[Baren] Daily Digest

Today's postings

[Baren 34918] Re: I'm a'leavin' on a jet plane... (Ruth Leaf)
[Baren 34919] Spring 2008 Exchange & Food sign ups w/ FOP ("Heather P.")
[Baren 34920] Carving fruitwood (rsimola # netzero.net)
[Baren 34921] Re: Carving fruitwood (Formschnider # aol.com)
[Baren 34922] Re: Carving fruitwood (rsimola # netzero.net)
[Baren 34923] Re: Carving fruitwood ("steffan ziegler")
[Baren 34924] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)

Message 1
From: Ruth Leaf
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:19:58 -0800
Subject: [Baren 34918] Re: I'm a'leavin' on a jet plane...
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Jim, What a great set of drawings. Good luck on your next venture.
Ruth

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Message 2
From: "Heather P."
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:16:45 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 34919] Spring 2008 Exchange & Food sign ups w/ FOP
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Four Oceans Press is still having sign-ups for their third Hand-pulled Print exchange.
There are 16 more spots available - I hope you will consider joining this Spring 2008 print exchange.

All of the details can be found on their website at
http://www.fouroceanspress.com/exchange.html

Theme: SPRING

Color: B/W or Color. Color is encouraged, but we love a good b/w image.

Image Size: At least 6” x 8” but no larger than 8.5” x 11”.

Paper Size: Paper must be no larger than 8.5” x 11”. It is OK if the image bleeds
off the edge of the paper.

Medium: Woodblock, Linoleum, Serigraph, Lithograph or Intaglio

Paper type: Any archival paper appropriate to your printing method can be used.

Print Deadline: April 15, 2008

Their first exchange has been mailed back to the Artists involved and you can see all
the prints on the archive page at http://www.fouroceanspress.com/archive_fall_2007.html

If you can not get involved this time, check the website regularly for the next
exchange and other projects. If you need a longer period of time to finish prints please
consider joining the Food Alphabet Exchange ( Letters still Open are: D, I, J, K, L, N,
R, U, V, W & Y ) Sign ups are now, but the prints are not due until June 2008.
http://www.fouroceanspress.com/exchange_alphabet.html

Take a Look, Read, Consider and then Sign up.
www.fouroceanspress.com

As always, Thank you to all the Artists on the Baren who have been a part of the Four
Oceans Press Exchanges or other Exchanges that I have been a part of. Baren is such a
great place to meet other print-makers & learn more about printmaking :)

Thanks & Smiles,
Heather
www.heatherpiazza.com

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Message 3
From: rsimola # netzero.net
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:21:30 -0800
Subject: [Baren 34920] Carving fruitwood
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Does anyone have experience carving fruitwood? I was just given some
persimmon and can get plum, peach, apricot, apple, and olive wood. I
have a little experience with cherry. Are the other woods easier or
harder to carve than cherry? Do they hold a fine line? Are they
brittle? I know I will have to wait for a couple of years for the wood
to dry, so I don't need an immediate answer :)

Bob

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Message 4
From: Formschnider # aol.com
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:11:09 EST
Subject: [Baren 34921] Re: Carving fruitwood
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I have carved apple and pear (which is a dream to carve would explain why
Albrecht durer used pear) For the finest lines try hard maple. I have never
used Japanese cherry how different is it from American cherry. Each project
requires one kind of wood for the most detailed I use hard maple, next choice
is cherry, I have used black walnut which has an interesting grain but you
can't get as much detail as with cherry. For things that don't need a lot of
detail or are large I use maple faced plywood and I have even used leno
blocks for some of my lettering. The lino works very well for things with a lot
of curves and flat areas fine details not so well.
john c.

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Message 5
From: rsimola # netzero.net
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:59:24 -0800
Subject: [Baren 34922] Re: Carving fruitwood
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John,

Thank you for the information. I am getting the wood from my
tree-trimmer. He primarily works on fruit trees and is willing to give
me as much wood as I want--as long as I don't want anything more than
three to six inches in diameter. And since I most often work on small
projects, this will not be a hindrance.

Bob

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Message 6
From: "steffan ziegler"
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:04:34 -0800
Subject: [Baren 34923] Re: Carving fruitwood
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I envy your chance to experiment with so many exotic woods! pear and olive
sound exciting, but I've heard that apple works well too.

I've carved in american cherry, and i use it as often as I can, because
it lets me make fine lines, and it is easy to carve against and with the
grain. Cherry is a very pretty wood as well, and I find that if I sand off
the relief surfaces, and leave the black ink staining the troughs, then
apply a little tung oil to seal the wood, (if i don't plan on printing it
again, that is) I have the block as a display item as well as the prints.
Maple is too hard for my tastes and makes the knives go dull too quickly. I
used mahogany in school quite a bit, since it was being used to refinish the
auditoriums and I could obtain scraps, and I must say that when you could
find a center cut with no cracks or blemishes, it was a complete joy to work
with, by far the best wood I've used. This latest block (for exchange 35,)
was black walnut, and it was very good as well, carved easily with and
against the grain, and held a line very well, although I've heard of people
being allergic to the dust. (The walnut block is quite asthetically
pleasing as a hunk of wood as well.) Poplar is quite good as a cheaper
alternative, it carves easily, and creates a very nice line, a little less
fine than cherry.

I seem to recall that magnolia was sometimes a traditional wood for
woodblocks, and I would someday like to try that.

I've carved in my share of terrible woods as well, pine, spruce, etc, go
without mentioning. Oak was as hard as maple, and cutting against the grain
was nearly impossible, as the wood would splinter and chip like pine, and
the finer lines would chip or even "snap off" after they'd been carved so I
had to take great care when printing. In the end I had a passable image from
the oak block, but it was not worth the trouble it took at all.

When all I could find was construction material, I've even used MDF, which
is available all over the place in woodblock sized hunks for free if you
keep your eyes open. MDF carves well, but you can not use water based inks
or soak the block, because it will swell. Since MDF has no grain, I often
used it for images that I wanted to carve using a dremel tool or a pneumatic
carving tool, since the grain won't catch the bit and pull it somewhere in
the image that I don't want it to go.

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Message 7
From: Blog Manager
Date: 29 Jan 2008 04:55:40 -0000
Subject: [Baren 34924] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification
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Baren Archives

[Baren] - the International Forum for Woodblock Printmaking

Volume: 42 / Number: 4210

Tuesday, 29th of January, 2008

Today's postings

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