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Message 1
From: Guadalupe Victorica
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:10:21 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41627] Linda Beeman Print
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Linda Beeman, Your print is beautifull. is has inspired me to try the technique.

Is it a wood block, what kind? How many blocks did you carve? Thank you in advance for the answers.

Saludos from México, Guadalupe

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Message 2
From: Marilynn Smith
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:52:14 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41628] korokoro baren
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Gina, I have the korokoro ball bearing baren and love it. If you are
small it should give you extra strength.

The pacific northwest is diverse. The inland areas have less rain.
Even some of the coastal areas have very little rain, but Seattle/
Tacoma is wet. Where I am, on the southwest Washington coast we have
a lot of overcast days and the winters can be very wet and stormy,
with high winds. I go to Mexico for the winter and enjoy the summer
here in Nahcotta, on the north end of the Long Beach Washington
peninsula. If things seem right you will be hearing more about this
area.

Marilynn

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Message 3
From: Annie Bissett
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:04:51 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41629] Re: New member introduction/Baren Preferences
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Hi Gina,

Thanks for introducing yourself. I remember hearing about the
flooding at University of Iowa's printmaking workshop a couple of
years ago. That must have been so intense for you all. Glad you came
through it with an appreciation of relief printing!

Everyone will probably have a different thing to say about which
baren they prefer, but here's my 2 cents. Note that I work with the
Japanese method, so if you're using oil-based inks there may be
differences that I don't know about.

I use three types of baren -- Murasaki, ball bearing, and disk baren
(plastic with little nubbies). Each has different qualities.

The disk baren is "softest." It takes a very light impression even if
you apply a lot of pressure, so it won't do a large swath of pure
intense color. But I find it useful for thin papers, for creating
intentional "goma zuri" (speckled texture), or for printing fine
lines. Some disk baren have a replaceable disk which is handy for
when the nubbies wear down.

I find the Murasaki baren to be the most versatile. Mine is a medium.
What I love about it is that it's highly sensitive and you can really
feel the paper and the block under it. You can get almost any effect
with it just by varying the amount of pressure. Well worth the
investment. The one drawback is that eventually the bamboo cover
wears out and you have to learn how to tie on a new one, which can be
a tough skill to develop.

The ball-bearing baren is pretty awesome too, but it's a powerhouse.
If you're working fairly small I think it would be overkill. I have a
612-ball type and i use it for larger prints or for thicker papers
that require more pressure to get clean dense color. I also use it
when I feel tired and not very strong.

Have fun shopping!

best,

Annie B

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Message 4
From: Viza Arlington
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:12:37 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41630] Re: New member introduction
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Hi Gina,
Welcome to the forum! I have a korokoro and i am very happy with it. I
think my next purchase will be the strongest ball bearing baren
because i use pretty heavy paper and have large areas of color and not
much line work. which ever baren you decide on i know will be better
than the speedball baren!
viza

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Message 5
From: "Phare-Camp"
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:55:35 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41631] New member introduction
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Hi Gina:

Welcome to Baren, it's a great support group for printmakers of all sorts!
Regarding barens I will tell you, I was a traditionalist, using traditional
japanese barens for near 20 years. When I was trying to hand pull some
monotypes I decided to buy a ball baring baren and see if it would grab more
ink into the paper than traditional barens. Within a week of using it - it
became the first baren I grab for everything; along with a set of good
knives it's one of the best tool investments I ever made! Since you say
that you feel hampered by lack of strength I think you'll find the ball
baring baren to be one of the finest tools in your studio. It is soooooo
easy to use that I wish I'd gotten one 20 years ago!

Cheers,
Patti Phare-Camp

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Message 6
From: "Mike Lyon"
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:02:41 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41632] new 77 inch wide woodcut
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It's been TOO long since I printed a woodcut (or posted to Baren - but I
lurk daily, believe me)!



I've been working images of leaves and grass -- the rhythmic rise and fall
of values from lightest to darkest in gradual and abrupt changes across the
sheet -- the somewhat regularly repeated patterns of marks (leaf and grass
shapes) - these fascinate me... I imagine there will be more like this
coming through the year. I have pen and ink drawings of similar subjects
underway as well...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1rqU-TUiBI

A time-lapse of printing block 5 and block 15 (of 16) onto 8 sheets of 22.5
x 77 inch Iwano Ichibei paper -- I'm using Japanese technique (modified by
use of a large press I designed and built for this purpose) -- water-borne
pigments brushed onto blocks carved using a computer controlled router (this
is VERY traditional stuff, right?), and then registering each large damp
sheet with the aid of a garage-door opener powered sliding drawer humidor.
I stick the sheet to the block using quick and light strokes with my trusty
hon-baren and then finish with a light pass of the pinch-rollers.



http://mlyon.com/wp-content/gallery/grass-2/2010_07_16_grass_woodcut_21x69-2
000px.jpg

A largish image of completed print.



The excitement of printing is... Indescribable, isn't it?



Mike Lyon

Kansas City, MO

http://mlyon.com

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Message 7
From: Carol Montgomery
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:17:15 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41633] Re: new 77 inch wide woodcut
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Wow!

Sent from my iPad

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Message 8
From: ArtfulCarol # aol.com
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:20:22 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41634] Re: new 77 inch wide woodcut
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Kudos! Cheers! Bravos! Applause! Did I leave anything out?
Congratualtions (not a typo)
Wine for celebration!
Carol L !

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Message 9
From: Barbara Carr
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:48:29 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41635] Re: new 77 inch wide woodcut
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Absolutely amazing! Not to mention beautiful. Where can we see this print in "person?"

Barbara C

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Message 10
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:03:51 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41636] Re: new 77 inch wide woodcut
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ok, I am totally exhausted just watching this. You never cease to amaze us and
have done so again, not just for the stunning beauty of this print but for your
incredible "printing" machine and Carving Machines. Fabulous job! You get the
gold star this week...the rest of us feel like slackers now!
My best
Barbara

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Message 11
From: David Bull
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:13:32 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41637] Re: new 77 inch wide woodcut
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> A time-lapse of printing block 5 and block 15 (of 16) onto 8 sheets
> of 22.5 x 77 inch Iwano Ichibei paper -- I'm using Japanese
> technique (modified by use of a large press I designed and built for
> this purpose)

Another fabulous print Mike! I'm envious of how much you are getting
done!

May I ask something about the process? You touch the paper to the
block lightly with a baren, then pass the press roller over it (once).
So some sheets get rolled from the left, and some from the right. Are
you keeping them in that same orientation for each succeeding colour?

Reason I ask is that I would have thought there might be some 'creep'
on each sheet from the roller, making registration difficult if it
went the opposite way sometimes (I have no press experience, so don't
know if this happens or not ...).

Dave

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Message 12
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:33:06 GMT
Subject: [Baren 41638] Re: new 77 inch wide woodcut
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Yup, exactly, Dave! I forgot this trick I'd learned in the first of
these big prints in 2006 - it's been a long time since I printed this
way - five of the eight sheets had significant out of register during
the first eight blocks (until i remembered to stick em down with
baren) and only three sheets had decent registration (edition of
three). I must always print an even number of sheets so the roller
goes the same direction over each sheet and I must set each sheet to
the block with Baren or they tend to creep - up to about a quarter
inch at the far end - so every sheet will be accurately in register at
the roller start end and randomly out of register at the other end.
Because so much of the grass image is narrow marks (1/4 inch or less),
any out of register is very disturbing visually, and renders that
sheet unacceptable. Darn it!

Sticking the sheet to the block prior to pressing seems to (almost)
completely eliminate creep. But... Errors compound! If I only mess
up registration of one in ten sheets (90% accurate) that'd be fine for
an edition pulled from one or two blocks -- but for sixteen blocks,
90% isn't good enough - EVERY sheet would have one or more out of
register impressions! So that's important... I have to work harder
at accurate registration (or waste a lot of the most wonderful paper)!

There is very little pressure on the roller, by the way - just a
little more than the weight of the roller and enough so the bottom
(drive) roller doesn't slip. But it's still stronger than with baren,
doesn't abrade over-saturated paper (a strong tendency with these
reduction-like blocks), and it's super quick and homogenous.

I DID have the feeling, this time, that I could have printed the
edition entirely by Baren with good results. I will give that a try
in the future.

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

Sent from my iPhone

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Subject: Mystique Series - carving begins again - win a free print!
Posted by: Dave Bull

This item is taken from the blog Woodblock RoundTable.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.

Subject: White line
Posted by: JennifersCabin

This item is taken from the blog Jennifer Martindale.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.

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