Baren Digest Saturday, 24 February 2001 Volume 14 : Number 1334 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cucamongie@aol.com Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 20:08:16 EST Subject: [Baren 13600] big hanga prints Noreen, printing hanga that large is very difficult to do! Anyway, as April mentioned, the problem is getting paper that is absorbent enough, but not so thin that it dips into every nonprinting area. I have had some success using Stonehenge for big prints (around 30" x 40"), which is a very stiff paper. It helps if you have a ball bearing baren if you are printing on this paper as you need to rub pretty hard for the ink to really go in. Rives heavyweight may work OK also. Akua Kolor stays wet longer than the pure pigments, plus Susan Rostow also makes something you can add to the Akua Kolor to make it not dry out so fast, I forget what it's called! I would surely not soak the block as you're doing, I see no reason for this. I would simply take a spray bottle and dampen the printing areas of the block, then work the water into the block w/a marubake (shoe-brush type brush, you can get them through the Baren mall) or whatever type of printing brush like this you can get y! ! ! our hands on. Then I'd apply th e ink or pigment, some rice paste or methyl cellulose, brush this mixture on the printing areas of the block, and I'd try a few test prints on any big cheap paper you can find just to get the block warmed up. Printing this big can get very expensive, which is another reason I ended up using Stonehenge for most of my big prints. If you want to go high-end with the paper, the Yamaguchi paper would probably print well, as it's stiffer than some other Japanese papers. But beware, using this paper would be an exorbitant adventure. There may be some papers from Hiromi Paper that would work OK, though I'm not sure which ones come in a size big enough for your use and would be stiff enough - you can call them and they may be able to advise you - I think their website is www.hiromipaper.com (is that right, folks?). Be sure that the paper is sized if you're printing hanga. I would really suggest doing some smaller prints just to get the hang of doing hanga (yeah, I know a bad pun)! ! ! ------------------------------ From: Cucamongie@aol.com Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 21:19:31 EST Subject: [Baren 13601] Methyl Cellulose A few days ago someone asked about methyl cellulose as sizing. Methyl cellulose is not sizing - it is a type of gluelike substance, and can be used for hanga printing instead of the traditional rice paste. As for mixing it, just add water til it is a bit "goopy" - not solid or liquid, but will pour slowly - very scientific, I know :) - I put it in a squeeze bottle so I can just squirt a bit out onto the block (instead of having to fuss w/brushing it on). fyi, methyl cellulose has a bunch of other uses too, including in paper making in order to adhere sheets together or if you're sticking dry items or pieces of paper onto a wet pulp sheet, etc. I also use it for gluing hinges when framing. enjoy! Sarah ------------------------------ From: "April Vollmer" Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 23:42:24 -0500 Subject: [Baren 13603] RE: Baren Digest v14 #1333 charset="iso-8859-1" Marilynn, his is what the gobbeldy-gook looks like in the digest: aPRIL REFRESH ME ON HOW i CAN BE UNFORMATTED???? oops sorry about the caps.
Marilynn - - --part1_b8.123e55a2.27c82026_boundary-- And I THINK you can get rid of it by going to "Format" in your e=-mail program and checking "Plain Text" instead of "Rich Text" or "HTML". Anyway that's how you do it in Outlook on a PC. I am embarrassed to say I have moved into the mainstream and succumbed to Bill Gates' software. Please don't send me any viruses, I know I'm much more vulnerable than I used to be on my good old Mac. (And don't tell Graham!) ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 20:58:17 -0700 Subject: [Baren 13604] Yamaguchi paper Dear Bareners, The Yamaguchi paper is now available in the baren mall: http://barenforum.org/mall This paper is handmade in Japan of 100% Kozo (mulberry) and is sized and ready to go for all of you hanga afficionados out there. Shipping will be from the Northwest, so you will save some money on shipping. This paper is the creme-de-la-creme of paper for hanga. Plus, you can order as few or as many sheets as you like. Price is $8.75 per sheet with a flat rate of $6.00 for UPS shipping anywhere in the United States. Our mall is growing & growing - and remember that a small profit on mall merchandise will go toward Baren activities and exhibit expenses. Wanda ------------------------------ From: B E Mason Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 21:11:52 -0800 Subject: [Baren 13605] Yamaguchi Paper is in the mall! Exciting news for all you hanga people! The paper from Mr. Yamaguchi is in the mall. It arrived at my door this afternoon by express mail and is available by the sheet shipped from Oregon. The cost is $8.75 per sheet, pretty reasonable for hand made and hand sized paper, one of the best hosho papers availble for hanga. It is approximately 16"x20" Go to http://barenforum.org/mall and hit enter, then go down to #4 and there it is. This is an exciting day for Baren, our own product (well, sort of) in the mall. We are taking a very small markup to put a little money in the baren exhibition kitty so know that every sheet you buy also helps out the group as a whole. We have 200 sheets of paper and as soon as it is sold we will order more. It will take about 3-4 weeks to get the next order, so if you order and we run out, that will be the time delay before we can ship your order. So if you really want to try this paper, don't be shy about ordering it. Best to all, Barbara ------------------------------ From: juan Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 23:20:54 -0600 Subject: [Baren 13606] Re: Baren Digest v14 #1331 MARILYNN: I live in Morelia, Michoacan, 4 hours driving down from Mexico City. When are you planning to come to Mexico? My city is a medium size one, with a very interesting colonial architecture. Juan Guerrero, MEXICO. ------------------------------ From: DosDots@aol.com Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 00:37:27 EST Subject: [Baren 13607] thank you! to cucamongie,barbara, mary, julio, eli,april, wanda, david, and everyone, i am so excited- i have found my people! thank you so much for the suggestions and information- apparently, it is completely unnecessary to soak my block. i doubt i'll have any more bubbling problems, but i want to try the siberian birch that's available as well as the marine mahogany- it makes sense to use plywood with waterproof glue, and to seal the edges with spar varnish. it also sounds as though i need to look into using a different paper- of course i just received a good-sized shipment in of the arches watercolor paper. i wasn't aware that it's less than ideal, although i've been suspecting that it's too heavily sized, because the ink sits up on the surface, and even comes off onto the backside of the print above it unless i let it sit for a minute before i stack it. i guess that means the paper is too hard, even when it 's really well moistened. when i was working smaller, it was no problem to use nice washi papers- i've tried torinoko, hosho, i even got away with using unsized mulberry. macleans doesn't carry anything big enough except the really nice papers which get pretty pricey. it looks like i might have to buckle down and go shopping. just to explain more- i use shoe brushes to apply the ink and methyl cellulose. after laying down the paper, i lay down a "felt"- thin wool blanket that is supposed to be used with my press. then i stand over it and hand print with a baren. well, it's sort of a baren. i have several barens- the cheap student grade bamboo-wrapped ones you can buy for 6 bucks, and the speedball kind with the nylon mesh that goes for about twenty bucks. however, the area i'm printing is so big and i want the use of my elbows until i'm old- that i made a larger "baren"- i bought a wooden concrete/mortar float- smooth rectangular mahogany approx. 4x6" with a handle on top- i rounded all the corners- it slides really well on the wool felt. i hope i am not horrifying whoever is reading this. do i still get to be in the "baren" club? anyway, i seem to be getting enough pressure, altho it is a little awkward. i actually print by standing on a stool so that most of my body is over the print so i can use my weight instead of just my muscles. i will be sure to look on the "mall" for large real barens. anyway, thank you again for your time and generosity- i'll be printing this weekend, so i'll be sure to report back with a progess report- i also have lots more questions and problems for you, if you all are willing! maybe someday i'll even be of assistance to a whippersnapper! noreen ------------------------------ From: "Jean Eger" Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 21:51:33 -0800 Subject: [Baren 13608] Sizing I hope that you will allow me to refer to Mary Krieger's excellent and memorable Baren Encyclopedia entry on sizing, which I have pasted in here. It really helped me a lot. I guess people can always say, well, you should read the Encyclopedia, but you know, people don't do it and would rather just chat online. Jean Eger-Womack __________________________________________________ "I find it helpful to remember that all paper is a web of tiny plant fibers held together both by their physical entanglement and electrostatic attraction (at least that's what I remember the instructor saying). The tiny spaces between the fibres allow paper to flex and compress. Sizing is gluey and coats each individual fibre. It is actually quite difficult to wash out once it is in. It alters the ability of the individual fibres to absorb water (like fabric softener on your towels). Dry pigment applied to a paper surface adheres like the paper fibres by being caught in the microscopically uneven surface of the paper as well as that static attraction (like dust and cat hair). Pigment suspended in water will penetrate more deeply into the microscopic structure of the paper. As the fibres soak up the water, the pigment is both caught in the holes between the fibres and stains the fibres themselves. Some of the pigment between the fibres can be rinsed away with sufficient water but the stain can only be bleached away (like grape Kool-Aid). Sizing will slow down the rate at which water is absorbed by the paper fibres. Watercolor paper is very heavily sized. This allows the painter to control how the pigment is absorbed by the paper primarily by the amount of water in the paint. The fibres are so heavily sized that they absorb the water very slowly and do not much affect how the pigment is absorbed by the paper. If the paper is already damp - that is the fibres themselves are moist but there is little or no water film in between - then I would guess that the pigment would move more slowly but would be absorbed by the paper more evenly. If moisture promotes the absorption of the pigment into the paper - and rice paste and size slow it down, then to get an even and repeatable penetration of the pigment into the paper you have to balance the amount of sizing and moisture in the paper with the amount of rice paste and water suspended pigment on the block. Prints on paper that is correctly sized and dampened will not bleed sideways or transfer color. That's the amazing trick of the Japanese printing technology. Mary Krieger Winnipeg Manitoba" ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest v14 #1334 *****************************