This morning - as with most mornings - I had the Woodblock Webcam running while I worked. I usually put it on twice a day; my morning session is 'targeted' at people living in North America (their afternoon/evening), and my evening session for European viewers (their morning/afternoon).

It doesn't really draw a very large crowd of viewers; there are some 'regulars' who drop by once in a while to see what is going on, and there are a few who are in the habit of leaving it open in a corner of their computer screen while they do other work. This is possible because the view in the webcam isn't one that will tend to be very distracting. Watching me work on my prints is basically like watching paint dry ...

I use the Ustream system to broadcast the webcam view, and at my end there is a simple Control Panel that allows me to set various parameters, and which also has a feature that shows how many people are currently tuned in. This number usually sits at 2, 3, or 4, and sometimes climbs as 'high' as 5.

But as I was working this morning, I looked over at the panel at one point, and saw this:

In case you can't read what it says down in the lower left corner, it is this:

Eleven viewers! Woot!

A couple of them typed questions into the Webcam Message Board, and - although I had no idea who these people were - I of course answered as best I could (whatever I speak is clearly audible to watchers) while continuing with my carving.

But as eleven viewers at once really is quite unusual, I asked the viewers if somebody would perhaps let me know just what was happening today that had brought so many people to the Webcam all at the same time. A minute later, a posting on the message board filled me in - a collector in the US who recently joined the current Arts of Japan series was pretty enthusiastic about it, and had contacted many of her friends to 'come and watch'. And they did!

Now this was all very well, but a few minutes later, during an automatic email check, the workshop laptop gave out a fanfare ... the fanfare that lets us know that a print order has come in.

It was from one of the new viewers - a subscription for the new series. And it came with this comment:

I actually started visiting yesterday ... After watching you work and looking through the galleries of your past prints, I am completely hooked. I am a tinkerer, hacker, hobbyist and crafter in my spare time and love working with metal, wood, ink, paint, electricity and fire. It will most likely become a nightly ritual for me to tune in to your webcam to watch the progress on this series unfold. Thanks for answering my questions and generally explaining things as you go, I really enjoy it.

Later in the morning, packing assistant Yasui-san had his box all ready, and it was off to the post office later before they closed in the afternoon ...

Fun!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:21 AM | Comments (7)

The main job today was working out the colour separations for this print. I think there will be four pieces of wood, using both sides of course, and some of the faces having multiple 'zones'. I think there will perhaps be about 14 or 15 impressions in all.

Here are the kyogo-zuri, the sheets printed from the keyblock on which I have coloured in the appropriate zones for each colour block.

The tea cup is a 'placeholder' for the eighth sheet, which isn't worked out yet. This will be the shadows on the face of the statue, and getting those right is not going to be a trivial task. So as usual ... 'later'!

Over on the Mokuhankan Conversations blog today, there is a post showing this morning's work - together with new trainee Ayumi-san. We had the Webcam running, and I also recorded part of the session. The final segment of that video - which you can see on the Conversations page - shows me pasting down one of these kyogo sheets.

Before I started work this morning, I had been out for a morning stroll, and noticed something interesting, so I zipped home to pick up my camera ... See the white house in the distance? That's my place. The white barriers on the side of the road are necessary because the land falls away steeply to the river in these areas.

If we turn the view to the right, and look over the barrier, we see this:

A bamboo grove. A bamboo grove in early summer. And early summer is when it shoots up like crazy, dropping sheaths as it goes ... Here's a stem shooting up, still sheathed at the top, but with one just splitting off and getting ready to drop ..

Here's a cluster where the sheaths haven't quite separated ...

For a woodblock printmaker, this is 'prime time'! Now I have to be a bit careful here ... [Note to my mother, who reads this blog sometimes ... just skip this next part, OK? Go get a cup of tea or something ...]

... I have to be careful because this cluster of bamboo is growing right at the very edge of the drop-off, and it's a very long way down! (But it would only really be dangerous for somebody who didn't know what to expect - suddenly stepping out into thin air.) I climbed over the railing, gingerly entered the grove, and gathered a few of the sheaths ...

I lived to tell the story, but unfortunately, it doesn't have a happy ending! This is a clump of the type of bamboo known as madake (timber bamboo), and that is one very heavy-weight plant. The sheaths are extremely thick and dense.

I took some home, thinking that perhaps they would be useful for practicing at least, but no way - they are far too thick. These are totally unuseable.

Too bad! At the price I'm paying for these recently, this would have been a real gold mine!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:22 AM | Comments (4)

Nothing to do with woodblock printmaking this time!

This morning is the time for the once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse here in Tokyo ... the first time for me to see an Annular eclipse (the one where just a thin ring of sun remains visible ...)

I don't have to travel far to see it. Sitting here at my desk, I've got my eye protection ready (sunglasses - useless by themselves, but paired with a doubled layer of black film for each eye):

And then lean to the left ...

I watched carefully at the appropriate times for the 'beads' to appear, although none did (that I noticed). But it was spectacular nonetheless, and I'm very happy to have been able to see this ... the 'ring' effect was beautiful!

I don't have any way to take a photo of it for you, but I think you can find such photos elsewhere!

Update: Over on collector Mr. Shigeyoshi Ushiro san's blog, he posted this photo, which he says he got by using a small hole punched in a cardboard box. A bit cloudy in his area it seems, but it was still visible ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 7:42 AM | Comments (9)

OK, I think I've done about all the tracing, sketching, and general fiddling that I can do on this one; let's have a look at it!

Here's the general concept I have been playing with - a very small photo that I noticed on a little Geocities web page about flower arranging, when in the early stages of perusing source material for this Arts of Japan series:

Seeing it reminded me instantly of my own first 'view' of the Kamakura Daibutsu more than thirty years ago. We were walking through back streets from the station, and caught this kind of glimpse from a distance - just the top of the statue looming over other buildings. "There it is!" Seeing it that way heightened our eagerness to get closer and see the 'real thing' ...

So I think I'll base my print on this concept. As for the 'style', I'm going to take a general shin-hanga approach, modelling the three areas (statue, roof, distant greenery) with overlaid colour blocks and nezumi-ban.

But we need an outline drawing first, and - as we saw in the earlier post introducing not-very-well-drawn versions by Hiroshige, Keith, and Hasui - this statue is not easy to 'capture' in outline.

Here's a first attempt to trace over that (blurry) photo, with some cropping and editing to get the overall shape:

Don't run away just yet ... we can do better than that ...

The eye and mouth are both very difficult, but after a number of inbetween steps too tedious to show here, it starts to look a bit better:

Illustrator friend Jed Henry over in the US made a suggestion that I should 'elevate' the head away from the roof line, and that's clearly an improvement:

The eye still looked slightly 'evil', and I thought that reversing the curve would eradicate that feeling:

... but it only made it worse. I don't feel that any of the illustrators I showed in the previous post could catch the eyes properly either, but once I simplified the line, and also 'gentled' the curve of his jaw/chin ...

... he began to radiate some proper 'peace and harmony'. But returning to the original photo, I realize that somewhere along the line I managed to get him sitting up a bit too straight, so I pushed his head forward a bit:

And that, I think, is where I am going to leave it for a bit. I've already begun carving the rooftop and greenery, but will keep the 'head space' clear until at least tomorrow, so that I can let this sink in and percolate for a while.

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:52 AM | Comments (4)

If you followed the Google image link that I included in the previous post, you will have seen that the Kamakura Daibutsu can be viewed and 'framed' in a huge number of different ways.

Just how to depict it will depend on a number of things, but one over-riding factor will be the relatively small size of my print (this is of course decided for the entire series). I'm pretty good at getting a lot of detail in my prints, but that's not the approach we need to take every time!

Here are a few images showing some earlier woodblock versions. First ... Hiroshige:

What a mournful looking Daibutsu! Did Hiroshige actually go and look at it? It seems doubtful ...

British designer Elizabeth Keith did one in 1919 (carved/printed by Watanabe):

And Kawase Hasui had two kicks at the cat, a simple postcard version, and a large o-ban print. This was also by Watanabe, and it's curious to see that both the Watanabe editions use leaf shadows on the stonework, although in Hasui's version the steps have changed, as the statue's base was apparently destroyed in the 1923 earthquake.

It's curious also that Hasui - just like Hiroshige - got the thing 'wrong'. Here's a photo from basically the same angle as Hasui's version:

Not quite sure why Hasui thought that the Daibutsu might look better with a football helmet ...

Anyway, all those designers took the same basic approach - a full view of the statue in its surroundings with some overhanging tree branches for 'compositional effect'. I don't think I have quite that much room, and there's a idea I've been mulling over for quite some time ... but let's save that for the next post!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:26 AM | Comments (1)

It's time to begin work on the second print in the Arts of Japan series, even though we're far from 'finishing' the first one. I have yet to print the second batch of 100 or so of that one (although there were enough in the first batch to supply all the current collectors, so there's no panic on that), and there is still plenty of case construction work waiting for me in the woodshop ...

The theme for this next one has been decided, and will be sculpture - in particular 'monumental' sculpture. Given that fact, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to make a pretty good guess about what the image might look like!

There are many possible such sculptures scattered all over the country, but I have selected a particular one that is situated not too far from here, and the reason is that ... I think that rather than reproduce an old print of this object, I'd like to have a go at creating a new one.

Yes - does that strike fear into the hearts of the collectors? Dave is going to include originals in this series!

For the curious, here's a Google search of images of the object in question ...

The rest of the time today was spent working with Tsushima-san on her 'Yoshida' proofing, and running up to the woodshop every time my little timer told me that a batch of glue was ready to unclamp. I'm trying to get the next batch of cases done, and am laying up the laminated paulownia tops. This time, I'm also mixing in the first bunch of cases for the Mokuhankan 'Hangaclub' project, so that we can perhaps get that underway without too much more delay ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:26 AM | Comments (7)

Here we are with the final entry in the series showing the construction of the cases for the 'Arts of Japan' series. This isn't the last of the actual construction work - as we have only finished 70-odd cases yet - but from here on in it will simply be a lot more of the same.

The last step in the actual woodwork stage was of course finish sanding (this is what kept me busy during the entire weekend that Fujii-san was here doing her recent printing training):

The cases then went downstairs onto a temporary shelf/platform in the new space next door (we haven't got a 'name' for that room yet ... we'll have to see what people start to use ...):

And Lee-san - who is here for a couple of days this week - got right to work on the spraying. You can see where we haven't yet had time to knock out those breeze blocks separating the two rooms:

This 'spray booth' is a lot more pleasant than the one he got stuck with last week ...

And of course, the light is much better ...

After the testing last week, we decided to go with two coats of a fairly simple water-base varnish, giving the cases a pretty vigorous sanding between coats:

We're not attempting a 'super gloss' professional finish like the one on the previous Mystique series cases; we just don't have the experience or the resources to do that, and as we haven't used wood filler, the grain is fairly 'open'. The finish on these cases thus has a sort of 'natural' look, and we think it's quite attractive.

Putting the two coats on this batch was one very long day!

The cases then went back upstairs to the woodshop for final polishing, checking, and this important step - what is Tsushima-san doing?

Levelling the feet of course! She's working on a doubled glass plate, which is about the only way we could create an absolutely flat surface:

We'll temporarily skip the next couple of photos, which show the cases being 'loaded' with the first print, stand and acrylic panel (because they 'reveal' the interior and opening mechanism). But it all ends up looking like this:

It's a basically simple item, but we think it has turned out pretty well, and Lee-san and I shook hands in congratulations this evening at the conclusion of the work on this batch.

As for the other aspect of this - whether making the cases ourselves was actually a good idea from a business point of view ... this is perhaps something we can leave for another day. I don't want to spoil the mood tonight!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:04 AM | Comments (2)

This next post in the ongoing sequence of how our storage cases are being made is a bit different. It's not being posted 'openly' on this blog for everybody to see.

It's not that it's 'secret', it's because there are readers of this blog who do not want to see this just yet. They have ordered the print series, are looking forward to receiving the print and case, and are also looking forward to seeing how it 'works'.

As I mentioned earlier, we have been testing this with visitors to our place, and quite a few of these people have been unable to open the case when we give it to them. Now I should make it clear that this isn't any kind of 'puzzle' box - it's a straight-forward little box for storing the prints, with a lid that opens to allow the contents to be inspected.

But they are having 'trouble' for a couple of reasons. One is that the 'lid' isn't actually all that obvious - there are no hinges, no latch, no openings of any kind, nor does it have a drawer like last year's case. And the other is that we have made it a bit stiff, expecting that as the cases are used bit by bit, they will 'open up' to be looser and easier to handle (as indeed, we have found with our testing). So people aren't really sure how much force they can safely apply, without breaking something. So we'll be putting a note/letter into the package, letting people know how it opens ...

But it seems that among the collectors are some who also want to play this little 'game' ... having fun working it out for themselves. If this is you, then don't click here, because that link is to a sequence of photos showing how it all works.

And as for our 'regular' update, the current batch of 50 cases has now reached the end of the woodwork stage - they are all properly 'shaped', have their feet formed, and are ready for final sanding and varnishing.

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:01 AM | Comments (2)

We're getting closer to the 'end' of the long process of making the first batch of these storage cases; we've seen any number of photos of the main workbench, with the cases changing shape bit by bit each time. Here are a couple of recent versions:

... and this scene is also familiar, I think ...

But this one has a different aspect. What's with the collection of small bottles and jars?

Getting ready for the finishing stage, of course! Here's our ultra-modern, highly-appointed, 'super clean room' spray booth!

That's Lee-san doing the spraying; he's here for two days ... And although that spray booth may not look very appetizing, it does the job!

Meanwhile, the boss was upstairs in the woodshop, busy with one of the more unpleasant stages of the work (and very noisy, too ...)

And the boxes keep building up and up ... There isn't any printing being done here this week, so my printing alcove is pressed into service as a 'drying room'. Here are a bunch of cases, and a number of the 'stands' ...

Note the highly imaginative use of the large flat file as a drying rack!

Here is one of the first ones to come out the far end of the production line ... This is actually one of the same cases shown in the photo above (and the next one) ; under various illuminations it looks completely different. I have no idea what actual colour it will appear to you in your own home ...

And here it is, seen in the wild, in its natural habitat!

That's one down, only 199 to go!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:38 AM | Comments (3)