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eBay Action

When I was preparing to produce my Hanga Treasure Chest a few years ago, I haunted the auctions of woodblock prints on eBay, looking for interesting items to include in the set. Since then, I haven't been much of a print buyer, and given that 'bargains' seem to have become very thin on the ground on eBay these days, I haven't bothered much with it.

But plenty of my friends are active over there, and one of them sent me an email the other day, letting me know that some of my own prints were being auctioned. Or I should say, 'have been auctioned'. Here's a snapshot of a listing of 'completed auctions' done on a search of my name:

This was really interesting to see, for a couple of reasons.

First is that the price paid for the prints from my current 'My Solitudes' series is almost exactly double what I myself sell them for. Given that I myself don't sell them individually, but only in the complete set of 12, this price presumably reflects the 'premium' that the purchaser is willing to pay to have just one from the set.

I get frequent requests for 'just one, please', but always regretfully decline. I make roughly the same quantity of prints for each one in the series, and if I started selling the 'favourites', I would end up doing nothing but re-printing endlessly.

(Eventually, at some point in the future, when my own 'batch' (I want to avoid using the word 'edition') is all sold out, the designs will presumably be used in my Mokuhankan publishing venture, as single designs. One day.)

Another point of interest (and regret!) was that the seller hasn't included the books. I guess he has tossed those aside, just pulling the prints out for sale. That stings a bit, but I guess I can't complain; obviously the main interest is in the print, and not the story. (But I don't dare tell Ichikawa-san, the part-timer who does all the bookbinding for me, about this!)

**

I know who the seller is, and in fact, he has written to me recently asking to purchase some more copies. I have to decide what to do about his request. I was talking about this with my daughter last night (on Skype video) and her advice was clear and direct. "Dad! You do it! Start putting them up on eBay one by one, and you get the profit!"

But there is no way I can do that. I put the series on the market as a subscription set, and to try and 'burn both ends of the candle' and get revenue from single sales also, seems kind of unethical to me. A newspaper can sell both by subscription and at the news-stand (for higher prices for the single copies of course), but I don't think my situation is equivalent. (I should mention that I'm not upset or angry about what the seller is doing; he is of course perfectly at liberty to do whatever he wishes with the prints he purchases from me. Nothing 'unethical' at his end ...)

Anyway, it's kind of a moot point, because as I said, I make a roughly equivalent number of each print, and I really don't want to break up the sets. Once I'm done, I'll be able to count up my stock, and will then have some prints 'left over', as the numbers never work out exactly evenly.

In fact, this is exactly what is happening soon with the Hanga Treasure Chest. I'm now down to the final dozen sets or so left in stock, so will soon be doing such an inventory check. The 'odds and ends' that remain could/should be sold individually I guess. (And as there is no way that I myself can reprint the series, I suppose those blocks too, should be moved over to Mokuhankan, for 'outside' printing and inclusion in that catalogue.)

All in all, seeing these prints of mine appear on eBay is perhaps a bit gratifying. I never make any kind of claim to my collectors that their prints are an 'investment', and I really dislike such thinking. But I guess they won't be too heartbroken to see these prices! :~)

[Edit: I just realized that the eBay search image above only shows completed auctions. If you search for other prints with my name, it seems there are some still available. Get over there and run up those prices!]

Posted by Dave Bull at 10:25 AM | Comments (5)

[River in Spring - 8] : She's done!

Continued from [River in Spring - 7] | Starting point of the thread is [River in Spring - 1]

The next impression is the kind of thing that Hiroshi Yoshida called the nezumi block. (Nezumi being 'mouse', and thus a shorthand word for 'grey'). Although grey is commonly used for this block - which adds 'shadows' and deeper tones to various areas over an image - in this case I repeated the dull blue/purple mix.

And that's almost it; all we need is one final block, a 'beta-ban' ('flat block') which covers the entire sheet, printing it with a faint red tone. I did this with very light pressure on the baren, leaving a faint mottled appearance over the whole thing (click it for an enlargement):

And that's it. Unless I'm overlooking something, eight impressions is the fewest we have had in this series so far.

***

Now that she's done, the more I look at this one, the more I like it. It's not going to be everybody's favourite, but I think that there can certainly be room in the set for a 'not-quite-straight-ahead' print like this.

I'll be interested in seeing what people think of it ...

The thread continues in [River in Spring - 9] ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 1:27 PM | Comments (6)

[River in Spring - 7] : Next two impressions ...

Continued from [River in Spring - 6] | Starting point of the thread is [River in Spring - 1]

Another two impressions today. The first one is kind of inconsequential - just something to add some variance in the reflection of the rocky shore area. It'll make more sense when we're finished:

The next one is the one everybody has been 'waiting for' ...

If all goes well (no distractions!), there should be two more impressions coming along tomorrow ...

The thread continues in [River in Spring - 8] ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:51 PM | Comments (0)

[River in Spring - 6] : Two more colours ...

Continued from [River in Spring - 5] | Starting point of the thread is [River in Spring - 1]

Two more impressions today; first the base tone for the reflection of the rocky area of the shore:

And we begin to build up the patchy tones of the different trees on the mountainside:

You of course can guess what's going to come into the open area in the middle, a couple of days from now!

The thread continues in [River in Spring - 7] ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:53 PM | Comments (1)

[River in Spring - 5] : On to the colours ...

Continued from [River in Spring - 4] | Starting point of the thread is [River in Spring - 1]

After leaving the key impression to 'set' overnight, I did the first of the colour blocks this morning (and afternoon). And as I have before, and certainly will again, I am having 'trouble' keeping myself from making the impression 'nice and smooth'.

I spent pretty much the whole of the previous twenty years trying to keep the impressions smooth and free from texture, and it has really become just second nature, so now, when I have a block to print that I know should be printed with a more blurry mottled texture, I have to fight myself every step of the way.

One part of my brain says, "C'mon, spread that paste out smoothly ..." while another part is saying, "No way; lighten up on the baren pressure, and get some mottling into the colour ..."

That's a battle that'll never end, I fear ... Anyway, here's what she looks like with one colour in place:

This is a 'base' colour, and regions of this will be overprinted in different tones as we move along.

The thread continues in [River in Spring - 6] ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:50 PM | Comments (1)

[River in Spring - 4] : Printing begins ...

Continued from [River in Spring - 3] | Starting point of the thread is [River in Spring - 1]

It's been two weeks since we saw the image of the first block done, and today we'll get to see how it looks on paper. There aren't all that many blocks for this print - I have eight done now, and that might be all we need. It shouldn't have taken two weeks to get them done, but as usual, there were interruptions. I had a pleasant day of hiking near Kamakura with one of the collectors who lives overseas, but who was in Japan on business, and then NHK stole another couple of days from me earlier this week. (The result of that one won't be appearing on this website ... I don't think too many of the readers here would be interested in meeting Gabby, who came out here for a short visit ...)

Anyway, printing began this morning - with that same block, which did eventually end up becoming a legitimate 'key block'.

And there is obviously no more mystery about the design. It's clearly visible ... I hope!

The thread continues in [River in Spring - 5] ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

[River in Spring - 3] : Key block finished

Continued from [River in Spring - 2] | Starting point of the thread is [River in Spring - 1]

Despite plenty of interruptions over the past week, the key block is now done. As I mentioned before, it's not a 'key block' in the traditional sense of having outlines that will be 'filled in' with colour later, but it will still be the one to which the others will be keyed once printing begins.

Here's a quick scan, just after carving was done, but before I washed it: (clickable)

And here it is after washing:

So, I think that by having a close look at this, you should be able to get an idea of the 'concept' behind this image, no?

The thread continues in [River in Spring - 4] ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 3:30 PM | Comments (3)

One-hour TV Documentary now online ...

Now it can be told! Back in the waning years of my 10-year project to make prints of all the Hyakunin Isshu poets (1989~1998) I was 'followed' around by a crew preparing a 'made-for-TV' one hour documentary program on the work. This aired in February 1999, just after the final exhibition of the series.

A few years later, when I began to put clips from various TV shows onto this website, in the Woodblock Shimbun press section, the producer asked me to hold off on this one - until 10 years had passed since the original broadcast. I have no idea if this was to comply with copyright regulations, or some other rules, but I of course respected her wishes.

That limitation has now passed, so I have uploaded video of the program to the site. Rather than one huge file, I have split it into five sections, following the commercial breaks in the original production.

Here's the first part, along with links to the rest ...


'Human Drama' - A Canadian woodblock printmaker's 10 year journey
(Part One)

Aired on TV Tokyo in February 1999 ... a one hour made-for-TV documentary program. Although I feel that the producer focussed rather too much on the melodramatic aspects of our family life during that ten year period, the program does indeed give a pretty good overview of what the project was like ...

Part 1 : 6 1/2 minutes
Part 2 : 12 minutes
Part 3 : 7 minutes
Part 4 : 9 minutes
Part 5 : 9 1/2 minutes

It's all in Japanese of course (my 10-year-ago bad Japanese to boot), but a .pdf file with a rough guide to what is being said during the program is here.

Posted by Dave Bull at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)