Written on March 18, 1989 [Permalink]

March 7

A translation/re-write day for Michiyo, but grabbed an hour before my Japanese lesson to print a swatch of each of the 9 reds that I bought yesterday. None of them is bang on what I want, but 'Chinese Orange' looks close.

March 10

Banged out a thank-you note to Matsuzaki-san for the advice and sumi the other night. Asked if I could visit his place sometime.

March 11

After coming home from the Fussa 'Fureai' English classes, prepared 10 sheets ready for tomorrow. New brush, new sumi ...

March 12

Waited 'till everybody left for the library, then started the 10. Tried as well as I could to follow the general method that I watched last Monday at the demonstration. It seems to work great! With a basically dry brush, plus the new sumi, the impression seems much more even and black. The bigger brush makes it easier to get the stuff onto all parts of the block before it dries in areas. Even the baren seemed more cooperative today. I'm keeping my index finger off as much as possible, and there was a real feeling of 'firmness' without tension. For the first time ever in my printing, rather than having a feeling of relief when I got to the bottom of the stack, I was truly sad to have to stop! (some stack ... 10 sheets!) After finishing the sumi-ban, I waited a short time and then started the colours. Unlike previous attempts to print both on the same day, there was no blurring of the black when the colours went on top. Finished the ten at 8:45 (15 minutes before my Japanese lesson!). They look great. My best work ever. After the lesson, prepared 24 more sheets to start tomorrow.

March 13

Matsuzaki-san phoned to say that it would be fine if we visited. We made an appointment for next Monday, the 20th.

Ran the whole 24 ... the sumi-ban and after a short pause, all the colours. I had to stop for a break after doing the yellow background, because the paper seemed to be giving up. After a couple of hours rest, the moisture had evened out, and I could continue without damaging it. Things went surprisingly well. Doing the background tsubushi, which I had expected to be a pain in the arm, was no problem at all. There was actually lots of time to spare (two short re-writing jobs for Michiyo!).

The 23 resulting prints (I dropped one on the sumi block!) were not quite as good as the batch from the day before. Perhaps I pressed too heavily on the sumi, or perhaps the paper was too wet, but on many of the copies the black lines are swollen and unattractive. Can I blame my baren? I have only the flat, wide one, which isn't strong enough for this work, and the 8 strand, small one, which seems to be too strong. We'll see next Monday!

March 16

Michiyo phoned the film-maker to see what was up. He has had the film ready for weeks, and was waiting for me to pick it up! We asked him to mail it out.

March 18

The film arrived. As I expected, the right eye and nose are nonexistent. The red areas have also become completely black, and will have to be copied by hand (from where?). The size is correct, it was not reversed, and the lettering is on a separate sheet (as I had requested). I don't know what I am going to do about the missing features...