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Message 1
From: "Maria Arango"
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:17:49 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38026] RE: address for ox exchange
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All the missing countries in the entire Ox addresses list are USA addresses.



Maria



O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O

Maria Arango

http://1000woodcuts.com

http://artfestivalguide.info

O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O

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Message 2
From: Sharri LaPierre
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:57:45 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38027] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V46 #4692 (Jan 31, 2009)
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Well, I'll be. I thought that baking parchment was my own original
idea! I do have a question for the experts: when printing my #39
contribution a couple of the earlier colors seemed to fade so as to be
not noticeable as I went along. I suspected that the paper was so wet
in that spot that it just wouldn't accept any more pigment. Was it
that, or was it that I just didn't have it a dark enough value? Should
I have let everything dry at that point and re-wet them to continue?
Values are so difficult to determine at the beginning of a piece. If
I had had time, I would have gone back and printed those colors again,
but time ran out. I may try some more later this month and see if I
can get them right.

Graham, I don't know what to say - no more boobcamp? And, a Granny
Suite? It is the end of an era. ;-)

Cheers ~
Sharri

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Message 3
From: "rsimola # netzero.net"
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:02:20 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38028] Baren exchange #49--Ollie, ollie ox-in-free
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I have heard from most of the Exchange #40 participants, and many of you are already working on your designs for the exchange. Some have already carving their blocks, and an amazing few have already started printing. There are, sadly, five members of the exchange who haven't yet responded to my request that they respond to my email so I can be certain I have their correct email addresses. So come out, come out, where ever you are:

Visa Arlington
Lester Dore
Maria Regina Pinto Pereira
Rakish Bani
Michael Gaffney

There is a spectacular reward for the first thirty participants who get their prints in!

Please send all responses to


Robert Simola, Ph.D.
Craftsman, gardener, grape grower, Chaucer collector,
. . . and retired teacher

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Message 4
From: "Terry Peart"
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:17:44 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38029] Chop Mark
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My husband and I went to Pike Place Market (in Seattle http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_012809WAB-beatles-show-ks.114236c8.html ) last Friday to see the re-enactment of the Beatles 40th Anniversary Concert (great fun!). And while there I was a nice gentleman selling personalized chop marks. He asked me to write my name - I wrote my Terry Sargent Peart - he palled. That's a long name he said!
He asked me how to pronounce the last name and then wrote some symbols that he said phonetically represented my last name. Okay!
We came back a while later and he had carved the symbols into a small rectangular tube of stone with my choice of a Monkey on the top, representing my birth year.
It's a great start to having a chop. I'm looking forward to using it on my Ox cards this year, so you'll all get to see it.
My only regret is that I didn't really question what it would look like. He carved out the symbols, instead of carving away the waste around the symbols. So it prints as a red square with white symbols instead of the other way around, which is how I would have preferred.
My long term goal, though, is to design and make my own chop. I've gotten a few ideas and suggestions from Charles M of Victoria.
Someday.

Terry
West Seattle

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Message 5
From: Charles Morgan
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:47:29 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38030] Re: Chop Mark
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Terry, just do it!!!! The one I use the most often the last couple of years is carved on a small piece of medium density fiber board ... known in the trade as mdf. I was not that happy with it at the beginning because it did not seem to take the ink that well, and it seemed a bit temperamental to get a good impression. But for a couple of times I used it and then just blotted it on paper towel and let the residue ink dry. It now takes ink and prints like a champ. And you will find that mdf carves very easily, with no pronounced grain to throw you off. So, all you have to do is dream up a design and then use those carving skills you already have. And then you will have a completely personalized chop to suit yourself.

Cheers ....... Charles

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Message 6
From: Arthur Bacon
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:10:18 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38031] presses
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I am brand new to this website so please forgive me if this is not
despatched correctly. My question right now is fairly
straightforward...I am looking for a good quality etching press. In as
much as we are somewhat peripatetic I think I would like a table-top
machine in the size of 18x36. I know I can build a formidably solid
bench to hold it. Are such things available used or do they hold their
value so I might as well go for a new one...but which one....I noticed
one of your members loves her Ettan. Are they professional quality?
The price is right....compared with a Takach but sometimes you DO get
what you pay for. What is recommended? Muchos gracias!

Arturo

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Message 7
From: ArtSpotiB # aol.com
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:56:56 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38032] Chop Mark story
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Terry, I have admired chop marks for years. A few of my prints have plain red
squares at each corner. I was so pleased when a curator figured out the
symbolism without any hints... One of the local museums in SF has a chop maker
outside the gift shop now and then. Egged on by a friend who does skilled Chinese
ink paintings, I had one made.

Instead of having my name phonetically spelled out, we went with the meanings
of my nom de brush, Benny Alba. "Benny" is easy -- it means good, tho I chose
the nickname in middle school without that knowledge. As for "Alba", I
learned while at a party for my solo in Sedona a few years ago that not only did it
mean "white", which most folks know... and "dawn", which was why I chose it,
being fond of the colors and that time of day, but it also means "risen" as in
"holy". I had no idea and was horrified to be so presumptuous. No way am I
able to rise to that level. Too late, however, as I've had that nom de brush for
well, a heck of a lot of years.

So, my chop mark means goodness rising, I think. Perhaps I should have had
"hot air rising" to be more accurate. However, I paid the museum shop, he sent
the chop (with a lion top) to me. It came with ink and in a lovely silk covered
box. I'm just learning how to use it. In fact, the chop mark's first time was
the frontspiece sent to the exchange I coordinated.

Those of you in the know, maybe you can answer my speculative questions
regarding chop marks.
I wonder what time period they were started? And other than the original chop
to indicate the artist, is there any other purpose?

I know that successive owners of some Chinese art added their own chop marks
to the image. My fantasy is that this is a curator's dream come true as the
provence is then traceable. Since there's a tradition that to reproduce Chinese
art very exactingly, this might be a reason? Or perhaps just a side effect?

Lastly, on a more personal level, let me remind you to let your loved ones
know your feelings. Today I lost a beloved, story book level devoted and yes, a
kind friend. My dog Spot. We went to the vets, I had no idea that she would
die within minutes of arriving home. We went everywhere together, studio and
home and back again. One never knows when we will lose those we cherish. Fourteen
years wasn't long enough. I hope to go, when I die, to wherever my dear Spot
is now. Cherish and let your dear ones (of any species) know how you feel --
today.

ArtSpot Out
Benny at Sadbase





Thank everyone who calls out your faults, your anger, your impatience, your
egotism; do this consciously, voluntarily. -Jean Toomer, poet and novelist
(1894-1967). "Yes, and it has the added benefit driving THEM nuts when you do"
Benny Alba.

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Subject: Wood engraving - technique
Posted by: Julio

This item is taken from the blog BarenForum Group Weblog.
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