Today's postings

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Postings made on [Baren] members' blogs
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Subject: The uphill battle for Underfoot prints
Posted by: Sherrie Y

Print progress updates have been a little slim around here lately, but it's not because there's no printing going on. Quite the opposite, in fact. I've put three client projects (not printmaking) to bed in the past week (one of them a 5x17-FOOT mural, eek!) and have happily filled the "extra" time with trips to Studio V.

Unfortunately, printing problems have persisted, and my up-to-now favorite paper seems to have finally gone 'round the bend.

The last few batches of Hosho "pro" that I've purchased have been noticeably inconsistent in thickness... even from one end of a sheet to the other. I've grumbled, but worked with it. But remember the troubles I was having with the ibis linocut from a couple of weeks ago? Some of my troubles were due to impatience and too-wet ink, but something still wasn't right.

I used Hosho AND Rives lightweight for the little aspen leaf print, and noticed again a little "fibre pulling" on the Hosho. But I made only 5 prints on small sheets of paper and it didn't seem too bad. I chalked the ibis print problems up to printmaker error and launched the current print for the "Underfoot" series on Hosho. (Justification: I have a stack of it, the rest of the series has been done on this paper, and I really like a bright white sheet.)

But there was trouble from the outset. Used to be it was easy to tell the smooth side from the felt side on this paper. This batch, not so much. It's ALL fuzzy. As a result, the first color pass was... how shall I describe it? Not smooth. No problem, I thought. The first passes are often light, and once there's another layer of ink on there, the felty bits will lay down and it will be just fine.

Four colors down. Spotty at best.

Hmm. Nope.
By the fourth pass I was really getting worried, but I was committed by then. I can't abandon a project if there's any chance I can pull it off. (Can you say obsessive/compulsive?) I like this image and I like the carving and I know that I'll probably never revisit it... so I soldiered on.

But what a mess! The paper is blowing fibers EVERYWHERE! Somewhere around color 4 or 5 I had to clean off the block and scrape my inking slab every other sheet because everything was getting gummed up with tiny paper fibers. Not. Right.

Selective inking for colors... hmm... 6, 7, 8, I think.
I whined about it to a friend who teaches in a college printmaking department and she shook her head. She'd heard other printmakers were having trouble with this paper, too. (When using it on a press someone had big sections of paper pulling OFF. Yikes!)

(sigh)

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This item is taken from the blog Brush and Baren.
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Subject: Mejico via Washington and Queensland Australia
Posted by: Maria

World traveler Marilynn Smith spends time equally in Mexico and Nahcotta, Washington USA, she takes time out from the road to send a clever contribution:
I don't live in the "city" any more, love being a country girl. My brain just did not want to deliver an image for "City of the World". A few days ago we had the first storm of the season, here on the Washington coast, it blew hard, it rained like crazy and I put on my rain suit to take my dogs for their morning walk. Day dreaming as I walked I thought "when I was in the city I would be carrying an umbrella". Inspiration, I had my image for "City of the World". It is an upside down umbrella on a porch with a cloud and rain drops. I call it a Blustery Day in the Pacific Northwest.


And Diane Patmore from Queensland, AUSTRALIA, sends us a party!
Living just minutes from the sea I thought an evening party on the beach, with fairy lights in the trees, might be fun and a good way for us "citizens of the world" to get to know each other.
So...here is my block "Beach Party."

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This item is taken from the blog MCPP Puzzle Prints.
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