Today's postings

  1. [Baren 45089] Dave's carving tools (SUSAN KALLAUGHER)
  2. [Baren 45090] Re: Dave's carving tools (Graham Scholes)
  3. [Baren 45091] New member (greg.bentz # gfbentz.com)
  4. [Baren 45092] Re: Dave's carving tools (David Bull)
  5. [Baren 45093] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
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Message 1
From: SUSAN KALLAUGHER
Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:00:09 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45089] Dave's carving tools
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To Dave Bull:-
Will the lovely carving tools only be sold as sets or would you consider selling individual pieces to less affluent woodcut artists?
Thanks
Sue Kallaugher
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Message 2
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:22:34 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45090] Re: Dave's carving tools
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Hi Sue,

You might want to consider a set of carving tools that are very high quality and available from LeeValley here in Canada
The one slight disadvantage is that the blades are permanently fixed into the wooden handle. As the steel is so good
it usually only requires honing to sharpen the business end of the tools.

They have a Canada, United States, International sites.....

You can see the set of tools at......
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=44106&cat=1,130,43332,43334&ap=1
Click on Detail Carving Set of 5.... This is the set I like with a minor change in one tool.

The "75 Parting - 4.5mm" is not very useful for detail carving. I know that Lee Valley
have replaced this big tool for a smaller one.... "60 Parting - 3mm" or for even finer
detail, you can consider... "60 Parting - 1.5mm"

Let me know if you need any further help....

Graham
www.woodblockart.ca
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Message 3
From: greg.bentz # gfbentz.com
Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:09:42 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45091] New member
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Hi
I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Greg, I live in Saugus Mass. (just north of Boston) and I am just beginning to start in printmaking.
I am an art school dropout, spent thirty years in the commercial printing bidness (offset) as a prepress tech. I have been doing custom woodcarving for the past couple of years and am looking to take a new direction in an artform I have always been interested in. Being a woodcarver, i thought, how hard can it be? Boy was I wrong. I am still chosing subjects that are too complex for my skills, and have made a few interesting doorstops.
Before asking questions, I will need a few weeks reading the extensive archives. If anyone knows any groups etc. my area that may be of interest to me please dont hesitate to drop me an email.




Greg Bentz
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Message 4
From: David Bull
Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:00:56 GMT
Subject: [Baren 45092] Re: Dave's carving tools
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> Will the lovely carving tools only be sold as sets or would you
> consider selling individual pieces to less affluent woodcut artists?

Of course individually too; probably not with the first batch we
receive from the workshop, but certainly shortly after.

But I have to smile a bit at your use of the phrase 'less affluent
woodcut artists'. The reason that this little project got under way
was so that I could guarantee my _own_ supply of high quality blades,
which are becoming very difficult to obtain here. 'Tools for the
masses' was not the goal, and this first set that we are putting on
the market will _absolutely_ be more expensive than any of the other
ones currently available (from Baren Mall, Matsumura, McClains, etc.)

Once we get on our feet we intend to try and get the steelmakers to
prepare a completely different set of blades for us from a less
expensive steel - with the idea of producing tools that will still be
serviceable, yet which will be at a more reachable price.

This seems like kind of a backwards approach to take - surely it would
have made more sense to put the 'standard' set out first, and _then_
the premium ones - but this is just how the thing has come into
being ... beginning with my own requirements.

Dave

Digest Appendix

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

Subject: 'Hyakunin Issho' Newsletter: winter issue uploaded
Posted by: Dave Bull

The winter issue of David's newsletter is ready,
and uploaded to the website ...

This item is taken from the blog David Bull, Woodblock Printmaker.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: Video from the studio ...
Posted by: Dave Bull

The last few blog posts from here have all been over on the Mokuhankan Conversations side; time to update the Woodblock RoundTable too!

The occasion? Well, I'm unemployed again! :-)

Meaning, of course, that I have come to the end of another print series. The final impressions on the final print in the Mystique of the Japanese Print series were done this morning. The collector copies have actually all been sent out already; what I finished up today were the last of the ones that will be sent out as 'back numbers' as time goes by.

After I finished up my work, I grabbed my little point-and-shoot and shot a quick video of the scene behind my workbench ... I myself may be 'finished' for a while, but there is plenty of other work going on here today!

(entry continues here ...)

This item is taken from the blog Woodblock RoundTable.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: Catching Up 2: Long Tailed Tits
Posted by: Andy English

I have been wanting to include long tailed tits in an engraving for a long time. I see them in small groups when I take my daily walks and they are also frequent visitors to the bird feeders in the garden; here are a couple sharing their meal with a starling:




However, I wanted to show them as I see them in the hawthorn hedges, with Ely cathedral glimpsed in the background. I spent some time making sketchbook drawings and then trying to find a combination that worked as the image I had in my mind:



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

This item is taken from the blog Wood Engraver.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: An American Dragon in London, Barenforum exchange 51
Posted by: Phare-Camp

An American Dragon in London

Artist:   Patricia B. Phare-Camp
Paper:   10 x 15? Mulberry Paper
Image:  13 x 8?
Ink:      Graphic Chemical Water Soluble Ink. Silver and Black mixed to make Graphite.

Inspired by the historically significant rubbings of Merle Green Robertson.  The imagery in this woodcut print is from an appropriated work of art located at the British Museum.  Rubbings from historic sites eliminate the need to desecrate another culture?s sacred temples to display them in museums?

Yaxchilan Lintel #15 is a 23.25? x 34.5? Mayan bas relief carving dated from AD 755.  It depicts a noble lady performing a blood letting ritual to call in a vision.  Wisps of smoke from the basket of burning blood soaked paper take the form of a ?Plumed Vision Serpent.?  A god emerges from its mouth to give spiritual guidance to the lady Wak Tuun.  Mayan nobles often used hallucinogenic herbs to initiate religious vision and dull the pain of auto sacrifice.

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

This item is taken from the blog Phare-Camp Art Journal.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.