One of the collectors wrote a short note the other day asking/suggesting that I think about making it easier for people to move back and forth between the two blogs on my site. I quickly put a couple of links on the two front pages, no problem. But it then occurred to me to check the logbooks to see what kind of traffic patterns the two blogs have, and I found that the RoundTable gets a lot more attention than the Conversations ... Let's try to rectify that!

The one you are visiting right now is - of course - the Woodblock RoundTable. Topics here are those generally related to my 'own' printmaking - the prints I carve and print myself, and which fall under my 'Seseragi Studio' label. The other blog, the Mokuhankan Conversations, deals with the work that I do in cooperation with other craftsmen, published under the 'Mokuhankan' mark.

Those blogs have their own RSS feeds, but to help make it a bit easier to follow both, I have amended the design so that the front page of each one now also includes a direct link to the most recent post on the other one.

Please (continue to) read them both ... It's quite safe; there is no such thing as a 'woodblock overdose'!

Posted by Dave Bull at 9:52 AM | Comments (0)

I got an email from one of the collectors the other day, and among other things, he asked whether or not there were other collectors in his area. Well, I'm not about to publish everybody's address here, but I guess it might be interesting to know where the prints are going every month.

The count currently stands at 163. Here's a breakdown (places with no number have just a single collector):

'My Collectors' (as of April 19, 2011)

• Japan : 45
• Kanto area : 37
• Other : 8
• Europe : 25
• England : 13
• France : 3
• Netherlands : 2
• Germany : 2
• Ireland : 2
• Scotland
• Spain
• Belgium
• USA : 78
• California : 13
• Maryland : 7
• Virginia : 6
• New York : 5
• Pennsylvania : 5
• Washington State : 5
• Massachusetts : 4
• Nevada : 3
• Connecticut : 3
• Oregon: 3
• Hawaii : 2
• Illinois : 2
• Michigan : 2
• Texas : 2
• Georgia : 2
• Missouri
• Wisconsin
• New Jersey
• Indiana
• Maine
• Louisiana
• Tennessee
• Washington DC
• Arizona
• Ohio
• Minnesota
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Canada : 10
• Hong Kong : 2
• Australia
• Singapore
• Brazil

I make about 200 prints each time, so around 40 are going into stock for 'future' collectors ... wherever they may be ...

Kind of incredible, actually! I would never have dreamed when I first came here to Japan that this would one day happen - sending prints out to such a scattered global community, direct from my workbench straight to the collectors.

Posted by Dave Bull at 11:47 PM | Comments (3)

OK, let's wrap this one up!

As I mentioned previously, I have included one of the two poems from the original surimono on which this print is based. And no, I'm not going to make a translation, sorry. These old kyoka were really created 'for the moment', and that moment was nearly 200 years ago. The allusions and wordplay are all pretty much gone now, and although a specialist can extract some of the original meaning, it would probably take a full essay to bring it to life. Game is not worth the candle. Just enjoy the visual object. (And incidentally, the same thing goes for most contemporary Japanese, who cannot read the archaic script either ...)

Just two more impressions left, neither of which are going to use any pigment. First, the surrounding embossed pattern:

This is a karazuri, produced by placing the paper face-down over the carved pattern, and rubbing the back with the baren. Note that the back of the paper stays flat, and that the 'raised' parts of the embossment are not actually raised. They are untouched paper; it is the surrounding parts that have become flattened.

That's quite different from this next step - also 'embossing' - but which is the kimedashi:

For this, shallow depressions were cut in the block surface:

The paper was placed over this face down, and then pushed down into the recess. For this you need a smooth and firm tool (boar's tooth was apparently commonly used for this in the old days.) I used the smooth and firm end of a plastic pen, something the 'old guys' didn't have available!

Here's a quick snapshot of the result, in front of a window under raking light.

So she's done! Nice one I think ... 'quick 'n easy!'

The next few days for me are going to be a whirl of other work: postponed desk jobs, web site updates, a quick hospital visit to a friend/collector I haven't seen in a year or so, a hanami party on Friday night (yes, we are still doing those here in Tokyo this year!), and a 'coming-of-age' party for another long-time friend/collector on Saturday. I also have to get this print checked, signed, sealed, trimmed, and ready for shipping, along with doing the associated bookkeeping (collectors, watch out for your invoice in the mail tomorrow!)

And I almost forgot! Carver Sato-san phoned to let me know that the key block for the senshafuda print set is almost done, and that he wanted a meeting to organize colour distribution. We've setup to meet over at Tetsui-san's place (the young printer hired for this job) to work it out together, on Thursday morning ... [Later update: the meeting took place as scheduled, and a report is here.]

Just when I will be able to get back to the bench to begin work on the second batch of these prints I can't say ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 7:31 AM | Comments (7)

After the considerable (but most welcome!) disruptions of the past couple of days, it was time to get back to work this afternoon. (I spent the morning in post office work of course.)

First impression was very quick - just a couple of quick splashes on the 'cheeks':

The next one didn't take much time either ...

The original surimono that I have adapted for this month's print used metallics for the inner parts of the blossoms, but I'm going with a pale yellow pigment. There is no way that I can justify the three or four days it would take to do this with the metallics, and there is also a fairly selfish reason - we are at the height of the cedar pollen season here, and I am blowing my nose between every impression, sometimes more often. But when doing metallics I need to open the windows, and also wear a tight mask, and that's just not going to happen this week!

So we're nearly there ... it could actually be called finished at this point, but we'll dress it up a bit before we're done ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 8:26 AM | Comments (2)

I said in yesterday's post that Saturday would be a 'rest' day for the project, because of the appointment with Tetsui-san. That was the plan, and that was what happened.

But the 'rest' day has been extended - I won't be able to get back to the workbench on Sunday as scheduled. Friday afternoon I got an email from the producer at NHK who had been responsible for the 30-minute 'Japanophiles' program on my work last autumn (viewable here, for those of you who missed it).

Turns out they are trying to get back to 'normal' schedules as the news cycle calms down after the disaster, but haven't got regular programming back in sync yet. He let me know that they had decided to re-broadcast my program as a kind of 'filler', running it six times on Saturday, in between the news bulletins.

That seemed like good news, so I wrote back a quick thank you note, then got on with my work. Come Saturday morning, as Tetsui-san and I were just settling in for the sizing practice (pics here), my computer gave out the special little 'fanfare' sound indicating that an order had come in. And then a few minutes later, again ... and then again ... The first of the six re-broadcasts had finished a few minutes before, and people had begun to make their way to the website ...

It is now Sunday morning, all six showings have run their course, and the subscriber base is now increased by 14. [Welcome to the new members!]

So there won't be any time for printing today; I'm going to be kind of tied up ... tying up packages!

Thank you ... yet again! ... NHK!

Posted by Dave Bull at 8:48 AM | Comments (6)

Despite what I wrote yesterday in the comments to the previous entry, I was able to get two impressions done today. It won't be until tomorrow morning that printer Tetsui-san will be coming over (we'll be spending the day on the work of sizing the paper for the ongoing senshafuda project for Mokuhankan).

So for now, here we go with the next two impressions on this Mystique print. First, just a small touch of red:

It's the next one that is now going to transform this print. Because the keyblock was only a partial outline, it has been difficult to tell what the objects look like. No longer!

A number of readers have left questions/impressions about this design, but there is nothing particularly mysterious about it. It's just basically a 'still life', with the two themes - plum blossoms and fugu (poisonous puffer fish) - selected to illustrate themes from the accompanying poetry (coming up later in that open space to the left).

We now have five impressions to go, but as I mentioned, tomorrow (Saturday) will be a 'rest' day for this project. Look for some photos of paper sizing instead (over on the Mokuhankan Conversations).

Posted by Dave Bull at 7:49 AM | Comments (1)