Baren Hand, Woodblock Elbow.

          Yikes! What have I been doing? The injuries mentioned above are not listed as such in any medical text book, but will no doubt ring a bell with anyone who has ever tried carving a wood or lino block and printing it. I've been experimenting over the past few weeks with various forms of relief printing, using (on left) shina plywood, cherry wood top right, middle right lino, Resingrave bottom right. Along the way I found some wonderful web resources, particularly Baren Forum with informative articles and helpful comments from artists of all kinds, and notably a very open willingness to share their knowledge and experience.

          However, nothing replaces the 'hands on' experience of actually cutting the block, inking it and printing. I've learned so much, spoiled lots of blocks and came to the conclusion that I need a parallel existence for this activity alone. Not having that option, the battle goes on. Some of the tools I bought are too big for miniature work, and I'm now waiting for two 1mm and 1.5mm u-shaped chisels to fly from Japan into my mailbox. Ditto some new blocks from McClains. Sometimes there are too many choices, too much information. I am gradually narrowing it down, but it takes a while to decide how you want your images to look, and how they will fit in with the text. One method that I may decide to use goes by the alarming nick-name of 'suicide block'.

          The reduction print process, aka 'suicide' method, is a process by which the block is first carved so that the first printing reveals the paper colour in the areas you carved away, then re-carved and inked and printed, this last stage being repeated as required, till at the end there is very little wood left. It's called a suicide block because you have to print at least as many prints as you need for the edition (allowing for 'duds') because once you have recarved the block there is no going back. Mistakes at any stage are not recoverable, you would have to start over and carve a new block. There are certain advantages to this method, it can save carving several blocks and can also help with registration. But it does need careful planning and is not suitable for every type of print. Some people use a combination of reduction and multiple blocks to extend the range of colours that can be used.
          I made a very simple print with one shina plywood block to try out this process, using Akua water-based colours, a brayer (ink roller), dry paper and a baren. A baren is a disc-shaped Japanese tool covered with a bamboo leaf wrapper. It is used in a circular motion for rubbing the back of the prints to transfer ink from block to paper. You can also use the back of a spoon, but the structure of the baren is designed to give an even pressure over the whole print, imparting a more uniform appearance. I hasten to stress that this print is not for use in the book, just a practice block to try out the method and materials. I didn't have a small plywood block so used a large one, with a 'ditch' cut around the size I needed. 
          Lots more carving practice is required and thought as to how to work out the colour schemes and printing sequences, as well as the actual images. Registration on these tiny blocks is a challenge. Shown below are the tools I used to carve the block, a knife, a u-shaped chisel and a v-shaped chisel. Also shown are the disc-shaped baren, and the home-made registration jig I use to make sure the block hits the paper in the same position each time. I learned a lot from my experiments. If I intend to use this method, I'll have to print lots of extras to allow for 'uglies' at each stage.

          Tools, blocks, inks and papers come mainly from McClains and Baren Mall (found on the BarenForum site). Both these suppliers are good to deal with in my experience.

          I haven't yet decided on the paper, as it will depend a bit on the images I come up with, and on whether I stay with water-based inks or go for oil-based. I've been trying various Japanese print-making papers, being lighter in weight that their western counterparts. Some papers and inks give a more solid area of colour, others have a more grainy texture. I'm waiting for some more paper samples from another supplier, Graphic Chemical, new to me. As my experiments progess, ideas change so nothing is set in stone at this stage. I may revert to just one or two colours, and I have yet to try printing on my press. I just like to try everything before I decide. (Hint: never go shopping with me.)

          Finally, I read an interview with the author David Mitchell, (Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green), where he describes his creative process in this way: "My books coagulate, very slowly indeed, in a gloppy primordial idea-soup"...

While in no way equating my work with his, the creative process for me is equally slow and amorphous, and inches forward a little at a time. I'm hoping by the time my new chisels and blocks arrive that my arm and hand will have repaired, and in the meantime I'll be working on sketches for the images in the book.

Paper Trail III - Paper for Relief Printing; two new online exhibitions

Creating a handmade book of any kind is rather like baking a cake: you choose and measure your ingredients, put them together according to a recipe, and voilà! You have a cake. Or a book. Sounds simple. But of course, behind the scenes, there is someone making butter, someone growing and milling the wheat, caning the sugar… thousands of ingredients, millions of recipes, and infinite variations of cakes, and books. 

I’m still at the ‘ingredients gathering’ stage with this book, and how the cake, er, book turns out  depends on those ingredients, so I am considering very carefully what to use. I’m going to use a relief printing method to illustrate this book (to me the illustrations are the plums in the cake), and will use a different paper for them. The properties  required for printing the text are different from those needed for the prints. These will be hand-pulled prints from carved blocks. It’s a method I haven’t used before so it’s a steep learning curve. You have been warned.

I’m looking for a thin translucent paper, probably Japanese and handmade, and have a few options in mind, but I’m still doing trials and until I have a firmer idea in my mind of what I want these images to look like, I will leave my options open. This type of paper can be pretty expensive, so I don’t want to make a mistake. Comments on this and suggestions positively encouraged.

Notable  Online Exhibitions

There is a long and delightful association between fine press books and wood engravings, and they are still very popular. I feasted my eyes this weekend on the Society of Wood Engravers new online gallery of  artists’ prints selected for their forthcoming exhibition.  One of my favourites is 'Dinner is Served' on page 10. I have been following the creative process on Sue the artist’s blog, it’s fascinating to ‘watch’ other people at work. The sea gull is a real character.  Wood engravings are made from hand carved endgrain blocks of wood or synthetic materials, and printed by or under the direction of the artist, often in small limited editions.

Another new online exhibition is called Artists' Books: Bound in Art, launched recently by the Library and Archives Canada. This was originally conceived to show the work of Canadian small presses and book artists who had contributed their works to LAC under the “Legal Deposit” requirement. My ‘Sonnet XVIII’  makes an appearance under ‘Illustrated books’ . Sadly MIA are the brilliant works of many BC presses and artists, as well as those from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba … How can they leave out "Circus" from Shanty Bay Press? Beats me.