I haven't been very good at keeping up with the updates on the Mystique progress ... too busy with the Gift Print season. But that finally seems to be slowing down now that we're past the post office mailing deadlines for Xmas.

Work on this one has been continuing all the way along though, and here's the result of two separate 'batches' of printing - a stack of 200+ copies of #9, a design by Yoshitoshi:

This month my 'helper lady' Ichikawa-san is tied up with family business, so I'll be doing the packing and shipping myself. Let's see if I remember how ...

The first few steps I do myself every month anyway. The process starts with putting my 'studio embossment' on each print. I use this little 'machine' to do that job:

The part that makes the embossment is a slug of copper, engraved with my baren mark. Not visible in the photo is the 'male' counterpart that is pressed down from above:

And this is what results:

Once they are all stamped, they get trimmed to size:

That's where I usually hand off to Ichikawa-san, giving her the pile of (signed) prints, along with the mounting boards, story sheets, invoices, mailing cartons, postage stamps, and master list of 'who gets what'. But it's my job this month, so I settled into my hori-gotatsu (the sunken heated table in my living room) and got busy.

Each print gets checked for defects, signed, then mounted on the board. (I printed those the day before, spending hours running them through an ink-jet printer one-by-one by hand, as we saw in this image from a few months ago.

The story sheets are run off on my laser printer, and I still can't quite believe just how easy it is these days to 'publish' things right in your own living room. Although because my laser printer doesn't 'like' doing two-sided work, these too have to be fed one by one ...

Anyway, after all that preparation, here's the setup for the job of putting it all together - everything within reach from where I will sit on my cushion.

It starts with a story sheet coming off the pile at the upper right, onto the 'grooving board' on the desk. (We saw how that works in the photos on this page). The print on its backboard then goes into place, the story is folded in three, and the unit slipped into a glassine envelope. This goes into one of the cardboard packages along with an invoice, and the package is then taped up, and gets its address label and colourful commemorative stamps.

And about six hours later, those stacks of 'parts' have been transformed into ... a mountain of packages ...

Current count on the Mystique series is 137 prints going out every month (20 of those are people catching up with 'back numbers'; the rest are on the newest print) ... Tomorrow morning, I'll have to figure out how to get these down to the post office on my bike!

Posted by Dave Bull at 7:37 AM | Comments (6)

The 'Gift Print' this year has turned out to be the most popular I have ever presented - no small thanks to Hokusai, of course!

But the 'season' is now almost over, at least for getting items shipped from Japan in time for delivery by Xmas. The post office here has set December 10th as their 'suggested' deadline for mailing to both the US and the UK, so if that's where you live, and you were considering one of these prints this year, don't wait any longer!

Details of the mailing deadline for some other countries are on the Gift Print page, where you can also place your order.

Posted by Dave Bull at 7:05 AM | Comments (0)

I mean, this has to be the last one, right? Because what could ever follow this email, which (really!) arrived in my Inbox this afternoon:

"On a sad note, my dog managed to intercept print number 6, "Needlework", while it was still in its packaging, and take it outside and chew on it in the rain, so that print is a loss. If it is possible, would you be able to send me a replacement print (and invoice me for it of course)?"

There you have it. 'The dog ate my print'.

At last, I have seen everything. My life is complete.

(In all fairness, I shouldn't omit the other content of his email ...)

"... let me say how much I appreciate all of the woodblock prints I have received so far in the 'Mystique' series. I've always been a fan of Japanese woodblocks; shin hanga, Kawase Hasui, Ohara Shoson, etc, in particular. I was a fan of your website for many years, but ever since subscribing to your series, my appreciation for these prints have expanded greatly. Your constant attention to detail and the very informative essays accompanying each piece are wonderful. Even your newsletters are greatly appreciated."

Posted by Dave Bull at 7:24 AM | Comments (3)