ajmarx.net

McClain’s Standard Quality Baren

August 13, 2025

aj marx

Mokuhanga

A few weeks ago, I re-covered my McClain’s “Standard Quality” baren (13cm version). After years of use, the original bamboo skin had developed a few cracks, and was overdue for replacement. During the re-covering, I took the opportunity to inspect the baren’s construction and take a few photos.

The McClain’s website doesn’t provide a ton of info about this baren, and there aren’t any high resolution photos available (for any of their products, in general). So I thought I’d share some photos and thoughts about the baren, with the hope that it’d be helpful to anyone that might be curious about this baren.

The baren’s cotton coil. This coiled rope creates a pattern of bumps which transfer pressure.

The coil is apparently made of cotton twine/rope. It was quite a bit harder/stiffer than I expected. I believe it may be impregnated with glue or something to harden it.

Coil close-up. The rope is about 1/8″ in diameter.

The back of the coil.
It is affixed to a substrate, which keeps it from unwinding.

The underside of the ategawa disk. It has a few concentric circle shims to give it a slightly convex shape.
The disk itself seems to be made mostly of paper/cardboard, except for the top layer.

The top side of the ategawa. It has a layer of fabric, which has some kind of dark blue coating/lacquer on top.

Close-up of the top side of the disk, which shows the fabric layer and coating.
The coating is a little bit grippy, which isn’t great, since it makes it difficult to rotate the disk within the bamboo sheath.

The original bamboo skin, which shows the coil’s bump pattern.
As mentioned in the previous photo, the coating on the disk made it difficult /impossible to rotate the disk & coil, resulting in the each bump being in a fixed location on the skin, rather than being distributed in a a circle.

Upon reading that it had a coil made of cotton, I thought that maybe it might be too soft; but it’s actually quite a bit harder/stiffer than I expected. It seems like it may be impregnated with glue or something to harden it.

I also like that the disk/ategawa (although being made of cardboard) had concentric shims to make it slightly rounded/convex. Although I wasn’t a big fan of the lacquer/coating on the top side of the disk, which is a little bit grippy/rubbery, and can make it difficult to rotate the disk within the bamboo skin.

Overall, I’m fairly impressed with the construction. For the price (about $42), I think it’s a decent value. Although, I don’t have any first-hand experience with other entry-level barens, so it’s hard to say how it compares to a Michihamono baren, or a Tanuki Prints baren, for example. Nowadays, I’m mainly using Murasaki barens from Kikuhide/Gotou-san, but the McClains Standard Quality baren help get me started on my printmaking journey.

As for my baren re-covering, I think it it turned out decently. It was my first time attempting this, so I did a couple of practice runs using newspaper instead of bamboo skin, to help figure out the motions and hand positioning. For the real re-covering, I used a skin/shedding from some bamboo that I found growing locally, so I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it seemed to do the job. It was just barely wide enough, and I had a little trouble with the skin splitting/cracking, but overall, I think it turned out okay for my first attempt.

mokuhanga, print, printmaking, woodblock
Samurai Jack Print

June 20, 2025

aj marx

Mokuhanga

I’ve been remiss in sharing updates on this website, but there are a few noteworthy things that have happened since my last post here, and a few things which may be happening in the not-too-distant future. However, if I try to enumerate all of these things in a single post, I’ll get bogged down in the details, and never get anything published.

So for now, I’ll simply share the first (chronologically speaking) item in my backlog, which is that I’ve created a woodblock print based on show “Samurai Jack.” I created this in the summer of 2024. This print depicts the fateful encounter between Jack and Aku in the very first episode of the show:

This print was a bit tricky since it has no key lines, and registration/alignment of the various colors was therefore quite sensitive. It’s not totally perfect, but I’m fairly happy with how it turned out, and I learned a few things in the process.

I’ll keep this post short, but for more details about this print, including more photos, details about the color separation, and various issues that I encountered along the way, you can check the Samurai Jack page under the “Prints” section of the site: https://ajmarx.net/prints/samurai-jack

As for future updates, I’ll try to be more diligent in posting here more frequently. I’ve got a few items in the backlog, and a couple other post ideas on the back burner, so hopefully it won’t be quite so long until the next one.

meta, mokuhanga, print, printmaking, woodblock
PSA: Awagami Shiramine Select

June 10, 2024

aj marx

Mokuhanga

This is just a quick post to help clarify some information about Awagami Factory’s “Shiramine Select” paper. Specifically, that it is unsized.

(Note: Awagami has two papers with the “shiramine” moniker: Shiramine, and Shiramine Select. This post pertains only the “Select” version. The non-Select Shiramine is sized, is sold as a roll, and has some other minor differences. )

There are many websites and retailers that describe Shiramine Select as being sized. However, I had been skeptical of these claims for a few years. After a recent discussion with some other printmakers, we sought clarification from Awagami, and they confirmed our suspicion that it was unsized.

Apparently, Shiramine Select was originally a sized paper, but at some point (circa 2019?), Awagami changed the paper to be unsized. However, the old description of the paper still persists on many retailers’ websites, such as Blick, Jackson’s, and so on, and so on. Pretty much every website where it is sold describes it as being “generously sized,” which is no longer accurate.

Awagami’s own Japanese product page updated the “sizing” property to 無し (none/without) in mid 2023; Their English website also subtly removed “generous sizing” from the description in mid 2023; and as of a few weeks ago, includes an “(unsized)” note. So at least their own product pages are up to date (although it was a few years late); but it seems like their retailers never got the memo about the product change.

I just wanted to put that information out there, since a lot of the product descriptions are incorrect/outdated. Hopefully this can save some headache for other consumers who believe that they are purchasing a sized paper, or vice versa. Also note, that since this product previously was sized, it is possible that you could receive some old stock that is, in fact, sized; so “caveat emptor,” I suppose.

awagami, mokuhanga, paper, shiramine
Sailor Moon Print Update

January 17, 2024

aj marx

Mokuhanga
After much trial and error, I’ve finally produced a batch of Sailor Moon prints that I’m fairly happy with. You can check the Sailor Moon page under the “Prints” section of the website for more photos of the prints, blocks, and details about how it was made.

However, I’m still not 100% satisfied with these prints. There are basically two issues which I would like to improve next time:
- The color on the sky background block is uneven. It should be a smooth even color, but it’s a bit more splotchy than I would like.
- Tamari. On several color blocks, there was a buildup of paste & pigment around the edges of the carved areas, which resulted in colors extending beyond their intended boundary. I was constantly wiping these areas during printing, but not well enough, apparently.
I have some ideas about how these issues can be fixed and/or mitigated, and I may do another batch of prints at some point; But I don’t want to get too fixated on attaining “perfection;” So for now, I think I will move on to my next project.
anime, mokuhanga, print, printmaking, sailor-moon, woodblock
Sailor Moon Test Printing

September 24, 2023

aj marx

Mokuhanga

Sailor Moon test print.

I was recently able to finish carving the Sailor Moon color blocks, and I finally did some test printing over the last week. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. It’s pretty close to how I envisioned it. There are few minor registration issues that I’ll need to fix, and the key block needs to be touched up in a few places, but no major issues fortunately.

The background pattern on this image features over a dozen different gradations, which I was a bit nervous about, since I didn’t have any prior experience printing normal gradations. But it was actually not too difficult at all to get a nice smooth gradation.

During this test printing session, I also wanted to experiment with some new papers that I recently acquired. The print in the first image above was printed on Awagami “Kozo Extra-Thick” (70gsm), which I was pretty happy with; though I would prefer it a bit thicker.

Another paper I tested with was “Tosa Hanga Natural” sold by Hiromi Paper. This paper is quite soft and fluffy, so when I printed the key block it picked up a lot of color from the recessed areas of the block. So on the next sheet, I quickly calendered/flattened it by laying it down on my desk and giving it a good rubbing with my baren. I was a bit astonished by how much of a difference this made, as shown in the image below.

The effect of calendering.

Even after calendering, I’m not a huge fan of this paper for multi-color woodblock prints, since it tended to leave fibers on the block. Plus the “natural” color of the paper was a bit grayer than the Hiromi product photos led me to believe (although, the lighting in my photo above exaggerates the paper color a bit).

Anyway, I have a few carving fixes to make on the blocks, plus maybe carving one additional block. I hope to get that wrapped up this week, and then do a “real” printing run next weekend.

Bonus Oops: When I was positioning the color transfer sheet for the “gold” color, I was a bit too focused on the bottom-most area’s distance from the already-carved “blue” areas, and I didn’t notice that the top-most gold area was off the block:

Measure once, color transfer twice.

Fortunately I noticed before I started carving. So I was able to just move the registration marks down a few millimeters, and re-paste the transfer sheet.

anime, mokuhanga, print, printmaking, sailor-moon, woodblock
Sailor Moon Project (Pt 1)

August 7, 2023

aj marx

Mokuhanga

I’ve been able to start working on my next mokuhanga project recently; and as you can see, it depicts the character Sailor Moon striking her signature pose.

This image is from a test/proof print of the key block. I’m quite happy with how this key block turned out; particularly with the fine lines and detail on the face and hands. Additionally, I didn’t have any major issues with broken lines or other carving mistakes (although there is one minor issue that I can’t un-see). Having said all that, there is certainly room for improvement. For example, there are many lines which have noticeable variations in thickness (particularly noticeable on the pigtails).

The color blocks for this project are about halfway done. So I should be able to begin test printing in the next few weeks. And there will be A LOT of test printing. Aside from the normal registration issues that might need to be fixed, there are many gradations in this design, as I envision it. I don’t have much experience with gradations, so there will be a lot of testing/learning in that regard as well. I plan to incorporate mica powder into this design as well, which may require some experimentation. Plus, some of the color blocks will be just plain difficult to print.

This will be my most technically challenge print so far, and it’s a bit daunting to be honest; But I’ll give it a go nevertheless. I should be able to get something halfway decent, even if it’s not exactly how envision it.

mokuhanga, print, printmaking, sailor-moon, woodblock
Website Updates

July 11, 2023

aj marx

Uncategorized

Over the last few months, I’ve been adding some content to the website.

In particular, I’d like to draw your attention to the Printmaking Techniques page, which I think is/can be a great resource for people interested in mokuhanga. This page has links to videos and articles that explain, demonstrate, or discuss various mokuhanga-related topics. Some of the videos on that page are a little bit obscure or difficult to find, so I’m hoping that this page be will useful and appreciated by anyone with an interest in woodblock printmaking.

I’ve also added Printmaking Suppliers page, which provides links to various online retailers of mokuhanga tools and materials. Some of these sellers and products can be a little bit hard to find, so I’m hoping that people will find this page useful as well. As with the Techniques page, the Suppliers pages will be continuously growing/evolving as I find more links to add. So if you know of any good resources that are absent from those pages, feel free to leave a comment.

Besides those “resources” pages, I’ve also added a few pages showcasing some of the things that I’ve made. I’ve added a Woodblock Prints section that provides some information about the woodblock prints that I’ve made. There is also an Other Work section for various other projects/hobbies. There’s not much to say about these pages, but feel free to check them out if they’re something that you might be interested in. Any feedback would be appreciated.

I’ve been busy with work/life over the last few months, but it’s calmed down a bit for now, so I’ve got a few new projects underway at the moment, including a new woodblock print. Perhaps I’ll post some updates about it here in the coming weeks.

meta
Welcome

January 22, 2023

aj marx

Uncategorized

Hello. Welcome to my website. My name is AJ Marx.

I will use this website to share things that I’ve created, my thoughts and ideas, as well as trying to share various bits of information that may be useful to others.

This site will be “under construction” while I add content in the coming weeks. Various pages and the content therein may shift around a bit until I get it all sorted, so please bear with me until then.

Feel free to browse around and leave a comment if you’d like.

about, meta