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Message 1
From: Shelley Hagan
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:51:48 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38015] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V46 #4692 (Jan 31, 2009)
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Hi Bareners. It's been a few days since my last post (we rescued a puppy and
it is like having a third child but without the nine months to prepare) but
I have been following the threads and wanted to chime in with my 2cents.

I love using Rives BFK, especially when printing multiple impressions. I
have had good luck keeping it consistently damp despite my somewhat sloppy
and unpredictable studio conditions. I find that it is very forgiving and
can be dried and rewet to a similar dampness to make registration possible.
Of course, I often do not have incredibly precise registration. I never know
how much of this is due to paper conditions, studio conditions, or my lack
of experience with the various registration methods. I'm not certain but I
think Rives bfk is 100% cotton and seems to be readily available.

I have only begun printmaking in the past year or so and am now working on
my 5th woodblock. I wouldn't say my experience is great but I do
meticulously document everything I do from studio conditions to ink
mixtures, etc. I have tried several styles of registration with varying
success.

Andrew, I used a printing jig for a block that had very small margins. I had
problems aligning the 5 separate blocks (the problems were related to my
inexperience thinking "backwards" that printmaking requires) onto the jig
but once in place printing went well. Every now and then I had to resecure
the block to the jig as I found it would begin to slip a little. I was using
duct tape to hold the block to the jig. I'm sure there must be a better way
to do this but again, I at this point I am happy with "mostly registered"
prints. : )

My husband picked up an old book binding press and when using this I have
registered with kentos. I find it challenging to get the kento marks
consistent across multiple blocks. I do like this system though. It seems to
be very versatile and makes it easy to print with the book binding press. I
have purchased some maple for the year of the ox prints and will begin
carving today. As this print will be a reduction process using kento
registration will go smoothly but I have been contemplating adding another
plate just to further practice the method.

Sorry for the long post - I've wanted to chime in before now but everytime I
sit in front of the computer the pup finds a sock to run off with. Of course
he's doing it just to get my attention so I've now warned the kids and hubby
that all socks left on the floor will no longer be guarded by me.

Shelley

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Message 2
From: Jan Telfer
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:47:24 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38016] Exciting Atagami papers
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Exciting Atagami papers!

These papers are the "throw away" papers used between the back of your
good printing paper and the swirling baren to enable the baren to
travel smoothly because of wet printing paper, or to stop ink getting
on to the baren or stop the good printing paper from fluffing..... or
for whatever reason you need a piece of paper between the print paper
and the baren!!

These papers can be scrap paper, photocopy paper, litho paper, whatever
you have handy that allows the baren to run smoothly.

Well, I always keep my atagami papers and play with them afterwards or
at a later date sometimes using them over again or printing another
block directly on top of them... for fun. eg. My Christmas cards of
Holly I did in 2007 I kept using the atagami papers over and over again
and the outline of the holly and the red berries are no longer in
"design" order but higgelty piggelty on the page and I coloured in some
leaves and some berries and left the other faded areas as they were
when dried....... the atagami pages are MUCH MORE "exciting" than the
original design..... Boring!!

Similarly, I had some old papers in the shed with various colours on
them and with the left over background yellowish ink from printing my
OX cards scrapped it off the perspex roll up area and spread it across
these papers. When it came to printing my Ox I printed over these
paint scrapings too, and boy how vibrant were they! Much more
exciting than my postcards....... sorry about that Guys!!

So my theory is never throw anything away, print over it over and over
again and the results may benefit your creative spirit !

My Year of the Ox postcards are printed and now drying so you should
get them delivered in February.

Enjoy,

Jan

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Subject: TV broadcast 'heads up' ...
Posted by: Dave Bull

This item is taken from the blog Woodblock RoundTable.
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