Written on December 24, 1989 [Permalink]

December 24

Printing, printing, printing. It's been months since I made any copies of this one, and I'm amazed at the poor quality of the carving. All the blocks are way too shallow, and needed lots of extra gouging and clearing work. The work seems to have been done with a kitchen knife! There were also lots of registration problems, some of which I think can be attributed to the paper, which is from a new batch just arrived from Yamaguchi-san. The dosa is quite weak and uneven from sheet to sheet, and the paper constantly gives off loose 'hairs', which gum up the block and cause blotches. There is also a considerable difference in the amount that the paper has expanded from sheet to sheet, making it a real headache to try and predict where the next sheet should be placed in the kento marks.

December 25

A mixed bag day. Got the kids done with their presents and off to the hoikuen, and then turned to ... translation. Ugh! Christmas morning deadline! ... In the afternoon finished the 50 prints. 43 are in the OK pile (not such a good record!), 4 have small blotches, and three are mis-registered. The colour printing work is good, very smooth, and quite well 'balanced'. The sumi printing is less good. I've got to find a way to print cleaner black, with less 'tamari' and stickiness. The original book is printed with quite a soft black, and all the edges are razor sharp. Time for some help from Matsuzaki-san? How on earth can I ask him, after he sent that gift last week?

Of course, at 6:00 turned on the TV sound channel on the stereo and listened for the NHK program. They did a very good job, making a 3 minute 'mini-documentary' of my work. There is a minimum of emphasis on the 'extras' (English classes, family, etc.), and other than listening to my painfully inadequate Japanese, it sounds great! We're obviously not going to be inundated with a flood of inquiries, as there was no contact information given in the program, but maybe somewhere, somehow, it will lead to something ...