[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Wednesday, 1 April 1998 Volume 03 : Number 112 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Blueman Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 08:26:26 -0500 Subject: [Baren 525] Re: Baren Digest V2 #111 Baren, James, I've been visiting your woodcuts as often as I can. What kind of ink are you using? Oil based, or water based? I like Kitakata paper, too. The color of it is nice, don't you think? April, I've ordered my knife from McClain's as well as a bunch of other stuff. I made my first water based print yesterday with materials I had on hand and you never saw such a mess (maybe you did, though; when you did your first print this way). McClain's is a beautiful catalog. I can't wait to order a leather strop for sharpening (their recommendation). Has anyone tried one? Matt, I meant to tell you that your new pages look pretty great. Your students' work makes me want to get going. Dave, I'm sending you the first print I made with water-based color. It's terrible, but I hope down the line I can send you one we can all be proud of. I'm certain you'll know right away what weird things I did with it. Gayle Wohlken ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 22:43:40 +0900 Subject: [Baren 526] Print case Matt wrote: > Dave, > Could you describe a bit about the labels and cases for prints > I have noticed you referring to here and there? Would you call > these portfolios? How to describe this stuff in words? I can't, so I took one of the photographs from my pamphlet, and put it up here: http://www.woodblock.com/forum/archives/vol03/extras/print_case.jpg What you see in the photo is one year's set of ten prints. The case on the left of the photo (covered with deep blue fabric) contains the whole set, and is shipped to the collectors in late February/early March together with the first print. The other prints are sent one by one during the year as they are finished, and the case becomes 'full' when the tenth print is received in December. It's hard to describe the package; the case is held closed with two bone (faux ivory) toggles. When these are released, it opens flat to reveal the stack of ten 'folders'. These folders consist of a base (a B3 size illustration board from 'Muse'), to which two sheets of a creamy coloured 'torinoko' paper have been fastened. The innermost sheet, glued to the illustration board at the right margin, has four small slits cut into it, and the print is slipped into these slits at the corners. It is thus held firmly in place but can be removed easily in a moment. (My collectors usually have a single frame, and change the prints according to the poem that is appropriate for the particular season ...) Glued onto the illustration board beneath this torinoko sheet, is a label describing who/when/where the print was made, along with a translation of the poem into modern Japanese. (Very few people can read the archaic writing on the print itself.) The outer sheet of torinoko paper is glued on with a 6cm wide strip of 'lesac' paper that wraps around to the back side of the folder, and acts as a hinge so that this cover sheet can be opened easily. (In the print in the photo, this cover sheet has been folded back and out of sight ...) Remember, this is Japan, and everything opens 'backwards' from the books you are familiar with ... The label on each folder with the poet's name is carved and printed by me, as is the label pasted to the blue case. I do a different label each year - choosing different calligraphy. There is also a small circular number (from one to ten) not visible in the photo, glued to the spine of the case, and visible when it stands upright in a bookcase. This is a set of ten prints, but as there are 100 prints in the entire series, collectors have ten of these things side by side ... For shipping all this stuff, I have cardboard wrappers made up to my specifications by a local company, in two sizes - one to fit the case for the February shipment, and one to fit just a single folder for all subsequent shipments. The blue cases are made to order for me by a specialty shop in Tokyo, and the folders for the prints are made for me by a couple of local housewives who work as part timers. They also do all the wrapping and shipping. There is an awful lot of work involved, but I don't do any of it myself. My job ends when the prints are signed ... The prints are thus held in what I hope is a pretty good protective environment. The torinoko paper is supposed to be acid-free, and as long as the case is opened up once in a while to air out, the prints should last quite a long time in this 'home' ... Dave ------------------------------ From: Dan Wasserman Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 09:05:55 -0800 Subject: [Baren 527] halftone Dear James Mundi: You certainly have caused a stir coming out on Baren! I was afraid to ask but it seems you are willing to discuss the tech of your work so... any chance you could illuminate us with side by side close-up of block and print showing what it is you do with the blade and needle and wire brush? You could I'm sure post this at any one of our sites if you had access to a scanner. We would all apreciate it greatly. Not to be lost in the amazement with your technique is the fact that the images themselves are wonderfull no matter how they came about. Regards to all, ~dan w. P.S. I once saw some woodblocks done completly in a stipple manner using a three-peny nail but can't rember by whom, contemporary Japanese I believe, could anyone help with leads on this? ------------------------------ From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie) Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 10:43:39 -0500 Subject: [Baren 528] Matt and Dave's questions I should correct a mistake in my message of yesterday that may have been a bit misleading: >"copper-wire" should have been followed by the word "brush". That may clear up some of the mystery for you, Matt (I meant "copper-wire" as an adjective rather than a noun). The type of brush I mean is sort about the size and shape of a toothbrush. An old toothbrush, by the way, is a great tool for picking loose bits of sawdust and whatnot from the surface of the board before printing so that all of those little particles don't adhere to the brayer and wind up in your ink. This brushing of the board to expose the grain is a technique that I don't think would translate well with water-based pigment. You're welcome to give it a whirl, but I think it would just increase the wood's tendency toward sponginess and saturation (I don't recommend pine for water-based pigment techniques in general, wire brushing or not). Yesterday, Dave said: >...have you worked these [techniques (wire brushing, stippling, etc.)] out by yourself or are there other people working this way as well? I have adapted (and perhaps refined) all of these techniques to my own use from some basic suggestions of others. Ever since I started making woodcuts I was interested in different ways of making marks in the board. As I was simulataneously exploring the same issues in etching and lithography, many techniques crossed over to media for with they were not intended. The wire-brushing came about through a former instructor. "You might like to wire brush that," became something of a catch-phrase for him and a bit of a joke for the rest of us. But he was right. Sometimes what that print needed was some wire brushing (I should add that not many students followed this suggestion, or if they did were not very successful). One thing for which wire brushing is ideal-- in oil-based ink mind you-- is for the creation of a tone-block for a sort of chiaro scuro effect. [Even if printed in the same color as the key block, the result can be quite striking.] Stippling the board with an etching needle (poking holes in it, actually) came to me after looking at some German expressionist woodcuts and some Mexican leadcuts and punch prints. In a print by Max Beckman (or maybe it was Otto Dix), he had clearly used the point and side of a nail to make these wild impressions and scratches in the board (Kathe Kollwitz also used to scratch the living daylights out of her boards). I don't think anyone who looks at my work would call me an expressionist, but the nail and punch technique appealed to me. I took it to heart and employed it in a more systematic method much like the intricate rapidograph drawings I had been doing. While none of these techniques may be the "right" way to go about woodblock printing, they are rather fun and they work. And yes, Dave, I would be pleased to help you compile this info for the Baren Encyclopedia. Dave: >What does 'Mise le meas' mean? Nice effort to extract the Latin roots, Dave; but the phrase is actually Irish Gaelic (Myself and the wife, who is also a printmaker, are students of the Irish language and I can't help myself from inflicting it on the unsuspecting). One pronounces it 'missh-uh luh mass.' It translates into English as "Respectfully yours" or some such phrase but it literally translates as "Myself respectfully." It's actually a little more complicated than that: "Mise" is the emphatic form of the pronoun "me/" (/ indicates a long mark over the "e") meaning "me" or "I"; "le" is the preposition "with" (which get conjugated in Irish along with pronouns and verbs, by the way); "meas" means "respect" or "order" and a few other things, but "le meas" means "respectfully". That's probably more than you wanted to know; but you did ask. Ta/ sin e/ anois (That's it for now, 'tah shin ay uh-nish'). Mise le meas, James Mundie, Philadelphia PA ------------------------------ From: Phil Bivins Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 11:34:35 -0500 Subject: [Baren 529] Re: Baren Digest V2 #111 Gayle, about the leather strap. Right now I am using a piece of an old leather belt. I have inquired about purchasing a leather strap that a barber uses to hone his razors. Presently he is looking at possibly giving me an old one. So you may want to ask your local friendly barber if he has any old ones to give away or maybe he can order one for you. I haven't a clue as to how much they cost. I suspect they aren't cheap. Hope this helps. Later, Phil ------------------------------ From: julio.rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 12:43:00 -0600 Subject: [Baren 530] Welcome James, new web site Welcome to Baren James ! Good to see more accomplished artists coming out. Interesting technique you have, I too use unconventional tools. If it makes the type of mark I am after, it becomes part of my tool chest! ...I have been kind of busy the last three weeks putting up a new web site for the organization my sons play baseball for, but somehow managed to keep abreast of all the new threads here at Baren. For those of you who I have corresponded with in the past, check out the new site I put up; there are no prints, it's for kids, parents & coaches. If you go to BASEBALL, then select PHOTO GALLERY from any of the baseball pages......I am in several photos (on the first photo gallery page, 2nd photo from the right on the top row, I am the second coach fr om the right). Check it out, it's my very first web site and I am looking for feedback........ http:// www.skokienet.org/skyouth ps. Has anybody heard from Ray ? Dave the pedia is looking better and better each time, great work ! Graham; where are the jokes ? Julio ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V3 #112 ***************************