Glossary (working version)

I invite the members of Baren forum (and the readers of this web page) to work collectively on a glossary to be added to the encyclopedia.

My role is to compile and edit. Yours is to suggest terms and/or definitions, approving and criticizing as we go. Baren members can simply post to the forum. Others may email me directly. Let the games begin!!

Mary Krieger
Winnipeg MB Canada

a la poupée (French)

to ink a block using a dauber

brayer (English), roller (English), rolo ou rolo de tintagem (Portuguese)

A device for rolling ink onto the woodblock; it consists of a cylinder—the roller—made of rubber, glycerin, or a composition material which is set into a handle and which comes in various hardnesses measured in units of "durometer"; for relief printing the roller is usually between 15 and 60 durometer, 15 being soft and 60 hard. The ink is taken up onto the brayer from an even film of ink spread onto an inking slab usually with the the brayer itself.
Instrumento utilizado para distribuir a tinta sobre matriz, ou sobre a placa de madeira; consiste num cilindro—o rolo—feito de borracha, de glicerina ou de um material composto ao qual está ligado a uma pega e que pode apresentar diversas durezas, medidas em unidades de "durómetros"; para a gravura em relevo, o rolo tem, geralmente, entre 15 e 60 durómetros, sendo 15 um valor considerado macio e 60 considerado duro. A tinta adere ao rolo a partir de uma fina camada espalhada usualmente sobre uma superfície lisa com o próprio rolo.

burin (English), burin (French), buril (Portuguese)

an engraving tool, also known as a graver. The mushroom shaped handle fits into the palm of the hand and is held with the little finger curled under the lip while the shaft is guided between the thumb and forefinger. The cutting face is a point resulting from sharpening the two lower edges of the tool and its slanting face. Very gentle steady pressure is used to engrave lines in the material being engraved. It is traditional when carving to turn the work, not the tool when carving curves. Burins are available with square or lozenge faces. They are used to engrave wood, metal and epoxy resin (ie Resingrave). These tools are also used for hand engraving metal by jewellers and other craftspeople.

colophon (English)

Generally, a page in a book devoted to details of its typography, construction and other details of publication. A colophon page is included with each Baren exchange portfolio listing all participants, the theme if any and a message from the exchange coordinator.

dauber (English)

a roll of leather used to put ink onto a block, now usually used to touch up a block inked with a roller or to add colour in a localized area

dragonskin (English)

rough metal mounted on a piece of wood, used for conditioning the brushes used to mix pigment and starch paste on the printing block in traditional Japanese woodcut.

durometer (English)

a unit of measurement for the hardness of materials which is maintained by an international standards organization named ASTM International. Durometer is measured using an instrument which is in turn called a durometer. The durometer is pressed against the roller and a reading taken from its gauge. Printing rollers tend to be between 15 and 60 durometer. Rollers used for printing letterpress types are optimally 15 durometer. Varying hardnesses of rollers (and consistencies of ink) are used in intaglio in the technique called viscosity printing.

end grain (English)

the wood grain that is at right angles to the direction of growth. This grain provides the same resistance to cutting in all directions. As wood varies in density and texture from the central core to the outer layer, most endgrain blocks are made up of smaller selected blocks glued together. End grain blocks are traditionally used by wood engravers

gyotaku (Japanese)

to ink and print a dead fish (instructions)

hanga (Japanese)

In parts of the world, used to specifically refer to the tradtional Japanese method of making woodcuts printing on dampened paper with a mixture of starch paste and pigment using a baren.

In Japan, a print, no matter how its is created.

hangi (Japanese)

the block we actually print from

ink knife (English)

a tool with a flat steel blade about one and a half inches wide used to work printing ink into the correct consistency, to mix coloured ink, to mix in ink modifiers and to spread ink ready to be rolled out. Outside of printmaking, the same tool is known as a scraper and is used for applying plaster to small holes in walls and scraping stuff off other stuff.

inking slab (English)

a flat, non-porous surface that is used to mix and roll out printing ink, often made of glass.

make ready (English)

If you are printing on a letterpress printing press, your block has to be "type high." As wood is an organic substance, it expands and contracts due to moisture content etc. and blocks are rarely exactly type high. To compensate, you generally have to add or subtract make ready. This can be done by adding sheets of thin paper such as newsprint to the back of the block or it can be done on the tympan. The tympan is on the roller that applies the pressure to print the block.

The expert letterpress printer controls the pressure to bring out is hidden in the block. This again can be done in a number of ways eater on the block or on the press. You would think that you would want a perfectly flat block but that is not always the case there are times that the engraver would sand the edges of an image or other parts so that the block would be slightly lower in certain areas so as to print grayer instead of jet black. The printer could also create this effect by gluing very thin sheets of paper on part of the tympan that would hit those parts of the block you would want to print a jet black leaving the rest of the block to print lighter.

All of these printers "tricks" can be learned on a letterpress press as the block and tympan are fixed and print in the same place. If you are using an etching press it is second best as it is much harder to fix the block to the tympan. The advantage of an etching press is that the block does not have to be type high and it would print a warped block easier. But you can't print the block with the same finesse as with a letterpress. The best you can do is to lock a block into a printer's chase and then construct a tympan like the one used on a "Washington Hand press" and attach it to the printer's chase.

methylcellulose (English)

a powder made from cellulose that when mixed with water forms a gel. Can be used instead of rice paste in traditional Japanese woodblock printing. It is the major ingredient in some wallpaper pastes which is a convenient way to obtain it for use in printmaking.

moku-hanga (Japanese)

In parts of the world, used to specifically refer to the tradtional Japanese method of making woodcuts printing on dampened paper with a mixture of starch paste and pigment using a baren.

In Japan, a woodcut, no matter how it is printed. (moku = tree, or wood + han = plate (as in printing plate, not eating plate) + ga = picture, image)

print (English), hanga (Japanese)

an image printed from a matrix. Common traits for printmaking techniques include the potential to create multiple copies of the same image, a history that includes commercial mass-production and an indirect method for creating the image. Printmaking is usually considered to include woodcut, linocut, wood engraving, etching, engraving, lithography, and silkscreen. Some areas of the world consider photography to be included in printmaking, others do not.

printer's chase (English)

a metal frame used to hold type and other printing elements together during inking and printing.

registration (English)

ensuring that a block prints where the printer wants it on the paper. Especially important when printing multiple times on the same piece of paper in order to create multicolour images or other desirable effects. Methods include a variety of systems that allow the printer to drop the printing paper on the block in a consistent manner throughout the printing process.

rice paste (English)

In traditional Japanese woodblock, the blocks are printed by mixing pigment in solution and rice paste directly on the surface of the block. Several recipies from the Baren Encyclopedia

sosaku-hanga

literally means original print, but has the historical meaning of prints where the drawing, the making of the matrix, and the printing are all done by the artist him/herself. Rather than method, it refers to total artistic control. See 'Traditional' vs 'Creative' printmaking

shunga (Japanese), pillow book (English)

Western art history gives a very narrow and misleading look at the subject matter of the Ukiyo-e prints. The townsmen of the time gave themselves over to fleeting delights and spendthrift behavior, drowning their cares in the enticements of the pleasure quarters. As one of their songs had it "Life is but a dream—enjoy it while you can." And the ukiyo-e-ehi, the artists who skillfully depicted this floating world, were admiringly described as those who painted the Naka-no-cho, which no artist of the Kano or the Tosa school could do." In other words, the ukiyo-e-shi pictured such sights as the main street of the Yoshiwara, the celebrated brothel district of Edo, (Tokyo) choosing subjects that no painter of the established academic schools would ever dare to portray. Some estimates that the percentage of wood cuts that made up the art related to pillow books was close to 50% of all the wood cuts done in Japan.
these are supposed to be very erotic correct??

tack (English)

the stickiness of an ink. Tack can be short or long. Inks with a long tack can be drawn out in long strings; those with a short tack break off quickly. Different printing methods require inks with different tack characteristics. Typically inks prepared for use in lithography have a longer tack than those used in block printing. Etching inks have a shorter tack than either. Ink that is too tacky may tear away pieces of the paper surface when the print is lifted from the block. Tack can be reduced by adding a variety of ink modifiers. Which you choose depends on what type of ink you are using, how much you want to modify the initial tack and what printing method you are using.

type-high (English)

when woodblocks were designed to be printed simultaneously with type, the printing surface of the block had to match the printing surface of the type. Type-high is 23.3 millimeters (0.9186 inch).

Ukiyo-e (Japanese)

generally translated as "scenes of the floating world" and used to refer to a period of woodblock production in Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Library of Congress exhibition

wood (English), bois (French), madeira (Portuguese)

the part of a tree between the center and the bark—in woodblock printing, used to make the printing block
a parte da árvore entre o centro e a casca—na xilogravura é utilizada como matriz ou seja, para fazer o bloco para a impressão.

woodcut (English), woodblock (English), moku hanga (Japanese)

an image printed from a wooden block

wood engraving (English), ko-guchi-moku-han (Japanese)

a variety of woodcut where the image is cut into the end grain of the wood, often using burins and other engraving tools. For more information, seek out the Wood Engravers Network.

wood grain (English), mokume (Japanese)

the pattern created by the difference in hardness in wood produced during the different growing periods (warm/cool or wet/dry) experienced by the tree. Each species of tree has a specific grain structure—some of which are more appropriate for particular carving styles. Wood resists cuts made across the grain more than cuts made with the grain.

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Mary Krieger