Baren Digest Saturday, 23 March 2002 Volume 18 : Number 1773 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: GraphChem@aol.com Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 22:06:22 EST Subject: [Baren 17637] Re: cleaning blocks As best we can tell, after discussing the specifics with Louise, it would appear that the stock that she purchased was very old. We had, several years ago, a problem with the water soluble vehicle wherein some material that should have been trashed as defective, was accidentally put into the market. We tracked down most of the material, but some remained. What Louise described was typical of the defective material. Usually, washing the block with water (and soap if necessary) should clean it up nicely. With highly pigmented inks, you will get a pigment residue that can be slightly more difficult to clean than a less pigmented ink, but it is still relatively easy to clean up. Once it dries, there is going to be a problem. At that point, I suggest using a little ammonia to try to clean it off. Dean Clark Graphic Chemical & Ink Company Dean ------------------------------ From: "Lee and Barbara Mason" Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 19:53:03 -0800 Subject: [Baren 17638] ink Louise, Speedball ink is rewetting and depending on the paper will bleed and will lift. So you need to consider this. I too like Graphic Chemical ink, but it is not rewetting, so you need to clean as you go, for once it dries, it won't rewet to clean off. I would say you need to clean it off the block every 5 or 6 prints to keep the block from drying with the ink on it. Barbara ------------------------------ From: "Dan Sabo" Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 23:13:10 -0500 Subject: [Baren 17640] Galv-Etch or electrical etching? Hi all, I'm new here and was wondering if anyone has had any experience building their own Galv-Etch or electrical etching tank using copper sulfate solution for their own use? And how did it go? Also if anyone here is interested, I have a source for very cheap and pure copper sulfate, 25 dollars for a 50 pound bag from a farm supplier. Let me know if interested. I heard from Electro-Etch and the guy there says I have to buy it from him because he "owns" the process, but I refuse to pay anyone royalties for something that he did not invent (and claims he did invent), something that was originally invented in 1840 in England. I am using the galv-etch method as described by Cedric Green described at his web site http://perso.club-internet.fr/gravert/galvetch/contfram.htm Thanks, Dan Sabo ------------------------------ From: "Gregory Robison" Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 09:24:14 -0000 Subject: [Baren 17641] This and that Dear Bareners: 1. Flipping open the Times Literary Supplement last week I was surprised and delighted to see one of Andy English's lovely wood engravings. The TLS is one of the classiest things on newsprint, in my view. I don't know if Andy's still with us, but if so, well done! 2. Late last year I bought a just-published number in A. & C. Black's Printmaking Handbooks series, 'Japanese Woodblock Printing', by Rebecca Salter, in which works by our own April Vollmer and Sarah Hauser were featured -- congratulations! -- and at the end of the book was an invitation to visit 'the informative web site for enthusiasts', barenforum. I don't know if we've picked up any U.K. members or lurkers as a result of this, but it's good to see us referenced in print this way. The book is quite good as an introduction and basic reference, too. 3. I have begun receiving prints for the 'Text Messages' show I am organising (images based on verses from the gospel), and would like to reiterate that any Bareners who find themselves in Scotland in June are most welcome to the show and to some ancillary events I am organising in connection with the show. Several members are flying in for the occasion! The exhibition is being held at a gallery owned by the Marie Currie Cancer Care organisation which, incidentally, is the main beneficiary (and principal organser) of the 'Tunes of Glory' event in New York next month, in which 10,000 bagpipers will march down one of the main thoroughfares... Yours aye, Gregory Robison Edinburgh, Scotland ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V18 #1773 *****************************