The Boise Baren Company (see what we currently have for sale on our ETSY Store at http://www.Etsy.com/shop/FlyingFootPress) is a project I executed for an art entrepreneur class at Boise State University while on the way to my BFA in fine art, with an emphasis on printmaking.

The sole purpose of The Boise Baren Company is to make beautiful hand-blown glass and resin barens, unique and one-of-a-kind things, for printmakers. I’m retired from a long career in the international martial arts community, where I taught and practiced being a physical artist --an artist who expressed himself in movement. Alongside that work, I also studied art and artists --and several years ago, after suffering a spiral fracture of my right femur (with a hip replacement in it), I picked up my dusty printmaking tools and started making a daily practice of improving my art skills.

The Boise Baren Company doesn’t have to feed me, make a life-sustaining income, or help fund my retirement. The project is all about being a maker --and producing small quantities of really cool stuff. I like “limited edition,” I like “making,” and I like things that are unique and handmade.

If you’re using a baren in your printmaking practice, be it mokuhanga, chine colle, woodblock printing, lino / linocut, Easy Cut, Vinyl, or any kind of relief printing that might require a spoon or baren to finish, then you might enjoy the Boise Baren, not that it’s essential to your work, but that it is simply a thing made in the spirit of having beautiful, well designed and inspiring tools made for people who seek to make beautiful things.

Each Boise Baren is hand-made blown glass created by a master of glass art --or, in the case of our unique resin barens, a master of THAT craft.. Each is full of unique attributes --and individual flaws (like all of us), and barens come with a “birth certificate,” marking the month it was made, its name, and weight. When shipped to you, I use a recycled or recyclable box and water soluble, environmentally friendly packing popcorn.

We only produce 25 barens (or less) per “hatch” --and we’re going to keep this enterprise small, unique, manageable, and focused on making tools you can treasure (and use) for a lifetime.