Written on February 20, 1992 [Permalink]

February 13

A copy of the Gat'n magazine came in the mail today. I'm one of a couple of dozen people included in a feature on 'meijin wo mezasu', or 'aiming at becoming expert'. Expert at what? Collecting Rolling Stones memorabilia, running a denim shop, polishing antique cars, or yes, making woodblock prints ...

Having lots of trouble with the carving. I don't get finished as much in a day as a real carver would finish in a few minutes. The problem is blade breakage again. I spent 10 minutes or so putting a nice edge on the blade, press it into the wood, and pull it out broken. I can't carve a single line without either snapping the tip right off, or breaking chips out of the blade just behind the point. I don't think I've got the angle set too sharply, as I keep a traced pattern of a 'good' angle that I had a while ago on hand, and check against it regularly. The blade was getting kind of short, so I thought that perhaps I was into a 'bad' section of steel, and changed the blade, but no difference. Not only am I not getting anything done, but the work that is done is scrappy and jagged, and I know the lines will expand when I wash the block. When am I ever going to get some time to visit a carver ...

February 14

Another 'short' day, with only about an hour of carving. Re-sharpened the blade to make it more squat and less delicately tapered, and that seemed to make it a bit less fragile. The trouble may be something to do with the wood. This piece is a mixed plank, with some wide softish grain at one end, and a section of very, very hard red wood at the other. Of course, I placed the face of the picture on the harder end, and that's what I'm trying to carve now. It'll be interesting to find out if 'real' carvers sharpen their blades at different angles depending on the density of the wood ...

The rest of the day was taken up with visitors: Shintani-san and Ashida-san were in to start preparing cases for the next shipment, Okada-san from La Vie magazine came for an interview and photos (this story is mostly about 'lifestyle' and not printmaking), and some people that met my mother in England came over to get acquainted.

A nice package in the mail today: payments from Iida-san and Takeda-san - 500,000 - our largest payment ever so far. This will cover the cost of the blue cases, and pay the end-of-month rent and etc.. Made it for another month!

February 16

Not much accomplished this weekend. Yesterday was kids, and today was kids and visitors - Ned Herperger came over again to show me his first carved block, and a couple from Spain were here to learn something about woodblocks ...

In the morning Michiyo asked me on the phone if I had written the blurb for this month's print. She's afraid that I'll wait until the last minute before sending it to her (she thought that it already was the last minute!). I've just started carving the poem (I'm giving the face area a rest until I get more 'settled' on the sharpening), so there's still lots of time, but I wrote it anyway and sent it off by fax this evening.

February 17

While the kids were doing their homework today, I got out the word processor and started typing in the 'Baren' book that I got from Kaneko-san. I use the 'split screen' on our machine, and first put the Japanese in on one screen, and then try my attempt at a translation on the other. This time, from five o'clock until dinner preparation time, is an hour or so every day that is otherwise wasted, sitting and watching the kids do their work, but if I do a little bit of typing every day, perhaps by the end of a year or so, I'll have the whole thing done. I've got a new very easy-to-use Kodansha Kanji~English dictionary, but this book was written by old guys, and there are lots of characters that are not used much anymore, and it's frustrating trying to find them ...

February 18

Got down to the Post Office and bank today, and paid off Kogado (280,000) and the two women (40,000). The balance of the money in the account will go to the rent at the end of the month.

Went to a school meeting today with Fumi-chan, as part of the preparation for her entrance in April. The principal gave a talk to all us 'mothers' (I was the only male parent there - out of 102 people), and in the middle of it I was jolted awake to hear my name ... David Bull ... front page ... Mainichi newspaper ... (I hadn't been listening, so I don't really know why he decided to throw me in there). I guess he feels that having somebody 'famous' in his school is a big deal ...

February 19

The two women were here all morning working on the case preparation. They make an impressive stack - 50 or so blue cases, with various labels being pasted on. Ashida-san made a few phone calls for me, to those few customers who have yet to let me know about continuing, and we got two more quitters - Shibata-san (which I had expected), and Teramoto-san from Shingu (which surprised me). The other half a dozen or so she called all expressed surprise that we were even asking. I've still got a few of the English speakers to call ...

Got Ishikawa-san's exhibition postcard in the mail. He's put photos of four of the prints on the front, with a standard-type blurb on the back. The exhibition starts on the 26th. He's got no pamphlets, no information on how I take orders, no nothing - except the 30 extra prints I sent him. What is he planning ...?

The carving went better the last few days. I've re-angled the blade yet again, with an even shorter bevel, making the blade a bit thicker at the point. This is working much better, and there is much less breakage. I made a tracing of the shape on a corner of the carving bench, and will try and keep the blade matched to it when I sharpen.

February 20

Got a P/R surprise this morning. The ladies class women were here for a couple of hours, and one of them showed me a copy of the 'Mainichi Weekly', one of those simple English newspapers aimed at Japanese people studying the language. Guess who's featured in a two-page full colour story spread? Guess who wrote it? Yes, it's the same story that ran in 'Ichi no Ichi' last December, reappearing here along with a bunch of new photographs, and an English-Japanese glossary explaining many of the phrases and expressions. This is nice, but wouldn't it have been nice of them to tell me about it? I faxed off a little note asking for a couple of copies. (They paid me 30,000 for the original story, and I wonder if that covers this extra use ...?)