Written on December 18, 1989 [Permalink]

December 13

A phone call and visit today from the ladies at the Fureai newspaper. They have arranged for me to exhibit the print series for a week in early January at a small gallery in Fussa. It's apparently a kind of 'store-front' place where you hang the stuff, and leave it there for a week for people to see it. I know the location, and can't get very enthusiastic about it, as there is completely no walk-by traffic. Anyway, it's something to do, so of course I agreed to get involved. What is more interesting to me, is that they plan to do a write-up on the 'exhibition' in their newspaper.

December 14

Worked on the colour blocks for the New Year card, and finished all but one of them. I think it will be: sumi and four colours, but I'm not completely sure yet. I was trying to keep the number of blocks to a minimum, as we're going to need a hundred or so copies this year. We usually send out only about 30, but with all the contacts I've established this year, that number is way up. I'll use some of the paper that Yamaguchi-san sent that is rather too thick for the regular prints, but which should be suitable for mailing.

December 15

Off to Sekaido to pick up the frames I ordered about a month ago. This gives me a complete set of 10, ready for whatever display opportunities come up (like the one coming next month).

During one of the evening classes, Seki-san called to thank us for the print (Horikawa). He told Michiyo about his US trip, and said that he had had a great time, and had sold a boatload of prints. He then brought up an interesting 'proposition'. It seems that he is getting more into the 'business' end of the business, and taking an active hand in selling them, not just making them. He has some kind of demonstration/sales event planned for Mitsukoshi in February, and suggested that he include my stuff as part of his stock. This is very interesting. I would love to get some 'Ginza' exposure, and make some sales, but I'm not sure I want to mess with the subscription method of distributing my work. It's been building very slowly, but I'm sure that it will be successful ... eventually. I'll have to go over to his place, and see what he's actually got in mind. Up to now, he's been very critical of my prints. Why would he suddenly think that they are worth including in an exhibition of his stuff? Maybe he's trying to give me a hand ...

I think I would be most interested if it went something like this: display the series of 10 finished to date (as of February), and sell it as a set. Pay the store and Seki-san the necessary cut. Presumably then some of the customers buying the set would be interested in subscribing to the next set, which I would deliver and sell on my own accord. That would give me the stable income during the coming year, and the only money I would 'lose' to the commissions would be on past work, and thus not cut into our income. It sounds interesting, and I hope that something comes of it.

December 16

'Happyokai' at the day care all morning, but finished the colour blocks in the afternoon. Prepared 135 small sheets of paper for printing this weekend, using up 15 of the large sheets from Yamaguchi. I've never had a pile this big before!

December 17-18

Well, it's taken two very long days, but they're done. 121 of them are OK to send out.

There are eight 'colours', three of which are bokashi, and I think this is the last time I'll ever design a card with gradations! They took forever to do, mostly due to the fact that after I'd finished them (3 x 135 = 405!), I realized that the light brown colour I had used was not going to bring out the necessary 3-D effect. So ... I re-moistened and ran them all over again, using a grey tone. This made it an eleven 'colour' print, six of which were bokashi! The tatami pattern block was also tough going, as it needed lots of pressure to bring out the embossing. I'm glad we have this word processor, because I wouldn't be able to hold a pencil tonight!