block-printing-msg - 11/6/98

Block printing for cloth.

NOTE: See also the files: woodcuts-msg, wood-msg, early-books-msg, paper-msg, inks-msg.

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                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: tbarnes at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Re: Block Printing
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 17:07:48 GMT

	I was thumbing through Cellini's book on Art Techniques this
morning when I saw a chapter on block printing cloth! Yippee! A period
source. He says that you can block print on linen or silk using wood
blocks "about the size of a brick" (Anybody know how big the standard
15th c. Italian brick was?) He recommends the technique for making
patterned fabric for children and for certain altar cloths. 
	Here's the technique as I understand it.

	1) Make your block by carving or engraving the pattern into the
face. Then put a handle on the back.

	2) Then using lampblack mixed with varnish ink the block by
smearing ink on a glove you wear on your left hand and then hand across
the block.

	3) Carefully block your fabric, using a stretcher frame (2 x 4')
underneath. 

	5) Then add detail the fabric by painting the design details
with yellow, red or green paint (These appearantly didn't have any body
to them, so they worked on fabric.) 

	6) He gives further information for how to block print on
different colors and textures of cloth, as well as instructions on how
to paint cloth. 

	BTW, just in time for Pennsic XXIV, boiled linseed oil or
varnish are mentioned as waterproofing substances. Linseed oil for
walls to be frescoed, varnish for gessoed and gilted decorations on
painted cloth. Try it on your tent next year!

	Gotta run,
	Lothar \|/
              0

From: sumner at bu.edu (Charles Sumner)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Block Printing
Date: 3 Sep 1993 02:49:08 GMT
Organization: Emerald City Productions

thomas wrentmore barnes (tbarnes at silver.ucs.indiana.edu) wrote:
:>	I was thumbing through Cellini's book on Art Techniques this
:>morning when I saw a chapter on block printing cloth! Yippee! A period
:>source. He says that you can block print on linen or silk using wood
:>blocks "about the size of a brick" (Anybody know how big the standard
:>15th c. Italian brick was?) He recommends the technique for making
:>patterned fabric for children and for certain altar cloths. 

Well, lo and behold my library actually has standard for 15th c. Italian
bricks!!!  According to Leon Battista Alberti's On the Art of Building
in Ten Books c.1450:

	"The ancients used three types of brick; the first 1 1/2 feet
	long by 1 foot wide, the second measuring 5 palms in each
	dimension, and the third no more than 4 palms.  Bricks measuring
	2 feet by 2 feet are found in some buildings, especially in arches
	and bonding brick work....I have seen bricks no more than 6 inches
	long, 1 inch high, and 3 inches wide, although these were 
	generally laid down in paving in a herringbone fashion."
		- Book 2, Materials

Of course, he also says that he prefers triangular bricks, but that's
another story.  I leave measurement conversion up to you.

- Gideon Alexandru

From: WALTER at tandem.PHysics.upenn.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: block printing, waterproofing
Date: 3 Sep 1993 13:12:54 -0400

	Good luck with Cennini's techniques!  I have a friend who tried 
a couple of years ago with no success, but I don't think she had the
fabric stretched, and I don't think she used his ink formula.  I think she 
used fabric paint, which is probably too thick (although you could try 
adding a lot of thinner).  I myself have had good luck producing the
appearance of block printing with fabric paint (I use Deka) and stencils.
I was making things I had to be sure I could wash.

	A caution about using linseed oil or varnish to waterproof your
pavilion -- this will destroy any flame retardant capacity your pavilion
may once have had.  Varnish will also greatly reduce the "breathability"
of your fabric -- don't know about the linseed oil.

	As far as the size of a brick goes, the gentle who posted the
information from 1450 about bricks seems to have been confused.  
Cennini was writing in the late 15th century himself -- brick of the
"ancients" probably means bricks from the Roman empire.  I suspect the
size of 15th century bricks was pretty close to that of our own, maybe
a little smaller. (This is true of 16th and 17th c. Northern European
bricks, anyway.)  I think the point is that anything larger won't
work well -- it will be much more difficult to exert even pressure on
it, necessary to produce consistent ink coverage.

	An aside about the dyes for British redcoats (yes, I know, this
doesn't belong on this forum) -- I suggest you obtain a copy of J. Liles,
"The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing", University of Tennessee Press.
Mr. Liles has done very thorough and extensive research into 18th and
19th century dyes, and will tell you all you want to know.  I don't
remember the specifics myself, but the process was long (Based on cochineal,
I think) and involved 20 or so seperate steps.

Happy experimentation!

Karen Walter/Richenda Cameron
Shire of Hartshorn-dale, East
walter at tandem.physics.upenn.edu

From: Elwyn.Halfmoon at f555.n387.z1.fidonet.org (Elwyn Halfmoon)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Block Printing
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1993 14:19:00 -0500

 > From: tbarnes at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
 >   2) Then using lampblack mixed with varnish ink the block by
 > smearing ink on a glove you wear on your left hand and then
 > hand across the block.
 >    BTW, just in time for Pennsic XXIV, boiled linseed oil or
 > varnish are mentioned as waterproofing substances.

And also, if I am not mistaken, lampblack and linseed oil was used as an early
printer's ink. (as in Gutenburg - 1450 is well in period :)

Elwyn

From: palmer at cis.ohio-state.edu (sharon ann palmer)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Block Printing
Date: 5 Sep 1993 20:14:35 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science

tbarnes at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes) writes:

>	Thanks, this confirms my suspicions! The blocks would have to be
>pretty good sized to print the fabric quickly and with a minimum of join
>lines where blocks had to be lined up.

I have not researched early European prints, but modern Indian print motifs
that I have seen are around 5"-7", larger ones would be harder to print 
evenly.  And they make very little attempt to line up the repeats, except 
when printing the border.  Is the notion of perfect registration caused
by mechanical printing?

Ranvaig

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: tbarnes at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Re: Block Printing
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 15:26:49 GMT

palmer at cis.ohio-state.edu (sharon ann palmer) writes:
>I have not researched early European prints, but modern Indian print motifs
>that I have seen are around 5"-7", larger ones would be harder to print 
>evenly.  And they make very little attempt to line up the repeats, except 
>when printing the border.  Is the notion of perfect registration caused
>by mechanical printing?

	In Milia Davenport's History of Costume, there are several
pictures of 13th c. printed silks, they seem to have a pattern that is
regular in both along the warp and the weft. Since they were printed up
as cheap knockoffs of expensive Italian silk brocades (which were
obviously even along the warp and weft) I presumed that the printers
tried to make their products as close to the look of brocade as
possible. So far I have seen nothing to disprove my hunch.
	Maybe if I got to see the real item, as opposed to a reduced
sized black and white photo, I COULD see the registration errors that
inevitably occurred. 
	I figured that the problem of misprints could be solved by using
2 identical blocks with the pattern on the bottom of the blocks
carefully lined up and guide lines on the top of the blocks where the
patterns meet the edge of the block (and will join up with a new pattern
on the cloth). Then, you ink and place one block. Leave it. Ink and
place the next block above it, so you are working paralell to the
selvage. Then, remove the first block, reink it, line up the guidelines
and edges of the 2 blocks and then place the first block above the
second block. That way you might reduce registration errors to a
minimum.
	Also, instead of using a glove, as Cellini recommends, I was
thinking about using a printer's ball to ink the blocks - period (but
possibly post Cellini) and probably less messy.

	Lothar \|/
              0  (who is still working on the theory).

From: dalton at ea.net (Nancy Dalton)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca,soc.history.medieval
Subject: Re: Silk Banners
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:59:11 GMT

david_key at vnet.ibm.com (Dave Key) wrote:

>>Dave, can you please provide the source citation for this 
>>information? A number of good folk local to the Barony ofthe 
>>Steppes are seeking to increase their documentation of the use of 
>>painted fabric "in period".

There is another book that discusses painting fabrics:

The Crafsman's Handbook "Il Libro dell' Arte"
by Cennino dAndrea Cennini and translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr.
LOC catalog card #: 54-3194

It is an instruction book for artists on several subjects some of
which are block printing on fabrics and painting wall hangings.
It was originally published in Italian in 1437.

I bought it on a whim and found it more useful than I'd dared to hope.

Nancy Dalton
aka Earnwynn van Zwaluwenburg

Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 08:49:32 -0600
From: mary boulet <boulet.roger at mcleod.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Printed textiles in period

I recently ran across this passage in "The Textile Arts" by Verla 
Birrell, original copyright 1959. I seek primary sources to 
substantiate, or refute, her statements. The only bibliographic citation 
she gives is: Clouzot, Henri, "Painted and Printed Fabrics", 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1927. If anyone on this list has 
more current information, please post to the list.
Many thanks from Myra Nedlesaeng, Calontir.

'China is thought to have been the initiator of block printing. It is
said that China employed earth pigments to paint block prints on
textiles in 400 BC. However true this may be, the National Museum in the
Forbidden City does have some wooden blocks dating from 200 BC much
later than the records of the use of clay stamps in Mesopotamia. <snip>
The earliest known piece of block-printed cloth was one, belonging to
the ninth century AD, found in a Coptic tomb in Egypt. Many of the
Coptic print designs were ornamented with gold and silver; the process
was called tinsel work and was done on brilliantly colored cottons and
silks.

 The knowledge of block printing spread northward from the Mediterranean
area into Europe. Fabric that appears to have been block printed was
found in the tomb of Bishop Caesarius, who was buried in Arles, France,
in 543 AD. Another piece of this type of work was found in the tomb of
St. Cuthbert, who was buried in Durham, England, in 1104. A thirteenth
century record mentions that block printing was being done in Italy at
the time. In Germany, early in the Renaissance, craftsmen began using
block prints to imitate Florentine velvets; in other European centers
the weaves themselves were being copied.

 Ever since the period of the crusades, Europe had been somewhat aware
of the printed cottons of India and Java. It has even been said that
America was discovered because Columbus was searching for the
block-printed fineries of the Far East. A considerable quantity of block
prints from India appeared in Europe in 1592, when the British captured
a Portuguese vessel loaded with India prints.

 As early as 1619, England was using blocks for printing cloth. About a
decade later permission was given to the East Inda Company, a British
industry, to import cottons from India.'

<the end>