Today's postings

  1. [Baren 44678] Re: boxwood (Tibi Chelcea)
  2. [Baren 44679] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V57 #5826 (Dec 3, 2011) (Graham Scholes)
  3. [Baren 44680] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V57 #5826 (Dec 3, 2011) (Graham Scholes)
  4. [Baren 44681] What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks? (key sevn)
  5. [Baren 44682] Fwd: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodb... (ArtfulCarol # aol.com)
  6. [Baren 44683] Re: Fwd: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodb... (Gretchen Greene)
  7. [Baren 44684] Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks? (Mike Lyon)
  8. [Baren 44685] Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks? (Graham Scholes)
  9. [Baren 44686] New Year Card Exchange for Year of the Dragon 2012 (Jan Telfer)
  10. [Baren 44687] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
Member image

Message 1
From: Tibi Chelcea
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2011 13:59:14 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44678] Re: boxwood
Send Message: To this poster

If you are not going to print the block with a letterpress, then the .918
thickness is meaningless. If printing letterpress and the block is thinner
than .918, you can pad it with thick paper/cardboard to get to that height.
So, in general, if you can't measure precisely that thickness, it's better
to err towards thinner cuts.

Tibi
Member image

Message 2
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:46:04 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44679] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V57 #5826 (Dec 3, 2011)
Send Message: To this poster

You can use a graver tool. The same type of tool used for copper engraving.
Your bearing baren won't work properly.

You will find tons of information on the internet.... Look on Google....

Try this site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZ26udfPs0
..... and http://chrisdaunt.com/guide which tells you everything you wanted to know....

Graham
Member image

Message 3
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:48:08 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44680] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V57 #5826 (Dec 3, 2011)
Send Message: To this poster


Lynn Starun wrote:

> I have not posted for quite a while but I wanted to ask for help. I've never tried engraving but I've been given a piece of old growth American boxwood. I had read that American boxwood is the best

Actually the best comes from England as they have the climate for the best.

Graham
Member image

Message 4
From: key sevn
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:07:27 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44681] What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks?
Send Message: To this poster

I'm thinking about making myself a red stamp/signature as the Japanese do.
Could anybody explain what is the idea of doing such things in Japanese
woodblock?
What does the stamp mean?, what exactly is it? and possible mistakes I
could make.
I know I'm not a Japanese and I can't be true. I just want to understand,
and make mine.

thanx
Olek Woniak.
Member image

Message 5
From: ArtfulCarol # aol.com
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:57:41 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44682] Fwd: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodb...
Send Message: To this poster


Many of us who do Japanese woodblock prints use the chop (stamp/signature).
You do not have to be Japanese or think you are not "true"
Mine is about 4" high, carved out of marble. It was made when my friend
went to China. In San Francisco there are several shops that make them
.
Sometimes I use it. Care must be taken to see that it doesn't smear when
stamping, then ruin a good print
I think it lends a spot of interest and a bit of color to a black print.
You can probably look on the internet and find a place that will make one
for you. You will tell what you want to say. Frankly, I don't remember
what mine says
Best of luck to you
Carol Lyons

(http://rst-art.com/artfulcarol.htm) _http://rst-art.com/artfulcarol.htm_
(http://rst-art.com/artfulcarol.htm)
Member image

Message 6
From: Gretchen Greene
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:01:55 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44683] Re: Fwd: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodb...
Send Message: To this poster

In Chinese paintings the chop is an important part of the signature, usually combined with a calligraphic signatureand alsoas a design element. In the design of the composition, the painter plans for the placement of the signature and red chop.

Painters may have multiple chops, which can appearin the same painting. Besidesa signature chop, others might be associated with the theme of the painting,e.g. "spring."

I don't know about the Japanese woodblock use, but it seems likely they are related traditions.
Gretchen

Member image

Message 7
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:12:24 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44684] Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks?
Send Message: To this poster

I had my hanko carved in Japan -- it's stone and about half an inch square.
In ancient characters I provided, mine reads "rai-on moku hanga" --
English translation is "Thunder-sound woodblock print" but the
"Thunder-sound" translation is a bit of a joke as my last name, "Lyon," in
Japanese sounds a bit like "rai-on"... Yours might say anything you like,
of course!

- -- Mike.
Member image

Message 8
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:21:29 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44685] Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks?
Send Message: To this poster

According to a Japanese friend, Noboru, tells me that this is an ancient Japanese custom and in general considered for Japanese use. Although it is not held today, mainly because the marketing by the makers of these stamps. They are looking for bigger market.
You can liken the tradition of a Japanese symbol with many aboriginal symbols. For example here in British Columbia the use of any West Coast imagery is absolutely taboo. Even painting totem pools is considered unacceptable. The Public Gallery system in Canada frown on the adoption of cultural symbols by non cultural people.

I considered it for a moment, and after the feedback I got, I decided it was not appropriate.
Tread lightly on with this idea.

Graham
Member image

Message 9
From: Jan Telfer
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:33 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44686] New Year Card Exchange for Year of the Dragon 2012
Send Message: To this poster

Year of the Dragon,

The Sign Up form for the 2012 Dragon Exchange is not on the web yet.
Are we going to continue with them?

I am off again to hospital for another week or two and won't have
access to the computer, but I would like to sign on for this exchange
so could I please leave it in the hands of the one of the committee to
add my name to the list please? My details are with Gayle from Ex #50
if you need to add them before I return (still current from the Year of
the Dragon first time round!!)

Prognosis is good, so keep smiling.

Love,
Jan

Perth, Western Australia

Digest Appendix

Postings made on [Baren] members' blogs
over the past 24 hours ...

Subject: Busy day at the office ...
Posted by: Dave Bull

It's sometimes not clear whether to put any particular post into the Woodblock RoundTable, or here into the Mokuhankan Conversations - the work being done falls into both areas ... as is the case today!

Here's a very unusual scene at the entranceway - four of us here today!

It's not that we've added a new person, it's that Yasui-san - the lady who has been doing print mounting, etc. (she made the folders and packed all the Senshafuda prints) - usually works at home, but was here with us today because the job at hand was something she had never done before and needed to work through it together with me.

It would be kind of a long story if I told it all, but I can simply mention that her job for the next couple of weeks is going to be doing a 'catch up' with some mounting and packing work that has been long 'postponed'. As you can see in this next picture, she is making folders for prints from my Surimono Albums!

These prints have been waiting in drawers patiently for about eight years, and are finally getting put into folders and into albums ...

She spent the morning doing that, while behind her the two printer ladies kept very busy. Tsushima-san (on the left) is beavering away at this year's studio New Year print. There are 150 sheets in the batch, and she'll run two batches. We think there will be seven impressions, so this will be the largest job she has yet tackled by a long shot.


[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog Mokuhankan Conversations.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: Citizens from the North in Alaska and Canada, brrrrr...
Posted by: Maria

A great contribution from Julianna Humphreys - Juneau Alaska USA
Living on the edge of the big, wet, wild Tongass National Forest has its benefits!


I don't know if I like the block or the card better!

And here is the contribution by Rozemarijn Oudejans - Ottawa Ontario CANADA, who says this about her very COOL block! (can you tell I'm a bike rider?):

Cargo bikes. The solution to traffic jams, parking problems, air polution and lapsing gym memberships. Bring your kids to school, go to work, get your groceries and your exercise, all in 1 bike ride. Save the city AND the planet, 3 wheels at a time!

[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog MCPP Puzzle Prints.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.