Hello,

I'd like to know how, if you do, present the printings to people. I mean if you sell or give them as a gift. If you just put in on the table and say "Look", then, well, they're on the table.

The Ukiyo-e Heroes series by Jed and masterly carved by David Bull, shortly, comes with the print attached to a cardboard using adhesive cornes and, then, inside a creased cardboard with a front title.

I remember having seen one David Bull print series beeing in books (don't know if the print was inside the book or the book was a reader companion to the print) stitched on japanese style.

In my Taketori series, I'm going to present them in a cardboard creased in half. On bottom left corner of left side, there will be an L-shape pocket where a reader companion small book will be (with the chapter of the tale the print represents, and an overview of the design/printing process). On the other side, there will be the printing itself.

For the companion book, I'll be using, obviously, a japanese style:
a) Pages will be folded in half (so the ink do not show in the back side) to make a "page"
b) The stitch will be a creative one using my own design.

In the attached photo, you can see a draft of the book (cover page will be on color paper) and the first of the stiches: the moon and gold coins "falling" from it [chapter 1 of Taketori Monogatari]. I still don't know if I'll use different colors for the thread to match the design (blue/moon, yellow/golden, white/stitch) or not, I'll see.



So, that's how I plan to present the Taketori series. I hope you find it different

Sincerely,
Franz

EDIT: I forgot to add the photo. Now, it's there.

That's quite a presentation ... I hope your packaging skills aren't outrunning your printing skills!


I don't quite understand the structure of your proposed pamphlet, but an important thing to keep in mind is that there should be nothing facing the print that could possibly transfer onto it. I made the error a long time ago, of having a laser-printer folder with printed information on the left side, and the print mounted on the right side, and found that over time, some of the laser type transferred onto the print surface ...

At the moment, they do as I've been doing handcraft bookbinding since long time ago and packaging whatever too. But I'm confident my printing skill can surpass the packaging one. I just need practice


It seems I was going to do just the very same mistake but even worst...

Here's the pamphlet idea I had in mind:



But as you have indicated, the ink in the book might be transfered to the print itself and, here's the "worst" I've just realized, the surface that face the print isn't flat at all so the print would be damaged...

Thank you very much for pointing that out. Now, to think on a new presentation way.

Sincerely,
Franz

Yes, this is absolutely not going to work, sorry. Over time, the print will develop a line where it is pressed against the opposite face ...

The prints we are making on this wonderful hosho paper are going to last easily 200 years. The huge challenge for us is to find a way to package them so that we don't cause damage as our packaging ages, as those materials almost certainly won't last that long ...

I know safekeeping must be the first on the TODO list.

At the moment, I'm only able to think on a western solution I think you used in one of your series.

The book would be oversized to 21x21 cm with the japanese stitching and the print would be on the last page (with the last paper sheet white, of course) or even in the penultimate one as the last page is often the most damaged one.



That way, both text and print would be together.

The question that may arise is why on earth I do want to keep text and print altogether. Well, I think that a good design doesn't need any companion/information text but mine do. Not only because there are better ways to sum the story up, but also because it's a tale develop inside of a "foreign" culture which people often misunderstand or ignore some basics about it.

Off-topic: For example, in the first print, it's the night before the old bamboo cutter finds Kaguya-hime inside the bamboo. Because she is a pure person, which was represented with "light" in the time of the writing of the tale, that's why it's light down the bamboo. Also, the book stitching has gold coins down the moon because the bamboo cutter found money inside the steams. OK, the coins are not Kōchōsen (the ones used when the tale was written) but a Tokugawa koban, the ones used in ukiyo-e prints. Mainly because if I used the Kōchōsen no one would know what they represented at all.

And back to topic, I will keep thinking on a different way.

Sincerely,
Franz