[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Monday, 22 March 1999 Volume 06 : Number 499 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Schneider Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 14:28:43 +0100 Subject: [Baren 3688] Re: brush soaking ... David Bull wrote: > Welcome to Michael from Austria. I must admit that when I read on your > page that you don't use knives but use stones instead I was somewhat > shocked. I can understand this reaction, it was a usual response I earned in japan and sometimes also in europe. I belive that one reason for this is that over the centurys woodcut has developed a kind of catalouge of aesthetic criterias and my way of "carving" the wood does not really fit into this catalouge. The reason I started to search for a different way to work the wood in the first place was that after some years of practise my prints became to elegant to represent my intentions. > But when I tried to access further pages on your site, the ones where > you describe your technique, I wasn't able to proceed, due to many > browser errors. (Did anybody else have a better experience?) I am sorry to have caused some browsers to crasch. I forgot to mention that this part of my page needs Netscapes Navigator 4.x to be viewed. MS Explorer does not accept the javascripts I used. Jack Reisland wrote: > As I understood it, he is using stone knives or tools to carve or chip the > block instead of the usual metal tools. An interesting idea. I wonder, Michael, > do you chip your own tools? I went out searching for stones that have a natural form that makes them suitable as tools. But some of them needed to be shaped a little bit before they really did the job. Joe wrote: > Is there a point when soaking one's brush is necessary? If so when and how > often? In my experience it is better to start with a dry brush. As the brush takes water, paste and pigment in the way of printing, it is important to keep the mixture the same over the time it takes to print the edition. This is in accordance to what Dave wrote: "a dry brush worked up to a "loaded" point is the preferred method". If your brush is soaked before it makes it more difficult to control this as it is already "loaded" with water. michael ps: Hello to Graham Hall, seems this group is growing fast. ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 07:21:38 -0800 Subject: [Baren 3689] Re: Exchange sign-ups ... >Gentlemen ... and ladies ... start your engines! David, David, David It's .....Ladies and gentlemen ... start your engines! Graham. Do I get brownie points or what..... ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 07:54:27 -0800 Subject: [Baren 3690] Welcome Graham (<' Welcome to the *block* ...kid.... {<:) It so nice to have another Graham on board. Now if we play this right Graham we should be able to have fun. We can write thingies and with careful dodging around, they (Baren) will get muddled as to who wrote who and what when where and why. Hmmm, I don't think I need your help as I think on it! >we already have a very vocal 'Graham' on the list - Who, Moi! I'm vocal but not sure as heck not verbose. Sweet and short kind of guy. >we'll have to be careful not to get confused ... You see its working already..... Just had some friends return from your country after a 6 month visit and they loved it there. It is a country that has always held a fascination for me. >the most recent series dealing with >gluttony and using the hedgehog as the symbol. Ray, you have lots of material to work with for Graham's nickname. Your series sounds most intriguing. Anxious to see it. Regards, Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 08:07:54 -0800 Subject: [Baren 3691] Re: brush soaking ... To all...as usual. On soaking brushes to start. I was advised to do this when learning the sport. This procedure ruined a brush. The wood split down the centre and the hair departed leaving me with a brush with most of the hair gone in the middle of the brush. Now my procedure is to run a little water on the brush and immediately shake it clean. I recently have been using a devise that enables me to spin the brush very fast. This removes the wetness yet the brush remains just damp. I work the paste and ink into the brush by inking and pulling a impression from the plate using junk paper...newsprint works....until the brush and plate become primed to the right amount. In this way the first print is the same as the last print... Regards, Graham ------------------------------ From: April Vollmer/John Yamaguchi Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 12:32:12 -0400 Subject: [Baren 3692] Vital but Poisonous I havn't checked mail in a mere two days, and am overwhelmed how much mail I have! Welcome new members from Austria and New Zealand! Jack thank you for your report on Hawaii. Ray H. enjoyed reading your description of your printing process. It is nice to be reminded about the Chinese tradition! Similar, but so different. Do you leave all the pages weighted down through all the printings? Then slide each successive block into some sort of jig on the table? I am also surprised to hear the paper is thin and unsized. I have some unsized Japanese caligraphy paper. I wonder if I could try that. Very nice paper, but very thin. Dave, I have one of the white plastic $30 "student grade" barens from Daniel Smith. Its okay for small areas. Is that what you mean? The cardboard ones totally uslesss, and I have also had the experience of artists saying they have a baren only to discover they were trying to use those toys. I think Elaine who sells barens at McClain's (1-800-832-4264) is probably very glad that Dam Smith doesn't have time to devote to our esoteric artform! (I assume their oilbase ink is pretty good? Sounds like they have put some effort into that.) Marco, working with dry pigment is a problem, it's very hard to get it to mix evenly in water. And yes, Lynita, like Kim says, DO take those labels seriously!!! Powdered pigment is very easy to inhale, and many are very poisonous. Easier and safer to use water dispersions!!! You may need to mull dry pigment with a glass mueller. Also a wetting agent to break the surface tension of the water. Pigment disperions are much easier! Also: the mucillage (rice paste/methyl cellulose) is NOT PART OF THE COLOR. It should be mixed on the block as needed to make printing smooth. And Agatha, the trick of hanga is to feel out exactly the right amount of color that will print well...practice, practice! As Dave says about water in printing: Vital but Poisonous. As in life, it's all about balance! April Vollmer ------------------------------ From: amoss@mindspring.com (John Amoss) Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 14:04:26 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Baren 3693] re: brush soaking Hey y'all- Dave's one point lesson mentioning the use of dry or damp printing brushes prompted me to ask: My watercolor experience dictates that unless you soak the brush in water first, the pigments will creep into the ferrel and ultimately ruin the brush. Dave's use of a dry brush leads me to think that the pigments used by him are a great deal less "wet" than most watercolor applications. But then I remember him mentioning once that his pigment resembles the consistency of tea.... also mentioned was that the Yoshidas used a lot of water. I'm sure that the water/pigment ratio is dictated by the intended effect, but -always- a dry/damp brush? Should I conclude that only the tips of the brush hairs are saturated? Also, you have to soak the brush to wash it, right? The lesson is much appreciated, Dave! Hello to all new members- many great new additions lately! - -John (wet behind the hairs) Amoss ------------------------------ From: Jack Reisland Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 11:18:20 +0000 Subject: [Baren 3694] tea-like pigment John Amoss wrote: > Dave's use of a dry brush leads me to think that the pigments used by him > are a great deal less "wet" than most watercolor applications. But then I > remember him mentioning once that his pigment resembles the consistency of > tea.... Which brings up my question, is that steeped tea, or cha-no-yu green tea, which is almost creamy? Jack Reisland ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 08:16:42 +0900 Subject: [Baren 3695] Re: brush soaking John wrote: > My watercolor experience dictates that unless you soak the brush in water > first, the pigments will creep into the ferrel and ultimately ruin the brush. In watercolour work though, I think (am I wrong?) that you use the same brush for a number of colours. If any pigment gets up there at the base of the hairs, it will later come down and spoil a different colour. In printmaking, we have a different brush for each colour - one that is used for 'red' is never used for 'yellow' ... So it's not a problem to have pigment that has migrated 'up there'. > But then I > remember him mentioning once that his pigment resembles the consistency of tea.... Was this in that selection of newspaper columns I wrote about printmaking? http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~xs3d-bull/how-to/articles.html The particular print I was using as an example in those columns used extremely delicate colour - it was a sheet to be used as notepaper for writing letters. In general, the stuff I swab over to my block is more like Jack's Hawaiian volcano mud ... > Should I conclude that only the tips of the brush hairs are saturated? After a few minutes work, the entire body of the brush gets full of the gunk. That's what allows the impressions to be consistent from one to the next. If the brush was nearly 'empty' each time, you would never get the prints to look alike. > Also, you have to soak the brush to wash it, right? I hold just the hair portion under the tap, facing down, and rub it into my opposite palm a bit, until most of the pasty stuff is out. I make no attempt to try and get all the pigment out, and try to keep the water away from the wood as much as possible. It _is_ sometimes necessary to get the thing wet, when rubbing on the sharkskin for example, the water gets driven right up into the wood. But if you keep it generally dry as a matter of principle, it should last a whole lot longer. Jack asked: > Which brings up my question, is that steeped tea, or cha-no-yu green tea, > which is almost creamy? That print was made with Earl Grey, I think! *** April wrote: > Dave, I have one of the white plastic $30 "student grade" barens from > Daniel Smith. Its okay for small areas. Is that what you mean? The > cardboard ones totally uslesss, No, the plastic ones can actually work quite well. For me, I find that I can't hold them properly because of that large plastic handle on top, but they can pull a good impression. It's the ridiculous cardboard things they were selling that got me upset ... *** I have notices from the list server this morning that there were some problems with the 'net during a two hour period last night, and some [Baren] mail has been lost. I have no idea which messages didn't make it to which people, but when you check the sequence numbers, you will be able to see if you missed something. I have a complete set here, and will be putting them into the archive later today, so you will be able to find the information there. As for After Five, as there is no archive, you'll have to give Ray a jog, and he will forward them to you. Sorry about that! Dave ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V6 #499 ***************************