[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Monday, 5 July 1999 Volume 08 : Number 618 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gary Luedtke Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 09:55:10 -0400 Subject: [Baren 4836] More on the Boot Camp Graham, Very nice work on the "Boot Camp" page. I'm impressed. Your block easels are an interesting idea. What is "Rug Hug"? Are those the rubberized woven strips like you put on your floor to keep the rugs from sliding? Quite another good idea for use with blocks. Looking forward to your new sharpening page, the one on baren-tying instruction was excellent! Gary ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 07:18:44 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4837] Re: More on the Boot Camp gary wrote >What is "Rug Hug"? Are those the >rubberized woven strips like you put on your floor to keep the rugs from >sliding? Yep. Graham ------------------------------ From: Cucamongie@aol.com Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 10:23:27 EDT Subject: [Baren 4838] Re: Baren Digest V8 #616 Congratulations Hideshi! Jean: I love the story about you with the kids! I'm sure you were a wonderful inspiration to them as well. to Graham & those who took Graham's workshop, I love hearing all the info & stories! I'm going to bite the bullet & try my hand at recovering my baren (as soon as I receive the new skins from McClains), which I'm finally forced into because the bamboo is so split it's creating marks on my prints! best to all from sweaty NYC, Sarah ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 07:49:12 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4839] Covering your Baren Sarah wrote.... > I'm going to bite the bullet & try my hand at recovering my baren May I suggest you practice using something that is kind of the desity or weight of the bamboo sheath. I would think a thick piece of brown kraft paper would do fine. The kind that the big paper shopping bags are made from. Get the hang-a of it then go for the real thingie. Almost afraid to mention this.....last night we had the heating pad with us in bed.....gawd is it cold up here. 10" of snow on the mountain pass a day ago The weather man tells us that summer will be here on July 6th and will finish on July 5th. Graham ------------------------------ From: "John/Michelle Morrell" Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 12:43:14 -0800 Subject: [Baren 4843] Canadian Hori dai, etc. Graham-- Your Canadain hori dai totally intrigues me as I have never seen anything like it before. Where did you get it, and if it is home made, how did you rig the supports in back? It looks like an easel that could take some pressure perhaps, but it somehow needs not to slip backwards when you press upon it. Will you tell us more? Juan Guerrero-- Your web site is very exciting, and I am looking forward to seeing what you do printing since the pieces on the site have such wonderful areas of color and color variation. - --Michelle Morrell ------------------------------ From: April Vollmer/John Yamaguchi Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 20:42:15 -0400 Subject: [Baren 4844] Hands on Welcome to Australia and Mexico! I wanted to join Ray Hudson in thanking baren exchangers for the great teaching tool. I also used Exchange #1 in my class at the Lower East Side Printshop, very inspiring! Great class pics, Graham! So glad to hear John Amoss's report, too. It sounds fabulous. And you are right, John, as much as you read and study Japanese hanga wooducut, there is really no substitute for working with a teacher. (which makes me more impressed with your exchange print!) It's just the nature of the technique, it is COMPLICATED! I have been printing and teaching hanga for years now, but I feel like a beginner when I meet a printer from Japan. Which I had the pleasure of doing this weekend. Hiroshi Maruyama who teaches woodcut in Aichi, Japan, visited my studio. What a nice guy! He prints in oil and waterbase. He graciously re-covered my baren for me with the one sheath I had in the studio. I have a real baren I mail ordered from Japan, and after printing an edition of 25 x 4 colors, it was full of holes. I carefully watched Hiroshi re-cover, but it is still hard to see exactly what he did. A lot has to do with a feeling for the material that is hard to describe, even if you do speak English! Lucky for me, Graham had sent me some bamboo sheaths which arrived the NEXT DAY, so after checking Graham's website description again, I tried it myself. Well, it's not NEARLY as neat and tight as the one Hiroshi did for me, but I get the general idea. I really didn't understand the shape of the thing until I got my hands involved. Thank you so much Graham! How can I ever thank you...I know, send money! (I have to get to a foreign exchange place for Canadian dollars, banks won't do it! Sorry to be slow, but Americans have trouble dealing with other currencies.) April Vollmer ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 09:40:50 +0900 Subject: [Baren 4845] Updates ... Just a short note: my girls are getting busy with their summer job, and the first result is ready ... a new addition to the Encyclopedia, a 'photo-essay' on gradation printing. http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/updates.html *** A whole bunch of new 'subscriptions' to [Baren] this week ... including email addresses from .au .mx .pk ... we're really getting to be a worldwide group! Welcome to the new members, and I hope we will be able to see examples of your work soon. *** For me right now though, it's back to the blocks ... still a couple of days work left on the current 'surimono' print ... Dave ------------------------------ From: BHearn2001@aol.com Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 21:03:27 EDT Subject: [Baren 4846] Re: Baren Digest V8 #617 I too have ordered a baren from Graham and will "tanga with the hanga" at April's workshop. Now, for the next step, who is Graham's pigment man? Life is interesting if you're an artist. Barbara Hearn ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 21:43:28 -0400 Subject: [Baren 4849] Updates ... Dave, >... a new addition to the Encyclopedia, a 'photo-essay' on gradation printing." Nice addition to the Encyclopedia, Dave. I also saw something in there I have not seen before and wondered if you concocted that yourself, or can obtain it that way. That is the 9 ply block seen in those photos. The top and bottom laminates appear to be approx. 1/4 inch while the center ones appear to be maybe 3/32 of an inch, giving you two carving surfaces of sufficient depth before running into the underlying laminates. Can you obtain your blocks this way or do you laminate your own? What type of wood is the surface, cherry? Gary ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 21:01:46 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4852] Re: Canadian Hori dai, etc. Michelle Morrell wrote.... >Your Canadain hori dai totally intrigues me ... > Will you tell us more? Necessity is the mother of invention. When I found my neck and back screaming after a few hours at carving I designed the thingie. I made 5 of them for the workshop. Never heard one complaint about sore backs. Two piece of plywood 1/2" thick about 16' x 16" (the units I made for the workshop had a smaller bottom board as is obvious in the site image) The size should be to suit the size of plates one works on. The one I use is 30" x 30"...a big devil...as I do some 32" plates. The two are hinged using a piano hinge. In the top piece holes are drilled about 3" apart in all directions and wooden dowel pegs inserted to hold the plate. The rug hug add more holding power and protect the back of the plate. On the bottom board there is a stop hook 16 x 1/2 screwed along the front edge so it will hold the unit along the front edge of the table. You can see this in the image. The support bracket is a 1/4 piece of chromed wire. Any heavy wire or rod will work. (I have made these support out of a piece of wood.) It bent in a vise. There is a 1" bend that fits into a drill hole on the side. The other end is pointy and simple sticks into the bottom board. Caution .... make sure this bracket is beyond the half way point in the top board other wise it will be tippy when carving the top part of your plate. That's it.... Have fun Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 21:12:35 -0700 Subject: [Baren 4853] Re: Updates ... >http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/updates.html Dave, This is a neat way to get good control of a small bokashi. I have seen Noboru Sawai do very small areas .... all with a small 'hang bake'. I just bet your way is much more control. thanks Graham ------------------------------ From: John Ryrie Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 16:52:31 +1000 Subject: [none] Thank you all for your welcome, In response to the question about ink I use oil based inks. My Proofing Press is self inking and any water near it would course rust. I used to use water based inks wen I hand rubbed the prints in the days before I got the press. Though I have always used a roller. In the European method. I have always been interested in the prints of Japan but have not had the opportunity of studying their technique. I have not got a web sight because I have only been on the Internet a short time and don't yet know how to go about getting one yet. Juan I went to you web page and was very impressed am looking forward to seeing your woodcuts. Bill I went to the page for Scrolling the page and the entry doesn't seem to be free. John ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V8 #618 ***************************