Baren Digest Tuesday, 15 May 2001 Volume 15 : Number 1420 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: FurryPressII@aol.com Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 10:15:11 EDT Subject: [Baren 14433] Re: Process photos ... box wood? end grain or plank grain? box is very expansive in its wood engraving format and engrain maple will give enough detail. I use it with oil based ink not sure if wood engraving block would work with watercolor ink. One of the disavantages of press printing is that you can't generally use both sides. As the cut area will affect the pressure. I saw a huge multi color wood cut yesterday three by six feet and 9 colors. if i did a wood engraving that size it would take a life time to cut lol. John of the furry press ps. I use solid boards not plywood just like the feel of solid wood with woodcuts. I have seen the resin product for wood engraving prints well but can't stand the feel of the stuff but it is cheaper than box and more avaible box wood is hard to get in the usa and it is very small and expansive. ------------------------------ From: Shireen Holman Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 10:29:39 -0400 Subject: [Baren 14434] Re: Woodblock process... <200105092245.HAA79160@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> <200105131248.VAA31756@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> <200105131556.AAA79238@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> >Dave, Your print is beautiful and the process is fascinating to see! Thanks for putting all the stages up. I have a couple of questions. Would you ever print two colours at the same time on the same block when your areas are quite distinct and don't overlap at all? Also, if, in the case of the green that wasn't quite the right shade, if you decided you preferred the shade that wasn't 'quite right' would you leave it that way or always try to match the colours perfectly to the original? Shireen *********************************************** Shireen Holman, Printmaker and Book Artist email: shireenh@earthlink.net http://www.shireenholman.com *********************************************** ------------------------------ From: news@barenforum.org Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:09:27 +0900 Subject: [Baren 14435] Special Announcements from the Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Four Special Announcements from the [Baren Mall] (1) Since the [Baren Mall] opened some months ago, the US$ has gained a number of percentage points against the Japanese yen. We've held off adjusting the prices in the Mall, not knowing just where the exchange rate is going, but feel that as the dollar seems to be maintaining this level, it is time to act. Effective immediately all prices of products in the Mall from Woodlike Matsumura in Japan have been _dropped_ by 5%. The items in the Mall were already a good value, now they are a very good value! We have no idea how long these reduced prices will be in effect; if the dollar weakens we will be forced to return to the previous prices. (Orders placed during the 10-day period immediately preceding today's price decrease are being offered 'price-protection'; if this affects you, please contact the Mall Manager to arrange your refund). (2) In response to many customer requests, we are pleased to announce the introduction of Matsumura-san's new Paper Sample Catalogue, containing actual samples of all the woodblock papers he supplies through the [Baren Mall]. No more guesswork about which paper is best for you! You will find the catalogue on the 'Papers' page. (3) From now on, cases for all [Baren] Exchange folios are available through the Mall. If you are a participant in the current Exchange (#10), and wish to order a case for your set of prints, now is the time to do it. (4) If those three announcements weren't enough to send you over to the Mall right now, we have something that will - we recently had the good fortune to obtain a quantity of the small-scale woodblock prints known in Japan as 'nafuda'. These are beautiful hand carved, hand printed multi-colour woodblock prints made in the early part of the 20th century. What are we doing with them? _Giving them away_ to [Baren Mall] customers of course! You will find illustrations of the prints, and full details of how to get some, on the Special Offers page inside the Mall (go to the Mall Map to find it ...). So what are you waiting for? Get your high-quality woodblock printmaking supplies, _and_ support the activities of [Baren] at the same time. We are ready-and-waiting - at your service! http://barenforum.org/barenmall ------------------------------ From: Daniel Dew Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 11:04:28 -0400 Subject: [Baren 14436] Re: Special Announcements from the Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Great, get me all excited and the link doesn't work! Now what? I'm so depressed I'm going to go and Baren myself into oblivion. Oh what shame, what disgrace. dan dew > From: news@barenforum.org > > http://barenforum.org/barenmall > > > > ------------------------------ From: slinder@mediaone.net Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 10:19:53 -0500 Subject: [Baren 14437] Re: Special Announcements from the Content-Type:text/plain; charset=us-ascii Easy, Dan! Keep a Barenforum bookmark and you'll never experience such difficulty again! ;-) Sharen ------------------------------ From: news@barenforum.org Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 00:26:10 +0900 Subject: [Baren 14438] Re: Special Announcements from the Baren Mall Dan wrote: > > Great, get me all excited and the link doesn't work! http://barenforum.org/barenmall Seems to be working Dan ... Maybe you should try again? ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 01:17:46 +0900 Subject: [Baren 14439] Re: Woodblock process... <200105092245.HAA79160@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> <200105131248.VAA31756@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> <200105131556.AAA79238@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> <200105141431.XAA114132@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> Shireen wrote: >Dave, > I have a couple of questions. Would you ever > print two colours at the same time on the same block when your areas are > quite distinct and don't overlap at all? Yes certainly; I do this all the time. In fact the red and vermillion on this print could have been done that way, easily. I didn't this time, because if I had printed the seal at the same time as the red sash, then when the background colour went on it would have crushed the paper flat, spoiling the slight embossing of the seal shape. Another factor is how much I can handle at one time. If the two areas are both quite wide, then it's not such a good idea, because while I'm brushing the second one, the first one dries. But if they are small (or at least _one_ of them is small) then it's no problem. I once tried to do three ... but never again. Red brush here, green brush there, blue brush over there ... Red brush here, green brush there, blue brush over there ... Red brush here, blue brush there .. Oops! > Also, if, in the case of the green > that wasn't quite the right shade, if you decided you preferred the shade > that wasn't 'quite right' would you leave it that way or always try to > match the colours perfectly to the original? I do it 'my way' ... :-) I mean that I'll go with the one I like, even if it isn't exactly like the original. I know this might not sit too comfortably with many of you who read this, because I guess you would tend to be on the artist's 'side' of any disagreement, but the printmaking tradition over here gives printers a very large degree of freedom in such matters. It's impossible to put a % figure on this, but certainly a _majority_ of all the prints made in the past in this tradition had their colours decided by the printers, not by the artists. In the case of special works, artists would certainly have played a role in this part of the production process, guiding the colour mixing, but for the normal common-garden prints, the printers were quite capable of doing it themselves. I've got an illustration here in a book of one of the colour separation sheets that has survived from an Utamaro print. Scrawled across the sheet in supposedly Utamaro's handwriting are various colour notes: blue here, purple over here ... So the printer had to sit down and print ... 'blue'. Get serious! That single word told him next to nothing. But he knew that it was his job to find shades and tones of 'blue' and 'purple' that would work together, staying within the parameters of what he knew an 'Utamaro' print should look like. And later, when it came time to pull out the blocks and reprint any particular design it was very common for different colours to be applied; in fact it's rare to come across two identically coloured versions of any print, and the more popular the design, the more different 'varieties' we find. So I'm not doing anything particularly 'wrong' by altering the colours. I'm just doing the normal printer's job - to put out a print that stays within the tradition, but which reflects his own skills and taste. Whether it is good taste or otherwise, will have to be judged by others ... Dave ------------------------------ From: "bemason" Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 10:09:50 -0700 Subject: [Baren 14440] baren mall address - ----- Dan, I think the link should read http://www.barenforum.org/mall Barbara ------------------------------ From: "April Vollmer" Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 13:22:15 -0400 Subject: [Baren 14441] Dave's Demo charset="iso-8859-1" Wonderful demonstration, Dave! hope you'll keep it up so I can tell my students to check it out. I was especially interested in reading about your difficulty in finding good cherry. I can definitely see the limitations of the shina ply, especially for detail. It's still fine for most of my prints...no calligraphy for me! Still, I must check Matsumara's prices on cherry ply.... ------------------------------ From: Studio Dalwood Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 20:10:31 +1000 Subject: [Baren 14442] Links and exhibitions Hi I was looking on the forum website for the links page this morning and cant find it. Or at least not anything designated "links" for related websites. Can someone help me? Also Is there anywhere on the site where the baren exchange exhibitions are listed showing which exchange has been exhibited where? I want to update my records and cant find the info listed. Sorry to be bother Josephine ------------------------------ From: FurryPressII@aol.com Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 22:16:20 EDT Subject: [Baren 14443] Re: Woodblock process... one of the benifits of oil based ink you don't have to worry about the ink drying and with brayers down to 1/4" wide have printed 6 colors on one block lol but i do love learning about other styles of printing john of the furry press ------------------------------ From: "Garth Hammond" Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:07:26 -0600 Subject: [Baren 14444] Birthday gift charset="iso-8859-1" Bareners, I just got a new old book for my birthday. I am sure you printaholics have seen it before but mention it in case. Fritz Eichenberg "The Art of the Print". I had seen it before but never slowed down enough to see it. Very nice intro where he gives a good overview of Japanese print history. terms in context make sense. Good quality reproductions. I am painting again so the book is a lovely annoying distraction. Developing a case of rabbit mind. focus here No there No here garth ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 19:10:01 +0900 Subject: [Baren 14445] Re: Dave's Demo, boxwood ... April wrote: > Wonderful demonstration, Dave! hope you'll keep it up so I can tell my > students to check it out. Yes, it's now a permanent part of my Surimono Albums website (linked into the section 'How These Prints are Made') http://woodblock.com/surimono *** John wrote: > box wood? end grain or plank grain? In the traditional Japanese techniques, even boxwood is used on the plank. It's impossible to use it on the end grain for a couple of reasons: - - we're using the boxwood as an inlay into a plank, and swelling and shrinking in the wrong direction would soon render it useless if it was end grain. - - the inlay becomes invisible, and the tools have to glide right across from cherry to boxwood. It just wouldn't be practical to use knives for the cherry, and burins or gouges for the boxwood. On this page there are photos of a block with a boxwood inlay being prepared: http://woodblock.com/surimono/process/process_1.html > box wood is hard to get in the usa ... If you go over to Woodlike Matsumura's English website at: http://www.woodlike.co.jp/index_en_frame.html ... and follow the link to 'end grain wood', you might find something of interest. (And don't miss the photo of his boxwood stock!) I'm sorry that we haven't got this wood into the [Baren Mall] yet, but if you want to get some, please write to the Mall Manager ... Dave ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest v15 #1420 *****************************