[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Saturday, 5 June 1999 Volume 07 : Number 584 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gayle Wohlken Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 09:20:58 -0400 Subject: [Baren 4527] Re: Baren Digest V7 #583 It's so nice having Graham and those little one liners back. I like the doctor one and the half wit one made me laugh so loud Jim called upstairs to see what was so funny. I think secretly he's enjoying the Baren forum but won't admit it. * * * Jan, is it the cherry that gives you the ability to get such detail in your woodcuts? I use poplar and it's rather soft to work with, but I don't see the kind of detail possible with it, that you get with the cherry. * * * Barbara, I know where I should be able to get the paper and I take these 30 mile trips into Cleveland and find they don't restock their supplies!!!! Which makes me mad. From now on I'm calling first. Gayle ------------------------------ From: Shimizu Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 11:19:46 -0400 Subject: [Baren 4528] Re: Fish As to Graham's search for information on preparing sharks, here is what Dave wrote back in March: - - chuck the dried out, rolled up skin (as it comes from the fish market) into the bathtub. - - Don't wait too long (I mean too many days ...), as it will start to decay and smell, but once it seems to have softened up enough, take it out, lay it skin down on a table, and start to clean off the left-over bits of flesh and cartilage from the inner surface. This is a difficult job, as that cartilage is _tough_ stuff. Try not to cut through the skin to the outside. Try to get the surface as generally flat as possible. - - While the skin is still wet and supple, glue/nail it down to thick plywood. This is a job for a lot of hands. Spread white glue all over the board and the inside of the skin, and slap it down in place. Use short, fat-headed nails or strong tacks, and fasten one side securely in place. Use plenty of nails, and stretch the skin out as you go. - -When one side is done, get all the hands you can gather to pull the skin out tight. While they are holding and pulling, go along the edges and nail it all down. - -Make sure that the skin is pressed down into the glue everywhere, and try and smooth out any bumpy places. - -Set it aside to dry - not not not out in the direct sunshine. This shark will _never_ again see the direct sun. Never. (If you put it out in the sun, it will shrink and pull away from the nails, and you'll have a h#@l of a time getting it smooth again.) - - That's it. After each use, set it aside to dry thoroughly before storing it away - someplace where it can get fresh air ... Good luck! Lynita ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 09:50:15 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4530] Re: Fish Thanks for the feed back from Jack and Lynita The best way to skin sharks is to outwit them at the poker table..... Actually there is a method that is awkward but fast....if that is possible. Cut the head off.... peel a small part at the cut line to enable you to grab it with pliers and then pull. The sharks here are called Dogfish, a small fish of about 2 feet long. The fishermen here use them to scrap paint off the boat and even to scrub the decks if they get grungy. Task this morning ...... well you know. Graham ------------------------------ From: Jack Reisland Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 07:54:39 +0000 Subject: [Baren 4533] Re: Fish Lynita wrote: > ...While the skin is still wet and supple, glue/nail it down to thick > plywood. This is a job for a lot of hands. Spread white glue all over > the board and the inside of the skin, and slap it down in place. Use > short, fat-headed nails or strong tacks, and fasten one side securely in > place. Use plenty of nails, and stretch the skin out as you go. I didn't have a lot of hands that were willing to grab and stretch that slimy fish skin, that's why I thought it would be easier to make stretching and gluing two separate steps. It also seemed like it could get a bit messy adding glue to the already slippery skin, and then trying to stretch it all at the same time, and I also wanted to use a waterproof glue. Maybe I just made it more complicated. Jack ------------------------------ From: amoss@mindspring.com (John Amoss) Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 15:54:04 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Baren 4534] gary's print Gary- There is a print of your on the eBAY online auction. See: It will be interesting to know how much the print will go for considering the "resale theory" and all of that. - -John ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 12:58:11 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4535] Re: Fish The Job is done. A couple of points worth passing on. The pulling the skin off works better from the tail end of the fish. The meat on the belly part stays attached to the skin so requires some cutting and scrapping to remove from the skin. The best way I found was to have a dull knife so you don't easily cut the skin, When you get almost all the meat of it is effective to scrape with the knive held almost at right angles to the skin. I have to agree with Jack about drying the skin. It is an easy matter to stretch and staple on a board. In order to use waterproof adhesive (Construction adhesive) in a tube is my choice. I will report back when I do this. I left the skins stapled to a board drying in the sun. They are just about dry after 3 hours. Over night in the garage and tomorrow I will stick 'em down. Then the big test.....here brush brush brush ...scratch the fishies back. Graham ------------------------------ From: John and Jan Telfer Date: Sat, 5 Jun 99 10:27:34 -0000 Subject: [Baren 4538] Re: Baren Digest V7 #583 Dear Graham, thank you for your welcome. Yes, it must be my accent! I have been experimenting with different papers for several reasons....this is my first trial with woodblocks using a baren as I used to use a press for lino printing. For My "Endeavour Lifelines" I used Kozo paper but Perth and Melbourne, and Australia ran out of Kozo paper before I completed my edition, and delivery here isn't quite as simple as you might think, ...so with an Exhibition looming and more blocks to print I decided to use BFK ("Pride of Australia") but that was too hard on my shoulders for big size blocks, so tried Fabriano (I think 120gms) and that works wonderfully with oil based ink and a baren and the wood grain really does show through. It is fabulous for me. It also takes gouache and calligraphy inks for my over writing with calligraphy so in future, I may stick with that for the present. I have tried waterbased inks and multiple blocks and have three in my work shed after doing a workshop with a Japanese woodblock printer living here in Fremantle called Emmi N...(I can't remember her spelling). I am hoping to get Emmi to join Baren with me. Yes the cleaning is easier and I may switch between the two. We'll see. We can buy a rice starch paste to mix with water colour pigments for these. Hiroshi Tomihari had his Exhibition Opening tonight and many of the woodblocks were of his earlier works from 1960 to 1990. Gallery East had an Exhibition of his recent works two years ago. He should be very pleased with the response tonight. Mainly black and white contemporary oil based prints. Cheers, Jan ------------------------------ From: Gregory Robison Date: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 13:42:16 +0300 Subject: [Baren 4539] print exchange Kampala, 5 June 1999 What a relief, in every sense, to have finished my exchange print yesterday... I have been reading with great interest the discussion on wood types, and myself deliberately employed different varieties on each of the five blocks I used to see what local species might work: Nkalate, Muvule, Cypress, Elgon Olive (from the Rwenzori Mountains), Mahogony... Problem was, since this was my first-ever woodcut, I'm not sure what the right 'feel' is, or whether minor splintering, etc., is due to the wood or to my own inept handling of the tools (or to the inappropriateness of the tools themselves). In any case, I'm bringing the blocks to Graham's workshop so that the Wise One can ply the reverse side of these blocks with his own knives and I can give me an opinion. I am in awe of those who said they printed an run of 30 then decided to start over and do another... How do you have time to change diapers? Go to the school play? To soccer matches? .... Greetings to the newbies. And by the way, thanks Dave for clarifying the polarity-of-paper question regarding Masa. I decided to use it for the exchange print. Whatever else the critics may say, at least they'll be forced to admit, "well, he DID print on the correct side of the paper at least!" Gregory Robison ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 21:02:42 +0900 Subject: [Baren 4540] Re: print exchange Greg wrote: > ... and myself deliberately employed different varieties on each > of the five blocks I used to see what local species might work: Nkalate, > Muvule, Cypress, Elgon Olive (from the Rwenzori Mountains), Mahogony... Interesting experiment, and we would like a 'report' on how they each turned out (not that we could _get_ these woods even if we wanted them ...). But this idea of using different wood for each colour block in a print is certainly a recipe for registration trouble. I guess if you're only going to pull a few prints, and then 'shelve' them, it's no big deal, but it seems quite likely that these woods would have different shrinkage rates - as time goes by they will age and distort in different ways, throwing the registration completely out of whack. Pulling further editions in the future will be problematic I think. *** Barbara wrote: > We certainly do need a list with the > member and country........When you come up for air one of these days > Dave, can you find the time to do this? Unfortunately Barbara, I don't really have enough information for this. Some of the members' email addresses show the country clearly, Horatio's for example, but a great many of them do not, mine for example. Until people identify themselves 'out in the open', I just don't know where they are at ... I _do_ know that these places are all represented: Japan USA Puerto Rico UK Australia New Zealand Uganda (via the US) Canada Austria Indonesia Brazil Israel Jeanne mentioned the idea of having an actual face-to-face convention one day, but for the life of me, I don't see how this could come about. I've heard about various little get-togethers of a few members here and there, and of course Graham's upcoming workshop is almost a mini-convention for [Baren], but considering that woodblock printmakers are not generally the richest people on the block, it seems difficult to arrange a real world-wide get together. The largest single concentration of members seems to be on the east coast of the US, from Maine down to Florida ... perhaps 'somewhere' in there would be the most suitable location to try it ... Of course, any of you are welcome to drop in here at [Baren] central in Hamura anytime! (No Marnie to run a B&B for you though, I'm sorry ...) Dave ------------------------------ From: "Jeanne N. Chase" Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 08:53:55 -0400 Subject: [Baren 4541] Re: print exchange Really Dave I was just kidding about a convention. It would be wonderful to meet all 91 members though. Also impossible due to all the various countries that are represented. We will just have to be content with our Baren , our Bar 'En and our Exchanges. Also the times that a few of us can get together via workshops etc. Thanks for the rundown on the countries. Someone said "I LOVE THIS GROUP", Same for me!!!!! Jeanne ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V7 #584 ***************************