Smooth wooden barren even better dressed in tung oil or polished with Beeswax dressing for smooth rubbing on paper over an inked printing plate. The 5 cm half dome and the 11 cm handle is comfortable to hold to exert sufficient pressure for manual rubbing over metal, wood or linoleum printing plate. Pressure exerted by a dressed wood barren is much better than spoon rubbing.
To season dress a wood barren, fine sand dome with mesh #1500 sand paper or finer. Wipe on tung oil and wipe off for slow absorption and penetration. Repeat process several times with fine light sanding in between and leave to polymerise and cure over 14 days. Then buff on clean cloth till smooth. Finally apply beeswax dressing for additional smoothness . Tung oil preserves wood with water proofing. Beeswax enhances smoothness with a polished glazed sheen. A dressed and polished wood barren ensures smooth rubbing and ink transfer in fine prints.
Print makers ink the wood barren to transfer the ink onto paper placed over wood print block. The inked barren will imprint the raised letters or designs onto the paper. This enables different colors in the print as the printing block is not contaminated with different colors.
Potters us to rock roll leatherhard clay back to powder or to create indentation onto greenware clay. Polymer clay artists use barren to knead roll hard polymer with clay softener to recondition clay. An easier process than fingers and hand kneading.
Paint a mushroom true to life scale in Alice in wonderland diorama setting.