Today's postings
- [Baren 45020] Re: calligraphy (cjchapel # casco.net)
- [Baren 45021] Sizing in a pinch (Pinto Lawrence)
- [Baren 45022] Re: Sizing in a pinch (Barbara Mason)
- [Baren 45023] sizing (Barbara Mason)
- [Baren 45024] Re: Sizing in a pinch (Bronwyn Merritt)
- [Baren 45025] Calligraphy (SUSAN KALLAUGHER)
- [Baren 45026] Re: Calligraphy (David Bull)
- [Baren 45027] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
Message 1
From: cjchapel # casco.net
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:24:50 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45020] Re: calligraphy
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It seems that a study of calligraphy and letterforms is in order. It might not be as easy as "picking" one. It's a vast subject.
C.Chapel
C.Chapel
Message 2
From: Pinto Lawrence
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:57:56 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45021] Sizing in a pinch
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Hi Baren Forum People,
I'm inspired by Andrew Stone's sizing postings to write this. I ran out of sized paper when I was isolated in Northern Ontario a few weeks ago and only had Yasutomo hoshi paper for sumi on hand, not sized. It acted like blotting paper when I tried it for printing.
It occurred to me that I had been successful in waterproofing canoe canvas with a product that is also used by carpenters and people who put mosaic tiles on wood surfaces, Weldbond:
http://www.speedyproducts.com/pages/weldbond-specs-instructions
Well, I hung the sumi over a clothes rod, made the recommended 1:5 dilution of Weldbond, and painted it on the surface to be printed with a regular old paint brush used for the house (for water-based paint), using light shone through the paper to see that it got a pretty complete coating. The relative humidity in the house was only 30% with the wood stove going so it dried in a few hours. Then I moistened it as if it were 'real washi' and tried printing with it. The result is that I was able to get an idea of what the prints would turn out like with washi, and it allowed me to keep going. The bleeding was gone but the thinness of the paper caused it to fall into the wells that were about 3 cm wide. I don't know how it would hold up under multiple impressions, but I can say that if you soak the unsized sumi paper in Weldbond it will fall apart.
I hope that this is of some use to someone, sometime.
Larry
I'm inspired by Andrew Stone's sizing postings to write this. I ran out of sized paper when I was isolated in Northern Ontario a few weeks ago and only had Yasutomo hoshi paper for sumi on hand, not sized. It acted like blotting paper when I tried it for printing.
It occurred to me that I had been successful in waterproofing canoe canvas with a product that is also used by carpenters and people who put mosaic tiles on wood surfaces, Weldbond:
http://www.speedyproducts.com/pages/weldbond-specs-instructions
Well, I hung the sumi over a clothes rod, made the recommended 1:5 dilution of Weldbond, and painted it on the surface to be printed with a regular old paint brush used for the house (for water-based paint), using light shone through the paper to see that it got a pretty complete coating. The relative humidity in the house was only 30% with the wood stove going so it dried in a few hours. Then I moistened it as if it were 'real washi' and tried printing with it. The result is that I was able to get an idea of what the prints would turn out like with washi, and it allowed me to keep going. The bleeding was gone but the thinness of the paper caused it to fall into the wells that were about 3 cm wide. I don't know how it would hold up under multiple impressions, but I can say that if you soak the unsized sumi paper in Weldbond it will fall apart.
I hope that this is of some use to someone, sometime.
Larry
Message 3
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:25:39 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45022] Re: Sizing in a pinch
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I looked p the MSDS for Weldbond and it is PVA, or polyvinyl acetate
This is a glue used by bookbinders and I think it might be interesting to try this again, I wonder how it would work if you sprayed it on with a fine spray? That would get it on evenly. I have used it for chine colle with no problems... I think you would want a very thin coating of it or it might not hold the ink...we should experiment more....
Still, it is a long way from Hide Glue...
My best
Barbara
This is a glue used by bookbinders and I think it might be interesting to try this again, I wonder how it would work if you sprayed it on with a fine spray? That would get it on evenly. I have used it for chine colle with no problems... I think you would want a very thin coating of it or it might not hold the ink...we should experiment more....
Still, it is a long way from Hide Glue...
My best
Barbara
Message 4
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:42:17 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45023] sizing
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I was reading Dave's info on sizing and see that Phillips, Fletcher and Platt all used gelatin leaf (comparable to gelatin powder) for sizing instead of the hide glue...has anyone tried this? It was also interesting to note that depending on how the paper is to be printed the Japanese sizers used more or less sizing on the back of the paper after it had been sized on the front and dried once...
This is a lot harder than it sounds, although lots of folks are doing their own now days...Guess we will all have to learn to do this eventually. Here is the link to Dave's info
http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/016_02/016_02.html
My best
Barbara
This is a lot harder than it sounds, although lots of folks are doing their own now days...Guess we will all have to learn to do this eventually. Here is the link to Dave's info
http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/016_02/016_02.html
My best
Barbara
Message 5
From: Bronwyn Merritt
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:51:45 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45024] Re: Sizing in a pinch
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This makes sense to me, Barbara- much like the quick- sizing we used to do in the papermaking studio with spray starch. It worked well for the monoprints we did on various types of handmade paper, but the PVA is more typical of what we used for internal sizing. I bet you can thin it down enough that it will spray from a mister to be used on finished papers.
Bronwyn
Sent from my iPad
Bronwyn
Sent from my iPad
Message 6
From: SUSAN KALLAUGHER
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:30:44 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45025] Calligraphy
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Thank you for the reference to your print & the poem, Dave. You say :
"Each letter is delineated in a way that makes sense to the carver, and as I well know from having carved this myself, the knife slides easily around each letter just as it does when carving Japanese cursive characters.
Even though the old carvers wouldn't have been able to read the text they were working on, they would have been able to carve it with beauty and taste."
Can you please describe for me what to look for in an alphabet style to know how it will carve? I have no experience with carving letters.
Many Thanks, Sue
"Each letter is delineated in a way that makes sense to the carver, and as I well know from having carved this myself, the knife slides easily around each letter just as it does when carving Japanese cursive characters.
Even though the old carvers wouldn't have been able to read the text they were working on, they would have been able to carve it with beauty and taste."
Can you please describe for me what to look for in an alphabet style to know how it will carve? I have no experience with carving letters.
Many Thanks, Sue
Message 7
From: David Bull
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:38:00 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45026] Re: Calligraphy
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Susan wrote:
> Can you please describe for me what to look for in an alphabet style
> to know how it will carve? I have no experience with carving letters.
Not sure what I can add ... For _me_, calligraphy is smooth and
cursive; that's how it works over here. But English 'lettering' can of
course be quite angular.
'Anything' can be carved; it's all going to come down to what you want
to see in the finished work.
Dave
> Can you please describe for me what to look for in an alphabet style
> to know how it will carve? I have no experience with carving letters.
Not sure what I can add ... For _me_, calligraphy is smooth and
cursive; that's how it works over here. But English 'lettering' can of
course be quite angular.
'Anything' can be carved; it's all going to come down to what you want
to see in the finished work.
Dave
Digest Appendix
Postings made on [Baren] members' blogs
over the past 24 hours ...
Subject: Catching Up - Three Netsuke
Posted by: Andy English
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I have some projects from 2010 that I have been meaning to share with you. Here is the first. I have always had a fascination for netsuke. I love the wonderful combination of art and function that they can display; I also like that many of them are carved in boxwood - my material of choice for engraving. Last year 2010, the BAREN group of printmakers organised "Inspired By Japan", a portfolio of prints to raise money for people affected by the earthquake and tsunami that struck on 11th March 2011. The prints were to be sold through exhibition as well as online. Most of the printmakers involved practice traditional Japanese moku hanga techniques but I sometimes contribute my own engravings to the print exchanges that BAREN organises and I wanted to take part in the fundraising effort but could not find a subject that seemed appropriate and also suited the technique of wood engraving. I knew that I wanted to include a fragment of a map of Japan but that was all I could come up with. During a visit to the Victoria and Albert museum, I was examining a case of fine netsuke when it struck me that here was a theme that would work for me. Several of the netsuke had damp or watery connotations which would be interesting to engrave. I was particularly struck by a snail on a lotus leaf which a friend kindly photographed for me:  Back in the studio, I researched netsuke images and the snail was joined by a water buffalo, a duck/swan and an octopus. I had my design. Unusually for me, I decided to engrave this work in maple. I had a block which I brought home with me from my visit as a guest artist to the Wood Engravers Network in Chicago. I had been waiting for a suitable project.  |
This item is taken from the blog Wood Engraver.
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Subject: OFF MY PLATE!!! New Year, New Resolution
Posted by: Maria
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Last year I started out the year calling it a simpler year...or was that the year before that?! Hmmmm...see!? I'm already in trouble. I am declaring this 2012 the OFF-MY-PLATE year. I'm deep into a bad case of project indigestion. I have one print to finish for an exchange and a commission for a block/print set. And that's it, that IS IT!!! Oh yeah, the puzzle project yet to be finished and printed...sigh... http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com My to-do list is ridiculous with projects so old that I had to shut off the reminders in my Outlook so that I wouldn't see the annoying: "eight months overdue" notices. My website in dire need of revising, my books in need of revising...hey, just those two things could take me the rest of the year.
But no, no no nononono!!! I have little notebooks and pieces of paper hanging all over my very disorganized studio (in need of revision as well) that will keep me busy until I'm old and gray...make that older and grayer. Blocks like the Goldwell series (above) yell at me every morning to get my act together or they're walking off. My piles of wood are dusty and sad. So that's it, I'm done with the new and on with the old. . . . [Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here] |
This item is taken from the blog 1000 Woodcuts Updates.
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Subject: All Washington affair! Two from the Northwest US
Posted by: Maria
Wendy Morris from Spokane Washington, USA sends a great image (more critters!):  And Carole Carroll from Seattle, Washington USA with a clever block and an extra contribution for which I am most grateful!!! Her note says: "Snowflake is enjoying a nap in the fresh air of the open window" |
This item is taken from the blog MCPP Puzzle Prints.
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