[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Wednesday, 15 April 1998 Volume 03 : Number 128 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Phil Bivins Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 09:18:41 -0400 Subject: [Baren 629] Re: Amazing/Shina I too have been using Shina plywood for my work. To be honest with you I don't think I have ever seen a cherry board for woodblock printing! As indicated by April, McClains has a good selection of Shina in different grades and prices. Its really beautiful to look at, smooth hardly any grain. I do nothing to the wood prior to carving, no sanding is required. Its easy on the tools and the carver. I have tried the hardware store variety plywood and there is no comparison. The surface is much rougher and the glue between the plys is harder. So I have learned a valuable lesson. I'll stick with the plywood that was intended for woodblocks and leave the hardware store variety plywood for the carpenters! To All, thank you for the nice comments about my prints. It takes on a whole different perspective when you see your work on the Internet! I found myself saying, "Hey, those are your prints! And they don't look all that bad!" Again thanks for the nice words. We newbies need all the encouragement we can get, but then again we all do! Later, Phil ------------------------------ From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie) Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:01:10 -0400 Subject: [Baren 630] Phil's "Letter from the Studio" Phil, It's great to read your thoughts on this whole process and see the fruits of your labor. I got a good hearty chuckle out of the "dog with his ass on fire" line. If nothing else, this artform forces you to have a sense of humor The slightly off-register dimensional effect on the lion is quite striking. A friend once did something similar by reversing the gradation of color for both impressions (one would be, say, black at the top and red at the bottom while the other was red at the top and black at the bottom). This had a interesting unifying effect and gave nice luminosity around the darker forms. **** Julio, These printmaking gods are indeed fickle, but those devoted to woodblock are more predictable and more easily appeased than the tricksters who oversee lithography (so I'll probably take another crack at that board after some groveling and offering). In a slightly related vien: I was once asked to create a printshop logo, and thought it would be fun to engage the various saints who patronize the art. Saint Luke is generally regarded as the patron saint of painters and artists in general, so I could stick him in there. I found that St. John of God is the patron of printers. An apparently unstable fellow, he was reputed to be a hermit often seen to be walking about disheveled and distracted muttering to himself. Can anyone in Baren identify? Mise le meas, James Mundie, Philadelphia USA ------------------------------ From: Mary Dornenburg Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:10:01 -0400 Subject: [Baren 631] Re: Penland John Amoss wrote: > By the way, I am also hoping to take a woodblock workshop at Penland Arts > and Crafts Center this summer. John, Lucky, lucky you. Penland is a magic mountain. I taught a session of prints there a thousand years ago. If it has not changed, you will meet the finest people and eat the best food of your life. The Great Smokies will take your breath away and heal your soul. There used to be more craftsmen than artists which made it a very down to earth place. Go watch the glass blowers and visit as many of the area studios as you can and take a small flashlight just in case there still are not many lights at night. Mary Dornenburg ------------------------------ From: Phil Bivins Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 12:45:57 -0400 Subject: [Baren 632] Re: Phil's "Letter from the Studio" James G Mundie wrote: > Phil, > It's great to read your thoughts on this whole process and see > the fruits of your labor. James, thank you. You know woodblock printing is sorta like learning to ride a motorcycle. The instant you think you have got it, is when you crash. Then again I look at some of the masters and say to myself , "Now those guys have got it down pat!" I suppose if you were to ask them in person, they would say, "Hey, I'm still learning, just like you! The day I stop learning is the day I'll crash!" I'm in no mood to crash, it hurts too much. I'll try and keep my mind and eyes open. Later, Phil ------------------------------ From: Emil Wilson Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 11:26:23 -0800 Subject: [Baren 633] Baren Digest V3 #127 -Reply Hey, I just signed up on this digest and it's really cool. I was wondering: does anyone know of any printers that I could talk to in the Los Angeles area? I'm wondering what galleries, schools, print workshops, etc. are down there. I'm moving this summer and I've gotten really spoiled here in San Francisco because there are some really great printers here. Does anyone have any thoughts? Emil Wilson 3757 17th Street San Francisco 415-552-9350 EmilSW@aol.com Wilson@saatchisf.com (either e-mail is great) ------------------------------ From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie) Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 14:25:54 -0400 Subject: [Baren 634] charcoal for proofing, more on Don's question Dave, Thanks for the tip about the charcoal powder for proofing oily blocks. I'll have to give this a try. *** Don, Regarding your question about which wood is best for a printmaking survey class: It depends on what you're having them do, and how long they will have to experiment before moving on to another medium. If you want them to try a traditional water-based style, I'd say shina plywood (or birch, which one can get in 8ft x 4ft sheets from Home Depot and most lumber yards). For oil-based woodcuts, I say go with pine. It's soft enough for them to get the experience of cutting and gouging, and will give them a relatively quick turn-around time. They can always try basswood or cherry at a later time when they have more experience. Sla/n go tamall, James Mundie, Philadelphia USA ------------------------------ From: Dan Wasserman Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 14:35:24 -0700 Subject: [Baren 635] woodblock for workshop Dear Don: The elementry ed. arts&crafts suppliers such as Nasco and Bradburns, probably Dick Blick on-line, sell cheap bass wood plaques for wood burning and decoupage. I have used these plaques as supports in egg tempera and gilding workshops, very creamy surface but not too large and will probably split sometime down the road... fine for teaching purposes though. ~dan ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 07:56:56 +0900 Subject: [Baren 636] Re: Patron Saints Jim Mundie wrote about patron saints ... > I found that St. John > of God is the patron of printers. An apparently unstable fellow, he was > reputed to be a hermit often seen to be walking about disheveled and > distracted muttering to himself. Can anyone in Baren identify? There is a very comprehensive web site on Patron Saints at: http://members.xoom.com/sjs/patron00.htm It mentions that John of God "... spent a wild youth ..." and had a " ... brief period of insanity ..." This sounds like our man! But then again, it lists his motto: "Labor without stopping. Do all the good works you can while you still have the time." His 'day' is March 8th. Can somebody remember this for next year ...? Here in Japan, various shrines and 'local' gods are dedicated to various trades and crafts. I've found something about the papermaker's 'god', but haven't turned up anything for printmakers yet. Next time I'm down at one of the craftsmen's association meetings, I'll see what I can turn up ... We need all the 'patronage' we can get! Dave ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 14:38:57 +0900 Subject: [Baren 637] Woods ... In the discussions that have gone back and forth on this forum about various woods, there have been numerous references to 'basswood'. I got my first chance to see this material a couple of weeks ago when I received a package of blocks carved on this wood. I was a bit puzzled as to just what wood this was, and when I showed it to Seki-san the printer, and later to a lumber dealer, neither could identify it. Then this afternoon, while browsing through a new (old) book on print- making, I came across the following passage: > Softwoods > The most useful softwoods are pine (clear, white, yellow or > parana pine - common pine is cheaper but contains more knots) > and poplar (known also as American whitewood or basswood). This book was written in England, about 20 years ago. Are poplar and basswood just different words for the same thing? Or does the word 'poplar' mean different things on different sides of the Atlantic? I have an American encyclopedia here that doesn't include the word 'basswood' but which says that "some species of poplar are also called aspen or cottonwood." Just what _is_ this basswood stuff, anyway? Dave ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:44:24 +0900 Subject: [Baren 638] Update Sorry about so many short postings today, but these things have come up one by one ... There is a new entry up on the Encyclopedia, an interesting and important new section ... but when some of you see it, you might be a bit upset at me. It's a 'Directory' of printmaker's web sites - containing a small 'capsule' of information on each person, along with the link to their site, and email address. I kept the information to a minimum, because I want the browsing to be simple and fast. But in addition to this, I wanted to let the people browsing the list know what kind of work to expect from each printmaker. So what I did was write into the code for each page, a link to a thumbnail image that already resides on that printmaker's web site. I _have not_ copied the images themselves, but have just created a 'visual link'. (Go over and take a look at it - it's easier to see than to describe: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~xs3d-bull/baren/encyclopedia/updates.html ) Is this a violation of copyright? I don't know. I didn't 'copy' anything, but just pointed the viewer to the location of the picture. Anyway, there it is. If any people on the list want me to remove their entry, of course I will do so instantly. There are also some 'blank spots' in the information, and I would appreciate it the people involved would fill me in with the details ... (and if you want me to use a different image, just let me know the URL of the one you want to see there ...) Dave ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V3 #128 ***************************