What on Earth Did You Do With YOUR Cairn? (Send me photos!)

Lynita Shimizu stuck it to the ceiling above her work area!

I did it!  The our Cairn is on the ceiling.  I used my head (literally to hold it up while I screwed) three pieces of plexi, 24 screws, and 24 washers.  I love it  up there.  If you'd like to share the image with the Forum, please feel free to do so.  Eventually I'll put it on my website but at the moment I don't have patience to set up any place to post it.  As you can see, I print right below it.  My cutting area is on the left.  Yeah! Lynita Shimizu

I'm taking mine to my workshop to show off the work of my Baren friends...

What did you do?

7/3/2008

I'm going to recap the last weeks of the project. You can click above to see the final image. You can now download the colophon as a .pdf file or, if you participated, just wait for your copy in the mail along with the print. Mailing was delayed by 1) a redesign of the colophon, 2) a lost shipment of Priority Mail Boxes from the Post Office, and 3) life.

Anyhow, here's how the last few weeks went. As usual, click on any image to see it larger.
First some details on how the blocks are proofed and fixed for obvious printing problems. Any work invested in the extra preparation is rewarded with cleaner prints and less "fussing" during printing.

The first step is to ink the block lightly but evenly and pull a proof to see potential problems. Above, side by side are the block and proof for the top block, which I printed last.

First things are first, the easy part, off with the edges! I lower the edges quite a bit because the roller is very large and heavy and will tend to fall off the edge areas into the non-printing areas.

Then I clean up all the "dirty blocks" (below 2 right pics) or blocks where the background is already catching ink even with a light inking. Some of the blocks were carved very shallow and needed to be recarved almost in their entirety. Good thing I like carving.

  After cleaning up most of the blocks which I knew would dirty up the background, came time to take care of the problem children. These were blocks that weren't on the level with the others for one reason or another. Most of the time, they were proofed blocks (hint, hint) that had been proofed with waterbased inks. Some of them I knew went to more humid climates--well, let's face it, every climate is more humid than the Mojave Desert at 2-4% average--but these blocks must have taken up a bunch of humidity and then upon drying out shrank a bit.

Here is how to check the level and fix problem blocks.

The easiest way to check level is to lay a straight-edge ruler on its edge and "see the light" under the problem blocks. Above is the worst of the examples, a darned shame because this was one of the cutest blocks and I ended up losing the image. The block was badly warped with the middle almost an 1/8" lower than the edges. I tried to rescue the poor "petit chien" by popping the block out, glueing blotter paper under the low spots in layers until I got him to print properly.

I would like everyone to notice how darned cute the poor little thing is because I could only get about 60 good prints off him. After stopping to clean the block every 10 or so prints, adjusting the height 4 times during printing which required popping off the block again and either adding or subtracting blotter paper, I finally lost all definition and couldn't get a good print off this little block even by itself. I think I wore him out. I cried, I begged, I sacrificed a cockroach to appease the printmaking gods, no good, the little cute fellow was gone.

Apologies to the author!

Once more, another way to check the level, with the uninked actual roller that I will use to ink the block. No light underneath! Victory! I roll back and forth on all blocks at various angles while peeking between roller and block to make sure that the roller is touching every surface. The picture at right shows the tools needed to fix the blocks, white glue, blotter paper, masking tape, a screw driver for prying (don't worry, I'm careful), matboard and paper towels. Enough woodchips on the floor! Time for a break.

Two days later...Well done! Printing is all done, my entire house is filled with the delicious perfume of printmaking ink, the studio looks like a studio...even a project "on deck" awaits. Well, as soon as I'm done mailing and updating these webpages!

That's it! Download the colophon, print out your "participant key", and savor every image
by clicking on them from the FINAL IMAGE PAGE

What will be next? A Baren Garden? A Baren Collective Mind? Hmmm...

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PUZZLE PROJECT #1
"WHAT IS BAREN?"A PUZZLE BY ITS MEMBERS"

DETAILS    INSTRUCTIONS TO PARTICIPANTS!     PARTICIPANTS LIST
STAY TUNED FOR PUZZLE PROJECT #2, COMING IN SPRING/SUMMER 2004...

DIARY IN PHOTOS:
JUNE 2003 | OCTOBER 2003 | JANUARY 2004 | FINAL IMAGE | COLOPHON |

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