[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Thursday, 2 September 1999 Volume 08 : Number 687 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gary Luedtke Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 22:18:14 -0400 Subject: [Baren 5574] Re: what's going on ? Barb wrote, >Gary, This is a great idea, but will it be a lot of extra >work for Dave? Can we do it without taking any of his time?" Well, Barb, I don't know. Probably not since he is the Baren owner and operator. Dave, probably more than anyone perhaps would know the shortcuts to doing that if there are any. I see it as somewhat of a "classifieds" page/ bulletin board, but I think Dave would have to set it up, unless anyone else out there knows enough about setting up this sort of thing so it could just be sent to Dave to post already formatted. Perhaps another option would be if someone else out there is operating a web-page who could be linked to Baren, and all submissions would be sent to that person to post. Then the other Bareners would go to the Baren page and on to the Bulletin board much as any of our links from Baren lead to our own pages from the "Who is Baren?" page. A possible advantage for someone to do this is the increase in traffic it might generate to their site. Dave, if you're back, and not in shock, what's your advice? We know _you_ don't need any more to do, is there a simple and painless way to do this? Anyone else have any suggestions? Gary ------------------------------ From: Bea Gold Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 19:20:28 -0700 Subject: [Baren 5575] Re: what's going on ? Hi Julio, The one I know of coming up is very soon - "Relativities" 4th British International MINIATURE Print Exhibit - ELIGIBILITY - all artist - can submit 3 works - will be shown 10 venues - 2 years - IMAGE AREA - max - 70 sq cms (10.8 sq in) 7x10cm, 5x12.5cm, 8x8cm - 2.7x4 in - 3x3in - 2x5 in - PAPER SIZE - not less than 1.5 in - not more than 4in - paper can be trimmed to fit frames ENTRY FEE - 6 pounds - $10 to enter - 10 pounds more if selected SENDING IN - should arrive at OFF- CENTER GALLERY - 13 Cotsworth Road, Bristol BS3 4NX., Tel/fax 0117 987 2647 - international +44 117 987 2647 - between August 1st (a little late) and Sept 23rd - LIABILITY - no responsible for loss or damage -PRICING/SALES - 40% taken SELECTION/NOTIFICATION - juried - notified end of October, - selected work may be reproduced for catalog - PRIZES - cash and feature in magazine Printmaking Today RETURN OF PRINTS - not selected end of 1999 - Unsold work end of tour - Feb 2002 Looks like it could be fun if you can get it together. I'll e-mail copy of the entry form if you're interested. Bea ------------------------------ From: Bea Gold Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 19:33:56 -0700 Subject: [Baren 5576] Re:Books & Masereel Thanks all for the information - thanks Ruth for starting it. - Masereel is one of my favorite woodcut artists. My books are so old they are falling apart and I need to find a bookbinder. Know anyone in Southern CA? I find his work simple, beautiful and strong. Interesting I asked several times before if anyone knew Masereel his work but no one responded - maybe it's because we've grown in number? and thanks Wanda for nice words on Jack's portrait. Bea ------------------------------ From: Jack Reisland Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 16:50:09 +0000 Subject: [Baren 5577] Yet another question For Dave (and of course anyone else that may have some experience or ideas on this subject); Upon reviewing your photos and description of the preparation and printing of your Exchange #2 print, (http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/000_09/000_09_frame.html ) I came up with a question. After you finish drawing, and copy onto the gampi your hanshita (key block copy), you then print, on dry paper, your key block designs for the color block separations. As far as I can figure out, since you are using laminated blocks, with minimal expansion, and printing dry, so the paper hasn't expanded either, you could have skipped the step of printing your copies from the key block, and just made your separations from more copies from the copy machine. This would save a lot of time setting up to print in the middle of your carving. In fact, you could do all your separations in the beginning, before you even pasted your hanshita. Am I overlooking some point that will throw off the registration later? The reason that I bring this up is that it would greatly simplify the process for prints with lots of color blocks, and particularly those with no key block outlines, at least if you stick to laminated blocks. ------------------------------ From: Maria Arango Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 20:29:50 -0700 Subject: [Baren 5578] Re: art ops Wanda, your translation skills are absolutely perfect...really : ) Julio and others, Go to my website, click on Links and then scroll down to Organizations. You will find the URL for Art Calendar, a list of deadlines from all over. Also, I subscribe to Art Deadlines, an electronic newsletter with more deadlines than I have time to enter. There are many that are specialized, like women's art, latino art, prints only, works on paper, etc etc etc etc etc ... I don't know Art Deadline's URL but you can reach them by entering the search words: "art deadlines" on any search engine or through the Art Calendar site. Have fun! Health to all, Maria ------------------------------ From: Barbara Mason Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 20:28:43 -0700 Subject: [Baren 5579] Re: Yet another question Jack wrote: > I came up with a question. After you finish drawing, and copy onto the > gampi your hanshita (key block copy), you then print, on dry paper, your > key block designs for the color block separations. ... etc. Jack, You are right and this is the way Graham showed us to do it, transfering all the drawings to the blocks and then carving each color and then printing. Graham does not really use a key bock, but it would make no difference. When he returns I am sure he will have input for you on this. He had us make lots of xerox copies and then use them with colored pencils to figure our which areas we would cut away for each color. It was simple and worked very well. We did not use the colored pencil one for transfer, just for our own information when carving. Barbara ------------------------------ From: Vollmer/Yamaguchi Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 23:44:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Baren 5580] Re: Baren Digest V8 #685 Thank you all (Jeanne, Marco, others) for .com suggestions. I will follow up when I return from my trip to California. I am looking forward to meeting Jean Eger and some California printmakers. Thank you Baren for our virtual introduction, soon to become an actual one! And Dave, I have just been fussing with the EXACT SAME problem: when your margins are narrow, and your color goes right to the edge of your image it is very difficult not to get color on the kento. Great suggestions. I can tell that the masking tape/packing tape suggestions come from oil base printers! It would take too long to apply and remove if you are printing an edition of waterbase woodcuts, where the printing goes very quickly. I also like the idea that it is sometimes unavoidable, and part of the way you can identify the technique. It is neat to see it on old prints occasionally. April Vollmer ------------------------------ From: Arye Saar Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 06:50:48 +0300 Subject: [Baren 5581] Re: Baren Digest V8 #685 Ruth Leaf wrote: > Has anyone heard of the artist Maseraal, I think that's how it's > spelled. He did some books with no words only woodcuts. Hello Ruth, The artist is Franse Masareel, from Belgium. His prints were rather social & political than artistic, but still full of expression. Lived and created in the beginning of the century. Hope this is of help. To all - I'm afraid Dave created an Avalanche! Around 160 e-mail were waiting for me coming back from a short absence! But so rewarding. "All the flowers of tomorrow exists in the seeds of today". Arye ------------------------------ From: "David Stones" Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 12:47:51 +0900 Subject: [Baren 5582] RE: Yet another question Dear Jack and all, This is a getting-rare answer from the other Dave in Japan. I'm just too busy to get on the keyboard but am lurking in the background... Anyhow, Jack. The answer to your question is simple. A copy machine has two disadvantages - it won't (mine won't) take the super-thin paper without it being mounted on thicker stuff - This takes more time than to run them directly off the block. A further problem is the accuracy of the copy machine itself. By printing direct from the block there is no problem with mechanical or electronic "movement" of your key block's design. 100% accuracy is assured. The second, main reason is that a copy only gets "printed" on the surface of the paper and if you print your keyblock sheets by hand with water-based ink, the colour will go right through the paper to the back and come out extremely clear - don't forget the sheet is pasted face down - you can then also "rub it down" when it's dry so that a lot of the paper disappears leaving mostly the image on the wood - but that's something else. I'm just doing this job right now - except that I've two keyblocks for a double image print (it will look like it has only one key though) which takes some messing about,,, and you've reminded me I'm almost out of paper... Dave (S) ------------------------------ From: judy mensch Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 00:20:04 -0400 Subject: [Baren 5584] Re: Baren Digest V8 #685 Ruth, I know Frans Maserel's work. I saw alot of it when I had a residency to the Frans Maserel Center in Belgium a few years ago. He does very strong images and is very well know, especially in Belgium. The center is wonderful. They have studios for etching, litho, and silkscreen. Each artist is given their own A-fram house with a terrace and we had lots of wonderful dinners together after working hours. It's in the middle of a natural perserve and very beautiful. Judy ------------------------------ From: judy mensch Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 00:27:58 -0400 Subject: [Baren 5585] Re: what's going on ? Julio, One juried show that is coming up, slides due November 10th, is at the National Academy of Design in NYC. It's not just prints. It's a general call for entry in painting, sculpture, architecture, and graphics. If you're interested the address is: National Academy of Design, 1083 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street, New York, NY 10128. Judy ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 18:07:14 +0900 Subject: [Baren 5587] Re: shark skin Gary wrote, re his sharkskin: > It appears like tiny gray diamond shape "scales" or hairs cut extremely > short on a dark brown background > Are these actual "scales" or something more akin to fine and dense hair > follicles, which grow out in a backward direction on the shark? I > couldn't get a side view of the skin to tell. Maybe with a microscope you > can get a better shot. Just curious. I've just had a close look at mine, and I don't think we're looking at the same thing. They are definitely little _teeth_, not scales. Time to get out the old Mavica again, but this time to put on the close-up lens ... http://woodblock.com/temporary/shark_close.jpg The blurry lines you see at the left side of the photo are lines on a millimitre scale. The small white objects at the right are the teeth. The nose of the shark is to the bottom of the photo, so you can see that rubbing from nose to tail will do nothing, but the reverse direction will cut ... *** Goof-up notice: I posted last week about Gosho-san's comments on the shark type, and added the address of a place to get shark skins in Osaka. That address was _not_ the place to get shark skins, but _bamboo_ skins. (Seen one skin, you've seen 'em all ...) Sorry about that. *** Jack wrote, again re sharkskins: > Perhaps I will, with my father-in-law's language skills, > pursue Dave's source in Japan for the right skins and > see what I find. Again, the place to start is Matsumura san. He has dozens and dozens of them in stock, and even sells them already prepared and nailed/glued to a board (not too practical for shipping overseas though). He has two types - the 'normal' ones he lists in his catalogue, and then a few 'special' skins of a different type. These are actually a bit unknown, and he hadn't tried one yet, but they seem (in their raw state) to be very very nice. I've got one here, and when I get some time (...) will nail it up and try it out ... I understand that he will be charging a premium for these. *** Jack asked (re my Exchange #2 print) why I didn't just copy all the colour separations from the 'master' copy, instead of going through the process of making 'kyogo' from the keyblock. Simple. Doing it the traditional way - carving a keyblock first, and then using _that_ block to make the colour separations - guarantees that the colour blocks will have hair-line accuracy. Remember, the colour blocks don't need to match the 'plan', they need to match the 'reality' - - the actual lines I _carved_. If I prepared all the tracings from a master copy, pasted them down separately, and then carved them (without relation to each other), there is _no way_ that they would line up with the degree of accuracy I need. (The Exchange print didn't actually demand that kind of accuracy ... but that is an exception in my work ...) Note though, that for prints _without_ outlines, this traditional way makes no sense. In this case, by all means work from a master copy on paper, making tracings for each colour block as you need them. *** Gary asked about a new [Baren] section for workshops, notices, trades, etc. etc. Actually, we have had something like this for quite a while, but I guess it was so well buried on the web site that nobody noticed it, and it kind of fell into disuse. Head to the main portal page ... http://woodblock.com ... and look down near the bottom of the page, for a link called 'Other Sources of Information'. But aside from this, the idea of a 'bulletin board' where members could trade prints, etc., isn't a bad idea. Let me look around to see if I can find a cgi script to handle this. But it'll have to be something that runs without my intervention, because I think I'm going down for the third time ... Just for consideration, how about the type of software that the 'Japanese Prints Bulletin Board' uses? Would this do the job? (http://www.shogungallery.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html) Dave ------------------------------ From: Gary Luedtke Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 08:58:03 -0400 Subject: [Baren 5588] Re: shark skin Dave wrote, >Just for consideration, how about the type of software that the 'Japanese >Prints Bulletin Board' uses? Would this do the job? " In the sense of everything being on one scrollable page, aside from the responses written into that page, I think yes. To me a bulletin board is all on one page, at one site. The main distraction to me is having to follow links somewhere, then taking the time to go back and start off on another trek somewhere else. Can a page be created where a member simply can send in something comparable to an index card with the info on it, much as an office, or grocery store type bulletin board is there for anyone to stick a notice or ad on? Put an expiration date on it and when that time comes it is removed. But everyone can go to a common site, and see everything up at the moment at a glance. Gary ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V8 #687 ***************************