Written on September 14, 1992 [Permalink]

September (continued) ~

As far as the work goes, I got the carving finished a couple of days after Michiyo left, and then printed the first run of Jakuren Hoshi. This was tough, not only because of the long break, but of course it had to be a large, black kimono. I tried to catch the same smooth black I got on that printing of Dainagon Kinto a couple of months ago, but there's just no way ... it's been too long ... It came out better than last year's blacks, but still not as good as that Kinto printing. I saved the second run of 60 or so until the new batch of paper came in from Yamaguchi-san, hoping that it would be nice and thin, as I had requested. No such luck. It was just as thick and heavy as the last batch ... What do I have to say to these people ...?

The block for the next print arrived just in time, and I got the hanshita pasted down and the carving started. I forgot that these colour copies stretch easily, put too much glue on the block, and nearly lost the whole thing with careless rubbing. This reminds me that I also had some trouble when washing off the hanshita scraps from the Jakuren Hoshi block. It wouldn't come off, without a lot of washing. I don't know whether this was because of the long time it had remained stuck down, or because it was a reversed hanshita, pasted down face up. This face up hanshita solved the problem of peeling off the block during carving, but is still far from ideal. The black pigment making up the image is quite thickly applied to the paper, and it still cracks off as the knife goes by, leaving the line indistinct. I guess I'll have to keep searching for a better way ...

As for the fall newsletter, that went off very well. I punched it into the word processor while Michiyo was still here, and then got Takayoshi and Ashida-san to proofread. I spent a day laying it out, and then got it to the printer, who promised delivery by the 18th, and then showed up on the 14th with the package, just a few minutes after the Post Office picked up the Jakuren Hoshi packages. (It's too bad they couldn't have gone together, as the postage bill for the newsletter alone will run about 18,000 yen ...)

This September is also visa time, and I went downtown and put in the application for permanent residence. They said the yes/no would take up to a year, and meanwhile gave me another three year visa to carry on with. They were very friendly, but weren't able to give me any ideas on how likely it was that the application would be approved. On the way home, I stopped off in Nakano and checked out that place I had been considering for the supplies for the CWAJ printmaking workshops, which are going to start next week. I've got to get busy and get that organized properly, or it's going to be chaotic ...