Written on December 8, 1989 [Permalink]

December 1

Started the poem on the Horikawa print - just the name is six characters long. The labels for the front of each folder seem to be getting longer all the time.

December 2

Took the kids, borrowed the 'rear car' from the local school, and picked up the 200 pre-cut sheets of cardboard from Yamashita san's factory. Just like last time, it sure makes a small mountain in the corner of the classroom, but I'm sure that none of the students will complain!

Spent the next 12 hours straight carving the poem, and finished it all but the last two little sections. This one is drawn with very fine lines, similar to the Semi Maru poem. I carved that one full of trepidation, but this one quite relaxed and casually; and it's obvious when you look at the completed work. This is a recurring pattern - something looks fantastic to me when I have just done it, but a couple of months later I start to feel embarrassed about the defects!

December 3

Finished off the poem, carved the border, and cleared out all the outlines. Done! The first customers to get this one are 'expecting' it on or about the 10th. I might just make it!

December 4

A letter today from Kawanaka-san thanking me for the three prints (the 'originals'). He seems to have found them attractive, and is quite complimentary. He sent along a package of stamps to reimburse my postage expense and also enclosed a sheaf of beer tickets! Kampai!

Started work on the colour blocks, five of them (all on one piece of wood).

A phone call came in from a Mrs. Inoue at the Tama office of the Sankei Shimbun, and we set up an appointment for Monday the 11th. I sent them a flyer last May! I guess they've been keeping it on file since then ...

December 5

More work on the colour blocks. Not able to finish them all, as four of them involve cutting out all the flowers on the kimono - a time-consuming job.

December 8

In the morning, prepared 10 sheets for a test run, and printed the sumi-ban at night after the last class. This was the first test of my second batch of home-mixed sumi, and it seems to be quite a bit thinner that the first. The prints look OK though, and I think that the previous stuff was probably quite a bit too thick ...

In the afternoon, sent off four more flyers, this time to English magazines on Japan. I got the addresses while browsing in Maruzen last week. The Tokyo Journal doesn't seem interested, so maybe one of the other ones is ...