[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Monday, 28 September 1998 Volume 04 : Number 295 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steiner Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 22:34:10 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1770] kim rolling in paste from Richard Steiner, Kyoto Kim, let me put in a few words regarding the paste most of us in Japan use for printing with watercolor based pigments. It is a starch paste, the same used by housewives for starching their washing, or by little children for gluing things to TV set screens and other annoying places. We buy it at supermarkets. The same stuff can be made by boiling down to a paste-like substance either rice or potatoes. Add a little water, smooth the mixture out and you have paste for woodblock printmaking. Actually, we buy the stuff in 4 kilo sacks already prepared and dilute it to our needs. Do you remember the library paste used in grade schools, the gunk we kids used to eat when the teacher wasn't looking because it had a sweet taste? It is the same. Works just great. Some printmakers don't like it because, they say, it adds a gray cast to all the other colors. That has never been my experience. Besides, the ukiyo-e men used it, and so did Hiroshi and his son, my second hanga teacher, Toshi Yoshida. Anyway, one wouldn't use that much in the first place. Dilute it with warm water until it slowly drips from the end of a chopstick, or butter knife. That ought to be the basic consistency you can use for nearly all your printing. As Dave wrote, watercolor based printmakers don't used rollers. The brushes we use are horsetail and mighty fine tools. As for keeping the pigment out of the finely carved lines (I assume that was what the problem was), after brushing the color on the board, ie., the portions that are to be printed, lightly even out the pigment by drawing the brush across the printing area in one direction, like a farmer going back and forth over his field. And do this "plowing" in the direction opposite to the grain of the board. This is crucial and shouldn't be neglected. After that, tip your brush at a 45 degree angle to the board and very lightly clean out those finely cut lines. After a few tries, you'll get the hang of all this; it really isn't hard, but it sure is important. Transparent colors are made by adding water. Forget the roller, Kim, go with the brush. You'll never go back. Steiner, Kyoto ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 07:46:47 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1771] Print exchange info ... I've started to get replies from my request the other day for information about the print exchange ... It seems quite a number of you haven't yet decided on the actual title of your print. Don't worry about that just yet. I won't be drawing up the colophon page until just before the publishing date, so there is still lots of time for that. For now, just write 'undecided' or something like that for the title, and then resubmit the form again later when you've decided. What I _do_ need fairly soon though, is your feedback on whether or not you will be interested in the storage case. So please visit the page and give me _that_ info ... http://www.woodblock.com/forum/request.html Thanx ... Dave B. ------------------------------ From: Daniel Kelly Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 10:22:00 +0000 Subject: [Baren 1772] Re: kim rolling in paste Steiner wrote: > from Richard Steiner, Kyoto > few words regarding the paste most of us in Japan ......is a starch paste, I wonder if wheat paste, commonly used in the rest of the world for the same purposes, wouldn't work just fine to add viscosity to the water based pigments. Is this not what Richard is referring to? And as a side note, I know that with rice paste in a mixture it is possible to roll on pigments if that's what you prefer.I've met professionals who a roller in some cases. But mostly we use brushes here because we have more control over the application. A lighter touch, a brush loaded heavy on one end, etc., etc. all offer variation to the ink on the plate. D. ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V4 #295 ***************************