Today's postings

  1. [Baren 45300] Mauricio Lasansky and spring (Lawrence H Pinto)
  2. [Baren 45301] Re: Mauricio Lasansky and spring (Barbara Mason)
  3. [Baren 45302] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
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Message 1
From: Lawrence H Pinto
Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:28:34 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45300] Mauricio Lasansky and spring
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Dear Bareners,

Happy Holidays everyone. It's been slow on the forum, so I thought these two items might be of interest.

The New York Times had an obituary for a remarkable printmaker who used many forms of print on the same work and who documented the Nazi era. He was an Argentine who later settled in Iowa:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/arts/design/mauricio-lasansky-master-printmaker-dies-at-97.html?_r=1&hpw

Although he was not specifically a relief printer, I learned a lot from reading about his work and will follow up to learn more.

FYI, this has been the most remarkable spring I have seen in the US Midwest since moving here in 1964. It became warm enough for the flowers and flowering trees to bloom about 3 weeks ago. Then the temp went down to the temp of a good refrigerator, and has stayed there. So, the flowers have been 'in the frig' for these weeks and it's possible to make paintings and drawings of them at leisure. There should be good fruit set this year!

Larry
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Message 2
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:38:46 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45301] Re: Mauricio Lasansky and spring
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there are a bunch of videos on you tube as well
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Lasansky&oq=Lasansky&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=youtube.3..0.3130.3130.0.4949.1.1.0.0.0.0.50.50.1.1.0.

I have see quite a few of them and they are amazing...he worked on prints, in series, changing each one as he went along. I don't think he made two alike, but kept adding to them. An amazing video...don't know which one it was but it was worth watching...I saw it a year or so ago
Living to 97 with such a big family...and employed all the time as an artist... the true American dream
My best
Barbara

Digest Appendix

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

Subject: General update ...
Posted by: Dave Bull

It's been a very busy week here at Mokuhankan, but unfortunately there aren't a great many photos that I am able to show you ...

Last Monday saw the first day of 'work' of a new printer trainee, and he worked steadily over the next few days under my supervision, and actually turned out some very interesting results. He took to it quite naturally, first making one of the designs for our kakegami wrapping paper:

That worked out so well that I pulled some blocks off the shelf for one of my Surimono prints, and tossed them at him. After two more days of work, he had produced a stack of a dozen or so of them:

Unfortunately, there is another side to the story. I don't want to invade his privacy too much, so will simply say that although his printmaking abilities seemed to be just what we are looking for, he and I didn't really make much of a 'match'.

By the end of the week, it was clear to me that we weren't going to be able to get along. If ... if we had a larger workshop here, with more staff, I think he might have been able to fit in, but because we are so few in number still, a new person really affects the 'dynamic' of the mood and relationships. I was pretty torn which way to go, but ended up taking the 'safe' option, and let him know that there was no place for him here.

(I'm headed downtown in the morning, to visit a couple of other workshops, in the hope that one of them might be able to find space for him ... It's not likely, but I kind of have to try, I think ...)


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This item is taken from the blog Mokuhankan Conversations.
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Subject: Not done yet! Some substitutes and final assembly
Posted by: Maria

Next I had to do some tweaking of a few blocks. Two were missing so I cut substitutes and carved some quick images. There were a few "problem" blocks that I foresaw would stumble the printing process so I did some extra carving on backgrounds or edges or whatever needed to be done without disturbing the owner's image.

After carving all the backgrounds, I went over the flat open areas with a flat chisel to eliminate any burrs that may catch ink. They are not anywhere near perfect but will just have to do as I am out of time before my trip to the printing lands.
Two of the background blocks had broken in a couple of places and I re-glued them together with wood-glue.

Finally, when all was tweaked enough, I lightly glued each large block to a background matt-board and then re-assembled the puzzle over the glue so that everyone sits still and behaves properly during printing. I used Lineco white glue spread with a foam roller for speed and evenness of application. Also this glue remains flexible so that if any blocks have to be propped up from underneath to aid in printing, the flexible glue and matt-board will yield.

Here are the next set of process pictures:



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This item is taken from the blog MCPP Puzzle Prints.
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