Written on May 9, 1991 [Permalink]

May 6

A nice surprise - I was able to find the purple colour for the pants on the first try. I'm certainly getting better at looking at a sample and then estimating the 'ingredients' (for a colour that I've mixed before, that is!). The printing went smoothly, and I even had time to take the kids down to the riverside for a picnic. It turned out to be a bit of a longer trip than planned, meeting the Cho family, and then beating the bushes trying to find Mimi-chan .... A welcome break.

A phone call came in during the evening from NTV, telling us that I would be on the news program tonight. Luckily it was still early enough to let Yamashita-san know about it (He'd kill me if I didn't let him know). I heard it on the stereo (in full-colour bilingual sound), and it sounded OK. There's nothing there that will directly help the business end, but presumably it may lead to other contacts.

May 7

4 sheets wet for colour samples of Shun-e Hoshi [3-4], and a pile of strips for his name labels. This one is going to be a bit funny, as Shunsho wrote the name 'crooked', and we'll have to paste the label on the folders at the same angle.

Printed the sumi on the samples and the labels in the evening (as usual, the women are breathing down my back waiting for me to get them done).

One call today from the TV show last night. A Mr. Otsuka, who lives in Ome, and has some kind of interest in hanga. He said that he would like to visit one evening, so gave him our address and invited him over.

May 8

Colours on the samples. The overlaid printing idea seems to work just fine. There was no problem at all finding attractive browns for each level. The very first one off the blocks is going to be my 'mi-hon'. 70 sheets moistened.

May 9

Sumi on the 70. Used a bit of a thinner mixture than usual, trying to get away from the 'stickiness'. Seems OK.

Spent a couple of hours working on the lettering for the poster. It may be a mistake, but I'm carving the letters on one of the plywood sheets. It goes very quickly, but will it last long enough to print the 100 copies?

The Tokyo 'Tourist Information Center' called today. They had an inquiry from a British woman who wants to learn printmaking. Could I help her? They have me in their clippings file as a result of one of the previous newspaper articles, and were checking to see if I was still here. Of course, I gave them permission to pass on contact information.

Ashida-san called Muse today to see if they could supply us with the 'lesac' paper that we use to make folders. We have been getting it from a local art store, but recently realized that it was made by Muse, who have been supplying our backboards. She had a list of questions for them concerning recent poor quality backboards, some shipping problems, and their demand for instant prepayment before shipping. She seems to have scored on everything, and they say that they will now accept later payment (through the post office, much easier for me), and can supply our 'lesac' cut to exact size. A little bit easier .....

May 10

Colours on the 70, and I don't think that I spoiled any of them. Got a bit confused between the skin tone and the 'lowest' kimono tone (they look almost identical in the bowls), but got it sorted out. Had a bit of a problem with brushes. I've only got one good brush for brown, and with more than one brown in the same print, I used one of my 'upright' brushes for the deep brown. It seemed to work OK, but about half way through, the colour started to get blotchy, and I couldn't control it at all. I re-washed my standard brown brush, switched to it, and had no more problems. Finished up at a few minutes before midnight.

The English woman (Hazel Miller) called today, and we set up for her to come over next week Saturday. She's in Japan for a year and wants to learn all about printmaking. I turned her on to the Yoshida Academy, and maybe she'll head over there as well.

During the day Ashida-san came round to pick up the descriptive sheet that will accompany this month's print. Unfortunately, I hadn't written it yet, so when the printing was done, hauled out the word pro and got started. This typing is being done the next day!