![]() It has worked quite well, at least by my standards. And one of the things that most struck me is that, wonder of wonders, I'm not the only person who finds the medium difficult!!! But also I'm not the only one who can't resist continuing with it.įinally, after I'd finished re-carving the line block, I was able to concentrate more on color and using the murasaki baren to get better paint coverage. I think I've listened to four episodes now. I've also been listening, thanks to McClain's Printmaking Supplies mentioning it in a recent newsletter, to The Unfinished Print, a series of podcasts with interviews of contemporary moku hanga printmakers. Sometimes I think I'm making progress and other times I'm not so sure. But the title also explains my feelings about moku hanga. ![]() What other kind of progress is there? If it's bad it must be regression not progression. So when I use 'good progress' in the title to this post I'm joking. Going forward(argh!!!) I try not to use redundancies, verbal barnacle-like accretions that clarify nothing and just weigh down sentences, etc. By using that method my re-carving had none of the broken lines of my first line block!Īs anyone who's read this blog for a while probably knows I'm not fond of bad use of the English language. He said that this relieved the pressure on the wood as he carved. I'd always understood that this line was cut AFTER the real carving. But at one point he cut a line about a quarter inch from the fine lines he planned to carve. Because he spoke in Japanese and was then translated I couldn't follow everything. And I'm sure I would have spent even more time on the carving if I hadn't watched another demo from the 2017 International Moku Conference, this one by master carver Shoichi Kitamura. I spent more time testing the wood and my carving abilities than I did testing the new baren. So I had to give up on that block and re-carve the block that included all of the lines. It's possible that the wood had dried out a bit and that was the problem, but mainly I think it was that I was trying to cut pretty thin lines for the size of the wood. Here the somewhat thin line seemed to break before I'd touched the carving knife to the wood. The ink on the brush seemed to almost leap from the brush to the paper where it created a huge blob, before the brush even touched the paper. It reminded me of my first first Chinese brush paintings from many years ago. That made some sense, until I saw all my carved lines crumble in front of me as I tried to carve them. I also decided to use a small 5.75x8 inch Shina block since it was just a test. I decided that a simple design was probably the best way to test it. Eventually I bought a murasaki baren from McClain's Printmaking Supplies. In any case, and particularly after watching a video of Hideki Goto, master baren maker, from the 2107 International Moku Hanga Conference, I decided it was time to buy a better baren. But I always have a nagging unhappiness with some part of each print and normally it seems to be due to uneven paint coverage, though there are of course always just the plain old mistakes of one sort or another that are always there. I started off with just about the cheapest baren you could buy, eventually bought and used a plastic baren designed by Kurosaki and have replaced the face numerous times. I'm now approaching my 5th year of moku hanga, though since I've done a fair amount of painting during that time, it's really not a full five years. There is a certain amount of subjectivity when choosing carving tools because everyone's hand is a little different so what's comfortable for one person might not be for another person.Original moku hanga of 'Ruby-crowned Kinglet on Honeysuckle - Winter 2021'. Josei Moku Hanga To: I think these are the best tools available for the price. My favorites are the versatile 6.0 mm "V" gouge and the big 10.5 mm "U" gouge for clearing large areas of wood or lino. My favorites are the 6.0 mm and 9.0 mm "U" tools. I prefer the "U" gouges over the "V" gouges. ![]() Power Grip : you can get a nice set of Power Grip tools for between $20-$50. One downside of this tool is that it's best used on linoleum and soft "rubber" carving blocks (like Speedy Carve and MOO Carve), not wood. I find the small "V" gouge indispensable. Speedball Linoleum Cutter: While some printmakers might consider this mearly a beginner's tool, I love it and use it all the time when carving linoleum. It includes a Speedball Linoleum Cutter, a couple Power Grip "U" gouges and numerous Josei Moku Hanga To tools of different sizes. My preferred set of tools is an assortment of different brands that balance cost and quality.
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