[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Saturday, 10 October 1998 Volume 05 : Number 308 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ramsey Household Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 07:19:56 -0700 Subject: [Baren 1844] Re: Cutting up in Virginia April wrote: > I hope Dave will be able to post them for all to enjoy > once we complete the project. Yes!!!!! Carolyn, ------------------------------ From: StudioJNC@aol.com Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 14:45:47 EDT Subject: [Baren 1845] Aiko's Julio I am waiting tor the other shoe to drop. Am waiting for chapter 10 in your story. Did you buy out Aiko.s? Did they tow away your car? Does your story end? Welcome to Wanda from Oregon {a beautiful state} and Angela from South Carolina. You will find all kinds of great information from the Baren group, plus a lot of stimulating people. Tip; I know a lot of you pros out there know this already BUT, I discovered that a package of darning needles works beautifully to gently slide all of those pesky slivers of wood out of the incised lines. They come in all sizes to a package and the price is right. Jeanne ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 13:55:02 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 1846] Re: New Member Intro Angela, Welcome on board...... The reductive process sure is a challenge for the stand point that you get what you get on the first print pass. Cutting away the original plate kind of makes changes a littlllle difficult. I cherish my plates and just can't bring myself to deface them down to the smallest of areas. Some of my plates are pictures onto themselves. I'm sure you will have some laughs and get lots of info here.... Graham I thought it was indian summer all winter in South Carolina? ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 16:06:20 -0500 Subject: [Baren 1847] re: Aiko's Trip, Part 3 Welcome to Wanda & Angela. Well, for those of you who wandered how my trip to Aiko's ended.......... As I browsed my way back toward the front of the shop I was approached by a young clerk by the name of "Chuck". Chuck looks/is part japanese (is that the correct way to phrase that ?), anyways , as I soon found out Chuck knows a lot about printing and about the japanese papers they stock. I indicated that I was interested in purchasing some paper for woodblock prints. He guided me to the first section with all the hand-made "white/creamy " rolls of paper. The good part is that you can touch and smell (yes, I smelled some of the paper samples, don't know what made me do this!). Some of the papers seemed awfully thin to the touch, others too heavy. Some resembled your typical american made watercolor paper with no distinguishing characteristics. And then there were others....that were just beautiful ! Beautiful to look at and to touch. I pulled a few rolls out and sampled thru the sheets to check quality thru the batch. The price range was between $4.00 a sheet for the Torinoko to $19.00 a sheet for some great looking "Gampi" paper. Their Nishinouchi-like paper was under a different name (escapes me now ) and was priced at approx. $13.40 a sheet. To be quite honest, I had brought a list of paper selections with me for comparison, but the names did not quite match up. After a while I let my senses guide me in selecting a few assorted sheets. My objective was to find a suitable paper for my Baren exchange print. With this in mind I chose to pick a variety of samples for proofing. Chuck was quite helpful in indicating differences in absorvancy and shrinkage between the papers. He also indicated his favorite ones. I let the "look & feel" of the paper guide my selections. I bought some sheets of Fuji natural (#249), Takenaga (#104), Torinoko white (#105) and some Mingei sized (#242). I don't know if this catalog numbers match other catalogs out there. The Fuji paper has a creamy color and the characteristic lines from the forms used to create the paper. After we were done with the papers we discussed the other tools available (there was a knive there that was in desperate need of a new home; Mine!) and I asked him about barens. He said that they don't have any on display but that they do have a person who custom makes them on order. I inquired further about this and eventually he brought me out a "sample". The baren had a bamboo cover and is/was about 5-5.5 " in diameter. The wrapping was not as neat as some I have seen in books, but it was certainly more advanced than others. I inquired if this particular one was spoken for. Chuck said that I could have that one as it had been brought in for display by the maker. The asking price was $11.00 and I was the proud owner of a new baren. You can see a (big) picture of it on my new web site ( www.skokienet.org/skyouth/syjcrp1.html) under the "Prints" section. He mentioned that the maker has quite a selection available with the high-end at around $200.00. I am sure what I got was a student level baren, but yet it looks and feels quite nice, and after all, I am a "student". I will let you know how the printing goes. As I took out my visa card and paid for my purchases I remembered my "blinking" car outside and decided that I had pushed-my-luck enough. It was time to go. This was a dificult trip for me, because of the one week's anticipation. In one hand I wanted to purchase everything in the store, and yet I knew that I needed to proceed with caution. There will be other trips!!!!! Oh, by the way.....the CUBS lost to the BRAVES and got eliminated from the playoffs....that means....NO TRAFFIC THIS SATURDAY ! Thanks to all that stuck around for putting up with this story! JULIO ------------------------------ From: April Vollmer/John Yamaguchi Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 21:58:49 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1848] Kunc and Frankenthaler In response to the question about Karen Kunc and Helen Frankenthaler, I know Karen, and she is a terriffic printmaker. She does very complex reduction cuts using stencils to get many many colors. Oil base, abstract organic forms, very beautiful. A great person, too, she teaches in Lincoln Nebraska and also teaches workshops occasionally here in NYC, which is where I met her. She does all her own printing and the printmaking process is part of how she develops her images. (A key consideration for print artists in my estimation!) Helen Frankenthaler has some nice woodcuts, too. Evocative, pale colors, abstract expressionist (she was from an older generation than Karen), I believe they are oil base, too, but the big difference is that she worked with master printers to create her large scale woodcuts, and her main medium was painting. April Vollmer ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 11:09:21 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1849] Teachers ... Kim wrote: >I have lost track of the number of "master >calligraphers" who have passed through, teaching workshops, and are >subject to idolatry from some members. I have seen so many of my peers >struggle against this sense of tradition ... Did you see the comment on this by Robert Fulghum in his book 'Maybe (Maybe Not)'? He said: > I wore two buttons on my smock when I was teaching art. One said, > "Trust me, I'm a teacher." The other replied, "Question Authority." *** Julio wrote: > I have been working on a web site ... Thanks for showing us this Julio ... now we'll all be waiting to see how you fill up the 'Prints' section. I hope your new tools from Aiko's will be busy soon. *** Jeanne wrote: > I discovered that a package of darning needles works beautifully > to gently slide all of those pesky slivers of wood out of the > incised lines. I'm sorry to show my ignorance by asking, 'What is a darning needle?' Fat, thin, long, short ...? The tool that a lot of the carvers here use for that job is a broken-off and sharpened needle taken from a sewing machine. (Inserted into a wooden handle for ease of use ...) *** New member Angela wrote: >Until now my primary way of working with woodcuts has been in >using the reductive process. I am brand new at the Japanese technique >and welcome all the info any may wish to share. Hello Angela, and 'thanks' to Jeanne for turning you on to [Baren]. But I detect a slight misconception in your comments. It sounds as though you have the impression that [Baren] is about 'the Japanese technique'. Not so. [Baren] is quite happy to discuss/learn about _any_ woodblock technique. _We're_ waiting for you to tell us about reduction prints! *** I went to see the case maker yesterday afternoon. I spent most of the session discussing and planning the packaging for my own new project, but of course also talked about a case for the [Baren] exchange. He made a sketch of what looks like a pretty reasonable case for the prints, and he will make up a sample and send it over in a week or two, along with a price quote. I'll put up a photo and some info as soon as I receive it ... The only small problem for me, is that I have to tell him how 'deep' the case is to be. Anybody got any suggestions on this? Most of you are going to be using western papers, and I have no experience with these (I don't have samples here or anything ...) Would some of you please do some experiments shuffling and stacking paper up, and give me some estimates on what a suitable case depth for 29 _printed_ sheets (not raw unused paper) would be? (Send me your 'answers' off-list ...) Thanks Dave B. ------------------------------ From: Daniel Kelly Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 13:35:51 +0000 Subject: [Baren 1850] Re: Kunc and Frankenthaler April Vollmer wrote: > In response to the question about Karen Kunc and Helen Frankenthaler ... > Helen Frankenthaler has some nice woodcuts, too. ,..... but the big > difference is that she worked > with master printers to create her large scale woodcuts, and her main > medium was painting. I'll throw in my two bits to say that if both of the artists are fine and if the main difference is a master printer or using the printmaking process to develop images then the process doesn't matter. In my estimation print process gets in the way of making fine art because aesthetics are not based on techniques.. Its the reason printmakers are generally inferior artists to say painters. If you don't know what to say then thinking of how you form words is hardly the way to create a sentence is it? D. ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 16:59:29 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1851] 'One-point' lesson Here is this week's 'One-point' lesson (contributed by Dave Bull) ********** ********** ********** (#26) Protecting the paper from 'sagging'. The general 'rule' to follow when carving away the waste wood around an area that is being left in relief, is to remove all the wood out to a distance of 'yubi sanbon' (three fingers laid side-by-side). I guess in real language, that works out to about 4~5 centimeters. Occasionally though, if the relief areas are spaced at around 10 centimetres apart, this means that the excavated areas that surround each relief area run into each other, and a fairly wide 'empty' space is thus created. During the printing process, if the paper is quite moist, and/or quite thin, it may sag into this space and pick up blotches of pigment. One common device that printers here in Japan use to avoid such soiling of the print, is the use of a small roll of paper taped to the block right in the middle of the empty area. If this roll is placed so that its 'top' is just at the level of the relief areas, it will act as a support for the paper. Why a roll of paper, instead of simply leaving an uncarved 'island' of wood there? Because this little roll is soft and flexible, and thus when the baren unavoidably moves over it during printing, it does not leave an impressed mark on the paper, as a wooden island does. If the top of the roll becomes accidentally soiled by the brushing process, it is just a moment's work to roll up and tape a new one in place ... *** Editor's note: A photograph of this procedure is shown in the copy of this lesson that is stored in the Encyclopedia. ********** ********** ********** Next week - To be (matted) or not to be (matted), that is the question ... These 'One-point' lessons are being collected into a section in the [Baren] Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking. http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/updates.html Contributions from experienced printmakers for future 'One-pointers' are eagerly solicited. ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V5 #308 ***************************