Baren Digest Monday, 9 April 2001 Volume 15 : Number 1383 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Nilsa Macaya Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2001 00:54:15 -0400 Subject: [Baren 14133] one-liners Last month I sought your help in dealing with my small workspace and I received great ideas along with additional advice on carving positions. In order to remember which members offered advice, I cut and pasted a few "one-liners" from your emails and printed them. I hope you do not mind my re-posting them here but I just want you to know that, as well as being talented, you guys are also very humorous. Anyway, it's Saturday, it's late, no one is posting and one of you might want something to read. Nilsa ON WORKSPACE: SHARRI: You only need enough room to sit and you're in business. SARAH: If you saw the teeny space I work on, you'd be surprised... GRETCHEN: I do my cutting on a fast-food-restaurant style tray... DAN: I like to carve on top of a dishtowel... GILLYN: ...one does NOT need a fancy setup with tons of space to do it... PHILIP: ...you can pick any spot on the floor of your apartment. RUDOLF: I built a worktable by myself, you can look at it at http://www.rst-art.com/s1wctab.htm MARIA: I built a Graham-workstation according to the specs on his web site. BEA: We all have our favorites here. Take a look at mine... http://barenforum.org/newsletter/issue04/issue04.html#feature1 GILLYN (part II): ...another boon to artists who live in the same room with their art are those retractable clothes line holders... MARILYNN: ...a retractable clothes line is now on my list to buy... PHILIP: Work small at first. Clean up as you go. ON CARVING POSITIONS: GRAHAM: Sitting on the floor is probably the worse thing you could do for your spinal column. It may look cool but that is about all you can say for it. MARIA: One recommendation for safe-guarding your back, knees, and other assorted nasty spots is to change your working position often. GILLYIN: ...i much prefer to stand...and really let my arms and elbows swing around...adds to sense of movement/motion in prints... SARAH: ...when I'm ready to work on them [large wood boards] I just put them on the floor - I know, it would be better to work on a table, but what can I tell you? BEA: My worktable has 8 drawers in it holding all my cut/print supplies and is low so I sit and bend at the hips. SHARRI: I do concur with those who suggest sitting at a table...but maybe that's my age showing! The floor? You've got to be kidding!! Good-night and thanks. Nilsa Macaya ------------------------------ From: Studio Dalwood Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 18:55:59 +1000 Subject: [Baren 14134] Snake Update Hi All I had an opportunity to show off my snake collection to another printmker last week and it prompted me to count them all up. Its an accounting thing - just like Sesame Street's Count, we accountants have this compulsion. One little snake ha ha ha ha TWO little snakes ha aha ha Three little snakeys ha ha ha Anyway, I have received 41 out of 59 expected snakes. I was surprised that there were still 18 to go at this late stage. Still to come are Pete White, Julio Rodriguez, Cate Pfeifer, Kristine Alder, John Ryrie, Colleen Coradi, David Mallahatee, Burt Bucher, Heather Nichols, Dimitris, Kevin Foley, Sue Salisbury, Horacio, Arafat, Tricia Valdez, MArgaret Szvetecz, Graham Hall And Tony Hollingsworth. As one of the ones I sent went astray and one of the ones I received had been sent to number 31 instead of 13 and was re-directed to me, I thought it best to check that nothing was missing between continents. And to remind everyone who hasnt sent them out yet "we know where you live"....... Josephine ------------------------------ From: "April Vollmer" Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 17:11:26 -0400 Subject: [Baren 14135] West Coast Report Jean Eger, I salute you! Thank you for promoting hanga woodcut in the Bay area. Margaret Ann Clemente said you had recommended my class at Kala, and she took it last weekend! I had a fabulous time on the west coast, where I spent two weeks teaching and visiting. Contradictorially...(is that a word?) there seem to be fewer opportunities to learn about hanga woodcut on the west coast, where there is a greater Asian presence. I started out by showing my work and giving a lecture on paper at Hiromi Paper. I talked about how important paper is for printing waterbase woodcut, and that it is also an interesting option for printing digital work. There's an article in the latest Hiromi newsletter. Then I gave a weekend workshop at Josephine Press. VERY nice and helpful folks, John Greco and his assistant Virginia helped set up and teach an intense class. I had the good fortune to have a student from the LA County Museum, and she invited me to see the Max Palevsky Japanese print collection. Great little collection, 50 superb prints, all the most famous ones. Hokusai's waterfalls, Hiroshige's road, beautiful Haronobu's and one of Masonobu's early hand colored 3-color prints. The second weekend I taught in Berkeley. I stayed with friends (print opportunities don't seem to come with hotel accomodations!)and had another great weekend class at Kala Art Institute. It's in the old Heinz ketchup factory, and says "57" over the door!(their motto was: "fifty-seven different varieties") Lots of space, a gallery, a million presses, bench hooks for all. And NICE students. I gave them all our website address, hope some of them will join baren, or at least check the encyclopedia for more information. I always feel slightly guilty teaching a weekend class, since no matter how much I do, students only get an introduction. I had the pleasure of catching up with baren members Bea Gold in Los Angeles, and Andrea Rich and Brigit Henry in Santa Cruz. It was great to see their woodcuts. Next time I'll try to see Marco Flavio, too, just not enough time to do it all! PAPER TIP: try Hiromi's MM-5 Shiramine paper for proofing. I think it's mostly pulp, but works well for hanga woodcut, and is a nice white color, 25 x 38 is about $5. I used Baren Mall's plastic barens and Japan Woodworker's Power Grip Tool sets for the classes. These seem to be the best options for starting out in hanga woodcut. Power Grip's are bonded steel AND hollow ground! ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest v15 #1383 *****************************