Posted on April 20, 2012 [Permalink]

Continued from [Arts of Japan #1 - 17] : printing steps 17~20 | Starting point of the thread was [Arts of Japan #1 - 1] : making the first print ...

The final two steps use blocks that will be applied to all prints in the series - first the border lines and series title:

And then the Plum Blossom embossing for a decorative border:

This embossing is similar to the one I carved for the previous Mystique series, but has an interesting difference. There are ten Japanese characters 'buried' in it, reading: 版画玉手箱 日本の美術 (Hanga Tamatebako - Nihon no Bijutsu), which is of course the name of the series in Japanese.

So we're done! To see a larger image, and the story that goes along with it, please visit the Arts of Japan website.

And now, I'm going to take off my printer's hat for a week or so, strap on my tool belt, and get busy on the case production line ... (I'll post an update on this tomorrow ...)

Added by: Dale on April 20, 2012

AWESOME! What a great print to start off this new series. I can hardly wait until it arrives in my mailbox! And thanks for the explanation of the characters in the embossed border. I had seen them when you were carving the blocks but forgot to ask what the translation of the characters might be...