[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Friday, 27 November 1998 Volume 05 : Number 356 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Elizabeth Atwood Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 10:39:47 -0400 Subject: [Baren 2206] Re: Teaching aids ... Don wrote: >A fourth use: draw on top of the flawed impressions, sending the image in >a new direction using a different medium. Long ago in a class for photographic silk screen, one participant brought in a stack of failed etchings and proceeded to silkscreen other images on them. It was a very impressive experiment....with some really wonderful results. Nothing wasted.......and such fun!........ Eliz ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 11:20:14 -0600 Subject: [Baren 2207] re: Greetings To all Baren members: Have a great holiday and happy CARVINGS ! (joke). ------------------------------ From: Jean Eger Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 11:33:54 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2208] Re: Baren Digest V5 #355 More uses for flawed prints: Print your business card on the back of the print in your computer. Cut them up after printing to make the right size cards. Bind them together into a hand-made book. APPROPRIATE? or inappropriate?..... Gobble, gobble. I'm the turkey today. One of our members questioned my use of the word "appropriate" in reference to an exchange print. They said, if Roger's print is appropriate, then what is inappropriate? Well, I must apologize for that term. It certainly isn't an art word. Almost anything is appropriate in a print. But that puts me on the spot. If I say, "Good choice of subject matter," then should I be questioned about what would be bad choice of subject matter? Some of my art friends object to some subject matter being too saccherine or sentimental. But those terms have often been applied to "women's" art content. Not all art needs to be full of angst. The pleasure of depicting birds, bees, and flowers is evident in Asian art history. Perhaps my Western culture could learn a few things from the East. Your flames are welcomed. Happy turkey day. Jean Eger ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 13:18:02 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2209] Re: Baren Digest V5 #355 Jean wrote: > Happy turkey day. Not for the Turkey's Graham eh ------------------------------ From: Bill Ritchie Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 13:27:41 -0800 Subject: [Baren 2210] Re: Baren Digest V5 #355 Hi Bareners - Is that appropriate? Ha ha. Just Kidding. I like Jean Eger. I like her openness. I wonder if she's the same woman who was a very early creator of a Web site about printmaking. On use of terms, I don't consider myself an expert on terms, etc. but I do know the topic can occupy people for hours--sometimes years--and all with good will toward other people. I, too, used to look down my nose (which is a considerable distance in the opinion of some people who know the "Ritchie Nose." That reminds me, it was years before I realized they were remarking on my physical appearance. I thought they were commenting, "Ritchie knows." I was almost twenty years into college teaching before I realized the awful truth--that I didn't know. You have to learn to live with things like that--including art that's saccarine one decade and just right the next. Jon Cone pointed out to some people once about the term "fine art prints" that when you really get into the subject deeply--considera all the factors--it's likely to be found to be a marketing strategy on some person's part. Young people--I'm thinking school-age folks--are especially vulnerable in this area. Grown ups--like school teachers who barely have enough time to live--practice a kind of short-list of terms to survive the mysteries of art. I'm rambling a bit, but I think the Baren list and all that passes around it is a sign that art is alive and kicking, craft and design are part of it, as are the strategies and games that people play with one another. Someone said, "The trick is to take yourself and your work lightly." To those who observe Thanksgiving, I send my best wishes, and to those for whom every day is a day of thanksgiving, I send my good thoughts and feelings. Thank you, Jean, for your message. - - Bill ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 19:21:48 +0900 Subject: [Baren 2211] One-point Lesson ... Here is this week's 'One-point' lesson (contributed by Dave Bull) ********** ********** ********** (#31) Some 'bounce' in the woodblocks ... In order that the printing process can proceed as smoothly as possible, the woodblock must be placed in a firm stable manner on the bench. But as the reverse side of the block is frequently used for carrying a carved design, something must be placed on the bench to protect the wood. It may seem easy to simply place a cloth pad on the bench and then put the wood on top of this, but this is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. To stop the block from slipping around, the cloth may be dampened, but having the wood surface in contact with this moisture for hours at a time may result in the block warping, and will certainly result in the wood surface becoming a bit 'saturated', and difficult to print with later. More imporant than the moisture problems however, is the fact that a block placed on such a cloth loses all its 'bounce'. It becomes 'hard' and 'heavy', and one's arm soon becomes tired printing on such an immobile piece of wood. If however, the block is supported on the workbench not by a flat pad underneath, but by four small pads of cloth placed at the corners only, then it retains quite a bit of 'bounce'. You can actually feel the movement as the baren moves over the surface of the paper while printing, and the work is much less tiring, over the course of printing a large edition. Of course, the small pads must be moistened so that the block will not slide around, but this small amount of moisture will not affect the block significantly. ********** ********** ********** Next week - TBA ... 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. ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 19:25:31 +0900 Subject: [Baren 2212] Happy Birthday! May I quote from a message that appeared on [Baren] exactly one year ago this afternoon? >From: David Bull >Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 19:25:31 >Subject: [Baren 0] First Message ... > >Hear ye! Hear ye! (Fanfare ...) Today is hereby proclaimed as the >birthday of ... > >[Baren] - the mailing list / discussion forum devoted to woodblock >printmaking! > >(Fanfare ...) Yes, that was the first one - and [Baren] is now one year old ... More than 2200 messages ... spread over 365 days ... means that about 6 per day have come down the pipe into your Inboxes during that time. Has it been worth it? For me, the answer is an unequivocal 'Yes!' But I suspect that I may be a bit of a 'special' case; living in a foreign country as I do (and living alone as well) [Baren] obviously provides a very important link to the world for me. I feel in a very real sense that I am part of a printmaking community, and not simply working on my own all the time. How much of the content of those 2200 messages has been of direct real use to me in my work? It's hard to say - probably a very small percentage actually. Printmaking is quite a diverse endeavour, and I've chosen such a narrow path to walk ... But I don't think that 'information exchange' - finding that 'good tip' on how to do something - is the only point of this forum, perhaps not even the main point. I very much see a brighter future for woodblock printmaking. At various times in the past it played very important roles in societies around the world, and although it will never again be as indispensable to human communication as it was at one time, it can certainly - with help from things like this [Baren] forum - be revived to the point where it brings great pleasure to many more people than it currently does. Is that important? Again, I can only answer for myself. I really love these objects that we make, and I feel like a little kid ... "Look at this! Look at this!". Thanks for 'looking' [Baren] people, and thanks for your part in helping me have an interesting and productive year. What treats will the next year bring ...? Dave Bull ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V5 #356 ***************************