My branding iron (not self made)

[charangohabsburg]

I know, it may seem kind of an exaggeration for a non professional instrument builder to have a branding iron. But the same does go for non professional instrument building itself, doesn't it?

I "lent" the letters M ans S from the facsimil of book of the times when the guitar was called vihuela de mano: Libro de música de vihuela de mano intitulado 'El maestro' by Luys Milán, MDXXXV (1535). I photographed the two letters (different texts in the book) run them through Photoshop adapting them slightly and smoothing them out, converted the jpg File in a vectorized file in order the engraver would accept it, emailed the vectorized file to them, and received today this:

MS

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It is rather small. The letter "S" is 8 mm high and is engraved (well, actually it's "outgraved" - is there a proper term for this?) on the front side of a 80 x 13 x 15 mm brass bar. I then drilled a 5mm hole 25 mm deep in the opposite side, made a M6 thread...

25mm deep, threaded hole

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...screwed in a threaded rod, attached a wooden handle and fired up the torch:

The branding iron is held in the vice during heating up and cooling down.

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Then I proceeded to do the first tests on scrap wood. After about two minutes of heating the bar ca. 20mm behind its tip (directing the flame directly on the engraving could destroy it) it was ready to go:

The uppermost attempt in the picture above was the first one (about two seconds of branding iron contact). In the next two minutes, without re-heating the brass bar I tried out how the results would vary with longer contact (maximum was about 5 seconds):

MS - Testing on silver fir (Abies alba)

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The use of this small branding iron is easy, that is, the duration of contact is much less critical than I thought it would be. As there is a reasonable hunk of hot metal behind the tiny engraving one can make several tests before branding the piece of desire, with no danger that the temperature would drop significantly meanwhile.

It is such a lovely toy that I want to mark now everything: instruments, tool handles, stools, the desk, the computer screen, and if I had a pet it certainly would be in danger to get a branding mark on its flank!

[DarwinStrings]

(well, actually it's "outgraved" - is there a proper term for this?)

Rollin rollin rollin Rawhide!!! Embossed would be the word you are looking for there Markus.

Jim

[Kim]

It is such a lovely toy that I want to mark now everything: instruments, tool handles, stools, the desk, the computer screen, and if I had a pet it certainly would be in danger to get a branding mark on its flank!

Ahh!...'Markit' Schmidt

Very classy banding iron Markus.

Cheers

Kim

[needsmorecowbel]

And a leather carry pouch for your vacuum sealer....



That's going back a while...

Stu

[needsmorecowbel]

Signature Check..

[P Bill]

Nice design Marcus. I have to agree, it's very hard to resist marking anything that doesn't move.

[slowlearner]

Who's cowboy X then?

[charangohabsburg]

Thanks everybody for your kind comments.

Rollin rollin rollin Rawhide!!!

Ahh!...'Markit' Schmidt

I have to agree, it's very hard to resist marking anything that doesn't move.

Who's cowboy X then?

That's going back a while...

What's that? Unless there is no description written on the package I reckon it's a screwdriver!
Yeah, that's going back a while.

Embossed would be the word you are looking for there Markus.

Thank you Jim.
Actually in German, as far as I know there seems not to exist specific term for this. The translation for "embossed", in German only refers to the result you get by pressing an embossed stamp on paper, wood, leather, metal, etc. It is well known that the English language offers many different terms for what in German is "the same" thing.

[needsmorecowbel]

It is a cool looking Brand, Markus!

When I studied Printmaking at Uni I used to make 1.5m x 1m stamps out of linoleum sourced from Germany (worked out $400 cheaper than buying it in Aus). They are pretty much exactly the same in principle to branding irons except replace heat & pressure with ink & pressure. At uni these were classed as "relief" processes.


While Etching (using salt/ acid to corrode copper or another metal to make an image then print that copper plate) was considered an "Intaglio" processes (and a much much cooler word).

Then there's lithography which is a planographic process. Which uses the whole oil and water don't mix & a whole bunch of gums and acids to etch a greasy image into sandstone.

Here are a few of my big "stamps" for those interested in this related artform:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... _Print.jpg

https://photos-2.dropbox.com/t/0/AAC7XG ... e=1024x768

___
Stu

[DarwinStrings]

Nice work on Joe Henderson Stu, I could not see the other link. We have boxes full of lino cuts here as my partner keeps every cut from every print she has ever made. She can't use them again as the were all sold as 1 of 10 or 1 of 5 sets but "you can't throw stuff like that away" and I am not silly enough to argue with her.

Jim

[needsmorecowbel]

Yeah that's the annoying thing about lino. You end up with like a tonne of the left over "plates" that have been printed. I know some people score a big X through across the whole "plate" then throw them out. The thought process behind this is that once you have printed your edition to keep the artist honest the plates are thrown out so that the artist does not keep printing any more of that edition.
Dropbox is like that I'll try and get an album together and re link.

[charangohabsburg]

Great stuff Stu!
I'm looking forward to an open album of your artwork.

Regarding printing techniques I never made it further than the potato stamps I made at the Kindergarten. Neither the prints nor the tools have survived time.

[needsmorecowbel]

There you go lads cheers for the kind comments.

Sorry the images aren't amazingly crisp. I don't have the camera/ lighting combo to do them justice
Most of the larger scale works are editions of 4-5 as they are so large (1.5x1m).

http://imgur.com/a/Q014C#0

Stu

[charangohabsburg]

Thanks for the images Stu. I only can say once again: amazing stuff! And I liked the title of the print "Make the Road by Walking".

[Kim]

Now 'that' is really cool Stu.

Well done mate

Kim

[needsmorecowbel]

Cheers Kim, Jim, Markus
It's been like a good year since I've even laid eyes on them(they are currently "stickered" between tissue paper on a flat surface wrapped up in a few sheets to prevent those pesky silverfish from getting near them). You lot have inspired me to actually take some proper pictures of them (AND THE MANY OTHERS I HAVENT DOCUMENTED) and maybe put them up on the web somewhere. Will post an update at a later date. I'm also toying with the idea of hand printing the label visible through the soundhole on my future guitars.


Stu

[needsmorecowbel]

Markus the large scale prints were all carved to music by the Menahan Street Band. Hence all the titles of the artworks are songs from the album. Their album Make the Road by Walking got me through many many a carving session. Each Lino (6 overall) had about 24-30 hours of carving and few days of solid printing so you needed a good movie, a clear patch of floor and several solid music albums. I am very happy that the title has the intended effect!

Stu

Here is the band for any interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eseQkCJLzrY

Apparently the recording gear they used allowed them to achieve a 60s, 70s style recording despite the album being created in 2008. They play with Charles Bradley every now and again...

[slowlearner]

Markus, love your branding iron mate. Got a $5 torch on the way.

[DarwinStrings]

My partner was impressed with your size Stu, her largest has been about 600 x 500mm. She wondered if the two piece print were a manageability thing? I would happily have your self portrait on my wall, look like you have a bit of guitar repair to do though .

Jim

Scuse me Markus.

[needsmorecowbel]

Thanks Jim,

Your partner is spot on...it was done in two pieces mainly because the electric press I was planning to use was wide enough and long enough and it also had an automatic feed. However in some cases the lino would come out the other side thinner once you had put it through the press (the press bed wasn't flat and the pressure was hard to dial in properly so it was just far too inconsistent when I wanted repeatable results-and I wanted the sheet of lino to last the edition rather than become an expensive pancake).

With all the playing around trying to get it to work on the automatic feed press I just decided to stick with a handy, reliable manual geared etching press.. and therefore had to cut the sheets in half so that they could be accomodated on the smaller press.

This worked out well because the other press broke down halfway through my final year and it took them a good 6 weeks to fix it. (The bearing housing cracked due to someone (thankfully not me) over tightening while printing)
Jim, the self portrait is a fair bit smaller Somewhere around the 30-40cm x 30-40 cm ish mark...It was funny though because that picture was made a few years before I got into making guitars and I proofed it before I was to "carve the neck" and liked it as it was....Maybe I should do tarot readings...I can send one of those prints (print one of an edition of six) your way for like $45-50 bucks including postage if you like...with a free tarot reading of course...(Disclaimer: Stuart can in no way tell the future)

The major problem I have found through this whole experience of making these large prints is that the larger they are, the harder they are to sell, transport and therefore the more expensive you have to make them to factor in your time, materials etc....But this then becomes a double edged sword as people who buy such a big print commit to spending between $600 and $800 to have them framed "properly" (i.e. with materials that won't degrade the paper by releasing acids into the paper - i.e. archival materials). When people commit to spending that much money on a frame I am thinking that logically they wouldn't really want to spend as much on the artwork. But hey it's the art world & I am no expert...

I have only ever sold one large scale print outside my extended family and that was to an American chap living in Aus who paid like $400 for the print (the large jazzband scene). He said his son saw it...thought it was a stencil and was then intrigued that it wasnt a stencil and was like..."NEAT! it's a lino print"....His dad who was with him then saw the piece and the price and was like well that seems reasonable for such a large work by an unknown artist...He managed to fit it in his boot on the way to his own framer from my house...It was a satisfying experience to meet someone who found that particular image as cool as I did and was willing to spend $$$ it to have it in his house....

The most annoying thing about storing and transporting these large prints is that you can't really roll them up. The thick 200-250 gsm cotton rag paper has a good memory for where it was handled/ rolled and sometimes the ink on the surface and absorbed into the paper also has such memory...So if you post it and then unroll it you immediately go: "ahhhh crap... the image now looks less flat".... That is why I have always just kept them flat to avoid wringles, dints and creases

That is a long and convoluted response to your Question Jim but generally speaking I think your partner is working in a much more reasonable, sought after size that is far more viable (at least those works can be posted in registered post).

I worked in a similar scale to your partner for the first two years of my uni course... but then at my tutors suggestion I attempted to wow people with large works. But my tutors never really 'liked' my work as it was too 'basic' for their tastes (black and white, readymade images, stencil art like at times) and they continued to say that it didn't really grapple with what a print was and is in modern day times & perspective or subject matter... For me I just enjoyed old b/w photographs from the 60s & 70s and liked rejigging them as prints with my own style...I began to filter out their criticism and just enjoy carving...There is something nice about trying to remove something to create something entirely different...Just as it is nice to turn wood into a guitar...

Sorry for that masssive intrusion Markus...

Stuart

[charangohabsburg]

No problem Stu! In fact, I feel honoured that my thread about an outsourced (hence soulless) piece of brass got hijacked by someone presenting real artwork of his own!

When people commit to spending that much money on a frame I am thinking that logically they wouldn't really want to spend as much on the artwork.

I see this exactly the other way round!
Of course a frame of this size, even a not sophisticated one, is not cheap. But I seriously believe that such a low price (400 $) for a huge print may put some potential buyers off because they will think that they would not want to spend as much (or even more) for a frame as the print itself cost them. But if you offer your big prints for let's say 1500 $, spending another 300 - 600 $ for a nice frame makes sense. Don't be shy!

Markus, love your branding iron mate. Got a $5 torch on the way.

Thank you Pete for liking it.
Good to hear you picked up a torch - at a very reasonable price, huh?

[P Bill]

Markus, your way too modest. These days an artist doesn't have to make anything, they just keep the ideas coming.

[DarwinStrings]

Hey Stu, regarding your PM, as she doesn't have this stuff online I thought I would just show you here.

Jim

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[needsmorecowbel]

I understand what you mean Markus and I see how a lower price often scares people away. I guess at the time I was trying to entice people as I kind of wanted to make some money back from the ridiculous amount of money that artists can spent on materials. My friends who were exhibiting alongside me were offering very very reasonable prices for smaller works so putting up $1400 bucks a pop next to works for $100-200 would be really noticeable in such a small space. If I were a known artist then for sure that would be reason able but 400-500 for a new work by an unknown artist seemed okay. For $400 bucks at this exhibition you could pick up a decent sized painting so I had to compete with that also...

I think Bill is on the ball...
I wouldn't call your branding Iron soul less. You knew what you wanted, designed it and got it made and will apply it accordingly. It is even obvious that it is in your own "style"... This is a lot more constructive and sensical/ intuitive that 90% of modern art.

I am not trying to sound like an elitist art snob but there are only so many; Vaginal shaped dresses, drawings solely comprised of penises, Chocolate bars suspended above constantly boiling water, gratuitous amateur nude photographs that you can physically take until you realise that these new, young, emerging artists are so often just clutching at straws...as Bill said moving from one idea to the next.

Most of these emerging, young, artists I speak of, will have an idea, coat it in a single or several layers of bullshit and then present it as art. The justification and the idea are rarely developed together and allowed to grow through the process of making the thing. Justification seems to usually come afterwards with the threat of a deadline.

That is not to say there are not people making interesting things in modern day times. But there are so many more cool things being made on this forum and there is that much less frequency of bullshit (with the exception of MR THAMES) that it is just that much more interesting and laid back.

Stu

[DarwinStrings]

Most of these emerging, young, artists I speak of, will have an idea, coat it in a single or several layers of bullshit and then present it as art.
Stu

Pressure from lectures and the "high" art world.

When asked by my "concepts" lecturer to develop and idea and 3D sculpture around his given title of "Lost and Found" I decided to make a sculpture that I had been meaning to do for years (not waste my effort creating something to suit him) I then, with sculpture in hand wrapped layers of B.S. around it until it suited the lecturer. My piece and the critical discourse that went with it was the most discussed in the class and I got top marks. All I did was create a imaged that I liked, it had nothing to do with the discourse at all. I feel I leaned much about "art" though.

Jim