brush. That
said, I have one favourite brush that I have cleaned thousands of
times for a few years and it still seems to work OK. It does have a
split in the timber and the bristles are a bit shorter and rougher
than when I started. Some printers swear that short bristles are
better. Maybe this brush is just starting to come good and I'll cry
when it dies one day, wishing i had treated it better.

After cleaning the brush it is good to shake out the excess water and
dry the brush so that its not soaking up water and rotting away. I
used to have towels to dry my brushes but now I use a small salad
spinner as an ideal tool to get the wet brush dry enough to print
with. Like a washing machine it works best with a balanced load, so
it prefers two brushes but it does work with just the one brush.

The last thing I would say about brushes is that they do effect the
type of printing you can do. Buy a new good quality brush and you
will wonder how you managed without it. The more the merrier.

Tom in Australia

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Message 6
From: "Wouter and Pamela ten Broek"
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 07:55:32 +1200
Subject: [Baren 33700] wine cellar print
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I followed the blog of Dave in which he shared all the work he did on his "river in summer" and I can only thank you for all the knowledge and experience shared by all you Bareners all the time. So I keep learning along the way.
Here is my latest effort. A print of a wine callar I saw in Adelaide, South Australia.During the barrel fermentation stage an amount of moisture is lost through evaporation through the oak of the barrel. This requires frequent topping ups from one of the other barrels. Hence all the wine spilled over the barrels. It makes for a nice display of colour though. I hope this link works for you so you can look at the print. http://www.acwwoodcuts.com/Site/Woodcut_prints/About_Woodcuts/Wine_cellar_print.ashx


www.acwwoodcuts.com

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Message 7
From: Blog Manager
Date: 5 Jul 2007 03:55:15 -0000
Subject: [Baren 33701] 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. (34 sites checked, five minutes before midnight Eastern time)

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

Site Name: Woodblock Dreams

Author: Annie B
Item: The Value of Knowing an Artist
http://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com/2007/05/value-of-knowing-artist.html

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

Site Name: m.Lee Fine Art

Author: m.Lee
Item: Impulse Purchase!
http://mleeprints.blogspot.com/2007/07/impulse-purchase.html

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

Site Name: Belinda Del Pesco Fine Art Blog

Author: Belinda Del Pesco
Item: Watercolor: Canyon Theater Guild
http://belindadelpesco.blogspot.com/2007/07/watercolor-canyon-theater-guild.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

For reference, sites/blogs currently being checked are:
http://barenforum.org/blog
http://woodblock.com
http://woodblock.com/roundtable
http://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com
http://studiodiary.blogspot.com
http://larimerart.blogspot.com
http://artflights.blogspot.com
http://printmakersmaterials.blogspot.com
http://mlyon.com/blog
http://room535.blogspot.com
http://mleeprints.blogspot.com
http://snowgum.blogspot.com
http://onthisblock.blogspot.com
http://pressing-issues.blogspot.com
http://www.1000woodcuts.com
http://theitinerantartist.blogspot.com
http://PLawing-Printmaker.blogspot.com
http://readdevine.blogspot.com
http://mokuhankan.com/conversations
http://mokuhankan.com
http://belindadelpesco.blogspot.com
http://vizart.blogspot.com
http://phare-camp.blogspot.com
http://amymstoner.blogspot.com
http://williamleeholtfineart.blogspot.com
http://web.mac.com/g_wohlken/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html
http://curiousmatthew.blogspot.com
http://laine.lainegreenway.com/index.html
http://azuregrackle.com/blogs/index.php?blog=2
http://blog.olansa.co.uk/
http://bea-gold-retrospective.blogspot.com
http://www.jauntyrakes.blogspot.com
http://sheiko.blogspot.com
http://studio-window.blogspot.com
http://studio-window.blogspot.com
http://alynn-guerra.blogspot.com

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Message 8
From: "Harry French"
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 08:48:42 +0100
Subject: [Baren 33702] Update of prints
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Greetings to you all,
I'm now approaching a five year media and theme distraction ( Medieval ) so another six wood prints won't make all that much difference.
My June update of prints www.harryfrenchartworks.co.uk
Hopefully, my summer visit to Denmark and Northern Germany will put me back on course as a landscape painter. This year I'll just wear blinkers whilst in Ribe, Lubeck and Ratzeburg (medieval cities).
All the best,
Harry
UK

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Message 9
From: "Loren Letourneau"
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 13:09:51 +0200
Subject: [Baren 33703] Re: Exchange
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Hi,

been a lurker on the list for a while, and this might just be the push
that I needed to come out into the open somewhat.

I'm an artist from Canada, currently living in South Africa (for the
next couple of years), with a background in print and sculpture.
Seeing as sculpture doesn't travel particularly well, I've developed a
bit of an obsession with print - and woodblock hits on a happy medium.

Loren
> Exchange #34 currently has 10 participants - so there's room for at least 20
> more! If you haven't previously done a Baren Exchange, this small format
> (10x7.5 inches) exchange with no theme (any image you'd care to make) HAS to
> be as easy to complete as any we've organized - so if you're sitting on the
> fence, JUMP IN and give it a try - you have until November 1 to deliver your
> edition of 31 woodblock prints and soon after all 30 printers have done so,
> you'll receive a beautiful suite of prints, one from each participating
> artist - a VERY cool way to collect work by some already very accomplished
> artists!

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Message 10
From: Diane Cutter
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 05:11:02 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Baren 33704] Re: Exchange
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Welcome, Loren. You would love the exchange. It's a great way to challenge yourself and to also get some great prints to study. I also started out with linocut printmaking because I was overseas and limited in what I could get locally and send back home. Hopefully you'll join in on this exchange! Don't be shy! To quote that famous Nike phrase... Just do it!

Diane

www.dianecutter.com
www.theitinerantartist.blogspot.com
www.DCutter.etsy.com

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