![]() I selected a dozen prints for a ‘first edition’ of 12, and the remaining 19 decent prints for the ‘Baren edition’. Normally the Baren exchanges require 31 prints, but there were only 18 moku-hanga printmakers participating, so only 19 were ultimately required. I LOVE the soft gray of the dry graphite pigment I used (plus some Guerra Paint and Pigment Channel Black pigment dispersion to make the darker values for blocks 9-17. I carved and printed the entire stack of (36) sheets in long two days and, to my eye, these are gorgeous little jewels. Kento registration (notches to receive the paper carved into each block) makes it quick and easy to achieve the very precise registration required to reprduce tiny details of eye, hair, clothing, stripes, etc and the hosoban sheet size for the baren exchange makes it a snap to print quickly. Video illustrates printing of this edition – it’s a nice somewhat meditative activity, isn’t it? Most of my blocks since 2004 have been machine-carved this way. Sanguine is also a family of pigments of red earth shades (where it takes the origin of its name in French). A fixative may be applied to preserve the finished state of the drawing. As with pastel, a mid-toned paper may be put to good use. Then I generated the code to control my CNC router and carved the blocks on a half-sheet of half-inch birch plywood. In the form of wood-cased pencils and manufactured sticks, sanguine may be used similarly to charcoal and pastel. Experience is teaching me about the subtleties of carving to make use of the 'chatter' (the wood texture) and the. I learned very quickly to watch my value range between the two blocks and to print the lighter values first in this case. I carved 18 blocks for this print, designing the blocks exactly as if I’d intended to hand-carve. Below I have the visual documentation of the process from sketch to print including the the carved blocks. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Baren exchanges were almost exclusively moku-hanga (traditional Japanese printmaking technique) – now most members print Western-style (oily) relief prints and us Japanese technique folks are a small minority. It had been a long time since I’d participated in a Baren exchange (I’m a co-author of the Baren web site and active on its steering committee, Baren Coucil). Years ago I’d really loved printing the stripes of a seersucker robe and Kit’s striped dress was a natural for another attempt when hosted its 54th print exchange – this one all moku-hanga. My intern this year, Madeline Cass (who is responsible for scanning and data entry of my collection of Japanese prints – see ), and her roommate, Kit Landwehr, modeled for me June 8.
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