Something a bit different this afternoon. I received an update message in the mail this morning, and this prompted me to visit a couple of print-related websites created and maintained by two of my collectors - both of whom live in Europe.

The websites - aside from the fact that one is in English and the other in French - are very similar. The two gentlemen both came to their interest in Japanese prints via the same route: a childhood interest in comic books. If you don't quite get the connection, then please visit these sites, where my friends are showing off their wonderful woodblock print collections, along with commentary on their background and culture.

Jacques Commandeur's website I believe has been around a bit longer. He is currently living in The Netherlands, and you can find his website here.

The site of Serge Astières - living in France - is somewhat newer, and follows a similar format, with his prints also displayed in categories. The entry page is here.

Serge described in an email last month how he had met Jacques on a business trip a few days before, and the two of them had dinner together, at which event they cooked up a bunch of business advice for me. And who knows, perhaps I'll even follow a bit of it! :-)

A hearty 'thank you' to both of them for their wonderful (and overboard!) support of my work. I am happy to have helped bring them just a bit more pleasure for their hobby!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:15 AM | Comments (0)

So we're done! As I said in yesterday's entry, it was actually finished then, but I didn't have a chance to scan it. So here it is:

And the 'proper' web page, with the accompanying story, etc. can be found here.

The next few days will be taken up with office work - the summer newsletter for one - and on Monday I'll be flying off to Aomori Prefecture as a guest of NHK, to film a short travel 'documentary' program. When I get back, I'll be burying myself in work printing some of Jed's designs, and supervising the crew here who will be doing the same thing. Watch the Mokuhankan Conversations blog for updates on that!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:37 AM | Comments (2)

And we can finally wrap this one up this evening. The last impression to involve pigment is the border lines:

And I then followed this with the outer embossing pattern. Unfortunately, in today's kind of chaotic atmosphere here, I didn't get a chance to dry and scan it properly, so I'll bring you the final image tomorrow ...

Thanks for your patience!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:24 AM | Comments (0)