Woodzilla Wood Barens

Hello, printmaking nerds! Are your fingers raw from carving and rolling ink this holiday season? Welcome back to another edition of your favorite newsletter - The Inkplate. A special welcome to the 3 new subscribers who joined the family.

In this week’s edition:

• Woodzilla Wood Barens

• Seconds Sale Update

• Artist Highlights Return in 2023

• Speedball Instagram Takeover @speedball_art

Let’s dive in!

Woodzilla Wood Barens

Disclaimer: The following review is not a paid advertisement and all opinions are my own. Links are not affiliated. Thank you to Speedball Art Materials for sending me these baren’s to test out. 🤝🏽

By now, most printmakers have heard of the brand Woodzilla. If you haven’t, well you are in for a treat! Woodzilla Shop is a Dutch company that creates lino presses and baren’s. They started selling their presses through Etsy and most recently partnered with Speedball who distributes their products here in the United States.

The linopresses are relatively affordable compared to traditional equipment and have an amazing curb appeal. Their unique design and colorful choices began spreading through Instagram like crazy during the pandemic. It seemed that just about everyone who I followed, had one or just had ordered one. To be quite honest, I was feeling a lot of FOMO - fear of missing out!

When Speedball sent me these baren’s, I was so ecstatic to finally try out a Woodzilla product. I have two barens: both are made of solid wood and measure about 4.5 inches/10 cm diameter. One of them has a flat bottom while the other is a bit spherical. Woodzilla describes the later baren as a “spherical disc,” but the curvature is so faint you have to really get up close to notice it.

The barens are made of two pieces of beech wood - the handle and the actual disc. Beech is a perfect material for the baren since it's a hardwood and has a very uniformed texture. Both handle and disc seemed to be glued together as I did not see any nail marks. Esthetically, they are quite beautiful. I personally love the color of natural unvarnished wood. Knowing they are unvarnished, both baren’s have already started developing a nice patina. Leaving a combination of both ink and the oils from my hands.

When it comes to their functionality, I have to say they live up to their promise. I have not used my spoon since I got them. Each time I have used them, I have gotten a nice smooth and uniform print. I personally like the spherical disc baren a little better, just because it reminds me of the feel of a spoon. The flat bottom disc is also great for when you are pressing down easy-cut material while stamping fabrics. Its wide flat bottom provides uniform pressure.

I have been using these barens for a little over a month now. I have used them with paper ranging from 50gsm to 300gsm. Naturally, with thinner papers like mulberry, you can see the transferring of the ink in real time. For thicker papers like Rives BFK, I was able to get better impressions with the spherical disc baren instead of the flat disc baren.

I really did not see or experience anything negative. The construction is great. They serve a purpose and they are beautiful pieces of equipment. They can be easily stored when not needed. I have mine hanging on my peg board.

These barens are on the mid-to-high end when it comes to price points. This is something I can understand considering the material and the fact they are imported.

Woodzilla Website: €24.50 + Tax & Shipping.

• Currently not shipping to the US.

Etsy: $28.06 + Tax & Shipping.

• Currently not shipping to the US.

Speedball: $40 + Tax & Shipping.

If you live in the United States, then Speedball might be your only shopping option. In my opinion, the baren is worth trying out. If you are a printmaker without a press like myself, this tool will make your workflow so much more efficient. I printed all of my holiday batch of prints with these baren’s and honestly the time I saved working was a big selling point for me. I highly recommend it. It makes me even more excited to eventually get my hands on one of those colorful linopresses.

Holiday Update - Seconds Sale

Last week I teased about my upcoming Seconds Sale. On Sunday, the sale is launching and all the items under the “seconds” tab are half off at www.danielvillaart.com.

If you are one of those super last minute shoppers, don’t worry! I am still running my regular holiday sale. The last day my store will be open for the holiday’s to ship items will be this Friday 12/23/22! Thanks so much for your support.

All end of the year discounts will continue until New Years Eve - 12/31/22!

I will be taking some time off from both my day job and studio. Any orders received from 12/24/22 to 12/30/22 will be processed on the last day of the sale!

Artist Highlight Return 2023

Those who have subscribed to this newsletter from the get go are familiar with the Artist Highlights. For everyone else, these are literally shout outs, interviews and introductions of other printmakers and artists that I love to showcase.

I love introducing you to new artists, their knowledge and work each week. However, conducting these interviews on a weekly basis and then transcribing these interviews was a bit overwhelming. So in order to provide all of my guest artists with the same amount of coverage, time and space on the Artist Highlight, these features will move to a monthly basis.

Each month, there will be three newsletters relating to printmaking and with one primarily focusing on the Artist Highlight. I want to make sure The Inkplate continues to be a place of learning, collaboration and community!

I have an exciting line up already set up with the likes of Anthony TungNing Huang, Monica Ihrke, and more.

Speedball Takeover!  

Turn on your post notifications! I will be taking over Speedball’s Instagram account @speedball_art from Thursday 12/29/22 through Sunday 01/08/23.

I will have a full list of details for each day which will consist of lives, posts, reels, and stories. You don’t want to miss this!

Before You Go,

• Do you want to be part of the ‘Artist Highlight’ or know of someone who might be? Fill out this interest form!

• Do you have a printmaking or artist-related question you want me to answer?

Let me know here!

-Daniel