'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [4])

Here's a closer look at what we've done so far (this is only about one third of the impressions in the final print):

We've got a mix of test paper and a few sheets of real washi, and as you can see, at this point there is no attempt whatsoever to make them 'all look alike'. We're experimenting with the depth of the tones, the width of the gradations, and the general colour selection.

The biggest thing she is taking home from this project at this stage is the way that 'light' in the finished print is created not by printing it directly, but by surrounding an area with darker tones. The yellow undertone on the sea in this print will provide the light, but it doesn't make much sense until everything else is in place. This is one of the great difficulties in doing a shin-hanga type of print - it doesn't look 'right' until you're finished, but along the way, you have no real idea how it is going to work ...

That's what testing is for, of course!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [4]

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [4])

They date from just about ten years ago ...

... when I carved them to create one of the prints in my second Surimono Album:

And if you couldn't tell what the image is from those photos, this one should give it away:

Yes, it's the image of a traditional sailing boat that was created by Hiroshi Yoshida for inclusion in his introductory book of woodblock printmaking techniques.

This is going to be an excellent 'exercise' for Tsushima-san. Up to this point, the work she has done has been mainly in the ukiyo-e tradition - with a keyblock outlining areas that are then filled in with colour. This image doesn't work like that, and the effects are created by washes and gradations of overlaid colours.

I think she's capable of it, and of course she'll have pretty good guidance along the way. I hope you will enjoy following along as she builds it over the coming couple of weeks!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [4]

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [3])

The lateness is due both to some changes we have made in our print packaging methods, and also to the fact that this has been the height of flu season. Tsushima-san has three children, and they have gone down for the count one after the other, and each time somebody runs a fever, she of course has to stay home that day. These prints have spend an inordinate amount of time in the freezer these past few weeks!

Interestingly enough, although I have long known that freezing the washi part way through the printing process does it no harm (and actually helps to soften the sizing somewhat), this is the first time that we have put one through quite so many 'in-out' cycles. It behaved absolutely perfectly, and stayed in soft, printable condition all the way through. When it came time to dry them this evening, they dried to a perfectly smooth finish, and what had been a somewhat too-strongly-sized 'crispy' paper is now wonderfully soft and supple. We're going to experiment with this a bit further ...

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [3]

We're having quite a lot of trouble getting the Senshafuda series moving forward ...

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [6])

I mentioned in the previous post that I wouldn't be posting again for a couple of weeks, as I'm heading over to Vancouver for a family visit, but there is another update that needs to be done first ...

A number of collectors have written asking about the progress of the Summer Senshafuda set ... is it still on the rails?

Well ... yes and no. After the re-carving was done, I told you back on September 8th that Tetsui-san had the re-done blocks in hand, along with my new sample, and was ready to get going. He knew about my schedule - I'm leaving on the 30th - and the idea was to get the prints to me before I left, so that I could arrange for Yasui-san to get trimming and packaging.

I called him up on Monday, but he wasn't there; his father said that he was out on a music job. I called back the next day, and managed to catch him. He hasn't started yet.

I had also been repeatedly calling and writing emails to illustrator Seki-san, to try and get the Autumn set moving forward. She sent me the first roughs in the first week of September, but they weren't suitable at all, and I had asked her to try again. The new batch arrived on Sunday evening. They have some promise, but I have a number of things that I'd like to talk with her about in person (email is too difficult), so wrote to her to try and arrange a meeting one day this week before I leave. I suggested (in turn) three different dates, but she wrote back each time to tell me that she had 'other affairs' that made it not possible. She finally wrote asking if we could meet when I got back from Canada.

But that won't be until October the 13th ... not exactly the best schedule for getting started on the Autumn set!

I got a bit peeved, and just told her to 'forget it' for now; I'd get back in touch later.

So there we sit. The project that showed such good promise back in the spring - with all three of them being enthusiastic about it, and (apparently) eager to move forward - has bogged down in prevarication by two of them (Sato-san the carver has been exactly the opposite of this - his work has been done extremely quickly, with great enthusiasm).

I chatted with Sadako about all this last night, and her analysis of the situation is that I've been 'too strict' - Tetsui-san and Seki-san have thought I have interfered and 'complained' too much ...

On some reflection though, I'm not ready to accept 'guilt' here. I think I have been flexible and understanding at every stage. If they think I'm too domineering, they should slip back in time a bit to meet one of the old publishers!

So what happens now?

I'm not sure. I'm going to give all this some thought during the next ten days or so while I'm away from the workshop, and decide what to do when I get back.

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [6]

We are encountering many problems in getting the summer senshafuda set done properly ...

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [2])

Yesterday morning while working, I had the webcam up and running, and was curious if any of the viewers would 'wonder' about what I was doing ... because the work visible on the bench certainly wasn't my normal work ...

I didn't have to wait too long; I had only been at it for a short time when the (Skype) phone rang. A collector over in the US (checking in to watch for a while in his late evening ...) saw what I was doing, could instantly tell that there was 'trouble in River City', and called to find out what was happening ...

He was right about the trouble, but how did he know?

Well, it was clearly visible on the Webcam that I was sitting there with the blocks for the Summer Senshafuda set on my bench, doing a proof copy. Given that Tetsui-san has had these blocks for weeks, had already prepared some proofs, and had been given his 'final' instructions for going ahead with the edition, seeing the blocks back on my own bench was clearly an indication that something had gone off the rails somewhere along the line.

When we last saw these prints on these Conversations, I showed and talked about his latest proof, and mentioned that I had given him a list of 'change orders' to cover as he began the edition itself. I asked him to run around 50 sheets first, so that we could get them out to collectors without delay, then do the other 150 later.

His package of 50 or so prints arrived the other day. None of my changes had been implemented - the 50 were pretty much the same as the previous proof. And worse, many of them had poor printing in places (goma-zuri and baren-suji).

When I called him to 'chat', he was equivocal about things, saying that he had done them quickly 'at my request', that he had had trouble with some of the blocks, and that he had also taken another job that would fill out this week, before starting the balance of the order. I told him to send the blocks back to me ...

So that's what I was up to yesterday morning, pulling some proofs myself - obviously the only way to get this nailed down properly.

Some of the points were straight ahead. I had rejected his original green colour (the one on the left here, which I felt didn't look natural and 'summery' at all), so now printed up a sample of exactly what I want (on the right).

I had asked him to make the woman behind the screen much lighter in tone than his first proofs (reduce the transparency of the screen), but he failed to make the change. This is what I want ...

In his earlier proof of the image from the aquarium, he had basically got the balance of tones correct on the two children, but in this batch of 50, had put so much saturation into the water gradation that the human figures became difficult to see:

In addition to these things which are clearly his 'doing', there were two problems with the blocks themselves. The block for one of the blue tones had such bad grain that it was impossible to print smooth colour. So I cut another one to replace it:

The other problem was with the carving of the two figures, and this is one that I should have caught myself when inspecting the first proofs. Sato-san had not used much 'finesse' when cutting the two figures, and when designer Seki-san had seen the sample on the previous post, she had called me up in quite some distress, complaining that they were totally distorted, with fat fingers, fat legs, and fat bodies ... At the time, I was buried in other work, and didn't really pay too much attention to her, just kind of assuming that she was being a bit 'artistic' and that we were actually OK.

But now I pulled out her original sketch for comparison, and saw that she really did have a point. The figures were a great deal fattened up from what she had drawn, she had been correct to complain, and I should have taken care of this before giving Tetsui-san the go-ahead.

Well, nothing for it now but to cut another block myself. Here's a composite showing the version cut by Sato-san, and my new one on the right:

There were a number of other issues too - the tone of the sky in the hanabi print, the water reflections, etc. and etc. Anyway, I made my decisions on everything, and this afternoon took the blocks and my proofs back over to Tetsui-san's place. The two of us went over everything point by point, and - with my actual sample there for reference - I think he will turn in matching prints when he is done (in a few weeks, it seems).

As for these first 50 sheets, there is nothing for it but to pulp them. Am I upset about this? Not really. Seki-san's lateness put us under time pressure from the start, Sato-san's inexperience at selecting wood, and his still developing carving skills have led to problems, Tetsui-san has demonstrated an inability/disinclination to properly follow verbal directions ... all these things really come back to one place - the manager!

For our first print - the Spring set - I kept them all under a very tight rein, we met together many times, and every step was carefully controlled. For this set, I 'let go' quite a bit, trusting that it would all move forward smoothly without tight supervision, now that everybody knew what was expected of them.

I was wrong, and am now paying the price.

So for those of you who are waiting for these prints (anybody?), I apologize, and can only say that we will get them done, and done properly.

In the meantime, I have received Seki-san's first rough sketches for the Autumn set. I'm not going to show them because - honestly speaking - there isn't a chance of any of them getting to the production stage. She has tried to create complex canvases inside the tiny dimension, losing sight of what a senshafuda should be - a simple and clean image, focussed on a single item or idea.

For her, it's back to the drawing board. For me, the challenge will be to try and find a balance between exerting too much control over the crew and letting them have their (necessary) creative freedom ...

Difficult!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [2]

The first batch of 'public' proofs of this set are now ready for inspection ...

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [1])

"Better late than never ..." What a horrible 'excuse' that is! And really quite an insult to the waiting collectors, too! It makes it sound like I've been completely dismissive of everybody else's feelings ... "I'll be ready when I'm ready!"

Well, what can I say ... we really are trying to get things done here, but 'life' keeps getting in the way ... (Yet another feeble excuse!)

In any case, after all the patient waiting, I finally have some samples of the summer Senshafuda to show you. This is a scan of the second test batch that Tetsui-san brought over on Saturday morning, looking for my approval to get going on the edition itself:

At this point, I don't actually remember what I showed you, as far as sketches and sample designs were concerned. Designer Seki-san had been very busy at the time, and after just too many long 'blanks' without hearing from her, I went ahead and took a few of her roughs and turned them into tracings ready for carving. I sent these to carver Sato-san, and he got busy right away.

He turned the job around in very quick time, and the two of us had a meeting to work out a sensible colour separation. He then got busy with the colour blocks, sent them over to Tetsui-san, and he in turn got busy with a trial proof. We didn't have a four-man meeting on that this time; Tetsui-san asked that he be allowed to do it by himself, and I concurred. Although it was a lot of fun last time, with all four of us present at the first proofing, it really wasn't fair on Tetsui-san, who would much rather just sit quietly, look at the blocks and sketches, and work out a sensible colour scheme without a bunch of people all tossing in their suggestions.

I went over to his place after the first few copies were ready, and he and I analyzed how they could be improved. It turned out that I had slipped up on some of the separations, and it was necessary to send the blocks back to Sato-san for some more work. (One place he had misunderstood my directions, another place I had forgotten to include an area, and in yet one more place, I had given him the wrong title for one of the prints, requiring a major excavation job on one of the blocks!)

But he got them back to us very quickly, and Tetsui-san ran off the proof that you see here. I don't think this is 'it', and I have given him another 'change order' list, but those alterations can all be handled while he is at work, and he is now busy with the first batch of actual prints. (I've asked for adjustments in the green tone, the beige, the amount of 'transparency' in the bamboo screen, the gradation in the aquarium, both the sky and sea tones on the fireworks print, and a few other odds and ends here and there. :-)

One thing I was very curious about was how they would look when seen 'in situ' with the previous set:

I think we're being quite consistent ... and I can't wait to see all twelve!

But for now, I had better get busy with getting the packaging ready (and work out a more secure shipping method than I used for the last ones!), because he'll have the initial batch done in just around a week or so! We're actually going to get these out the door while it is still summer ... incredible!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [1]

Carving work has finally begun on the next set of three Senshafuda - the summer set. Was your favourite among the sketches included?

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [0])

What with all the news about the kakegami project recently, the senshafuda have been kept in the shadows a bit. But - at last! - there is progress to report. Seki-san sent me her first batch of roughs around a month ago, and I showed them at that time. I gave her my feedback and suggestions for the next step immediately, but she has been very busy and it was only a few days ago that I received the small package containing her finished drawings.

This is none too soon, as there is actually a deadline involved here. Printer Tetsui-san has been 'collecting' work from here and there, and around a month or so ago, he let me know that he had enough work to take him up to the end of July, but did have an opening at the beginning of August. Did I want to 'book' it? I certainly did.

But that meant that in order to have the blocks ready for him by August, carving has to begin 'enough' time before that. Carver Sato-san doesn't yet have an 'order book', and is still working on practice material together with his sensei Asaka-san, so he is flexible, but he does need enough time ...

So Seki-san's work has arrived in the nick of time actually. I wasted no time in scanning her outline drawings into Photoshop, and got busy creating the master tracings for carving. I took these over to Sato-san a couple of days ago, and he called me this morning to let me know things were already going ahead very well, and that he would have no problem getting the work done in time for Tetsui-san to start in August. So we're up and running!

Now ... which of those original sketches do you think will be included in this set? Well, one in particular certainly caught everybody's eye (including mine) - the woman behind a sudare screen:

Now that's a pretty rough concept, so here's a Photoshop 'dummy' of how we're going to make it work as a print (Please note that colours here are not 'real', and simply represent rough approximations of the sort of thing we will try ...)

We're going to split the key block on this one - the 'outside' part of the woman will be on the key together with the borders, but the 'inner' area will be on a separate block, printed in a lighter grey. Once the two sudare blocks are printed, the effect of being behind the screen should be interesting, we think ...

As for the vertical and horizontal lines of the screen itself, Sato-san asked me if I planned to have him split it between two blocks - one each for the vertical and horizontal lines. My reply? "No. You're going to carve it all on one. And it's going to look much better than what you see in this mockup. Let me show you what I want ..."

We'll have an update on the other two designs for a bit later ...

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [0]

Tsushima-san is making very good progress!

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [8])

Time for an update on the kakegami - the wrapping paper for Japanese confections ...

I posted snapshots of Tsushima-san working at her new bench, but don't want to leave the impression that she has been doing that every day. She has three children (and their dad) to 'manage', and has not been able to spend more than two mornings here in any given week. So far we have had four sessions.

I posted the 'results' of her first session at the time, and it certainly looked as though she might be the type to catch on pretty quickly. The second day wasn't quite as successful, because I overdid it and gave her some quite difficult blocks to test (a few from Ueda-san's magnificent stash).

She was back here yesterday and today, and these results I can happily post ...

During the intervening few days, I carved a pair of blocks for a simple plum blossom pattern. All the confectionery makers around here sell plum-based products, as that's the name of our town; Ome translates literally as 'blue plum', which really means 'green plum', a kind of fruit not eaten directly, but used for confections and in the production of ume-shu, a very popular plum 'wine'. (But if somebody offers you some, don't even think of drinking it like wine!)

She had a go at printing it, and the results weren't bad:

The piece of paper is quite wide, and this will be size of our finished kakegami, large enough to wrap around a package of confectionery.

Here's a closeup of the pattern. Not the smoothest printing impression you've ever seen, but this was her third day:

For this morning's session, I prepared a different kind of pigment - something quite a bit thicker and more dense. We're doing this printing on dry paper, remember. (Moistening and then drying would take way too much time on a job of this type, and would simply add too much to our base cost.) And I made the plums a bit more pinkish and cheerful.

I also prepared (with my laser printer) the mockup of the printing that will appear on the wrapper - the address of the confectionery shop, Mokuhankan's info, and the 'title' of the confection (which will of course be interchangeable ...)

A very nice job! Here's a closeup of the same area we saw a moment ago:

She did a run of a couple of dozen sheets (while the Webcam was running too!). They weren't all of the same quality, but overall, it's clear that she is pretty much ready to go. I took a couple of the sheets over to the confectionery this afternoon, and the owner was enthusiastic too ... "Nice!"

He and I discussed what kind of lettering should be on the front and I came home with some samples of the text. I'll cut a couple of blocks for these as soon as I can catch a minute, and Tsushima-san will then run up the first batch for taking to the shop ...

From zero to 'pro' :-) in four days!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [8]

Some details of the new printing bench for Tsushima-san

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [3])

A couple of people asked the other day about the dimensions of the new printing bench. I'm not sure if it will really be of any use to talk about those, because the whole idea of such a bench is that it is customized to your own 'size', but anyway, here's what we are using.

Tsushima-san sits at the bench on the kneeling stool, with the main part of the bench brought forward over her knees:

The thing is designed so that the angle of her forearm matches the angle of the top of the bench:

This is far and away the most important point about this - her wrist stays straight. This almost completely eliminates any stress on that joint, and she'll never have any kind of problem with repetitive strains, etc. etc.

So here are our dimensions. But again, please don't take this as any kind of 'standard'. Build your own to suit your own dimensions!

 

Couple of points about the construction:

• despite the perspective effect in the photo, the sides are actually parallel (at the base)
• it would probably be better if there were more room 'front to back'; we've already found she is banging into the paste cup when printing sometimes
• this is 'Mark I'; it's suitable for light work, but isn't heavy and strong enough for vigorous printing on larger blocks. If your work is heavier, you'll need something with more bracing, so that it won't wobble
• It's very important to position the bench so that there is a light reflecting directly onto the surface of the woodblock. It's not visible in those photos, but a bulb is hanging from a ceiling track, positioned to reflect right off the wet pigment.

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [3]

Explaining the genesis and concept behind the new 'Kakegami' project ...

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [10])

OK, enough teasing ... let's see what the new bench is all about, and who it is for! Meet Mrs. Yasue Tsushima ...

And, to immediately answer your obvious question - Is she the new 'apprentice'? - I think the answer is 'not really'; at least not in the sense that she is here to learn how to be a professional printer. At this point, we're not thinking that far ahead.

Yesterday I posted about a recent visit to the local beauty shop, where I had chatted with Abe-san the hairdresser about Mokuhankan. She is basically familiar with my work (and has a display set of my prints in her shop), and I bent her ear about not being able to find printers.

She listened to me, and we started talking about what was involved in the work ... how difficult was it? She paused in her cutting, and showed me some of the decorations in her shop. The place is full of ornamental 'knick-knacks': artificial flowers, origami displays, hand-woven baskets, etc. etc. These had all been made by local ladies, women sitting at home while their husband and kids are out. I'm not sure what the situation is like in other countries, but here in modern Japan, unemployment is at historical highs, and there is a surplus of labour everywhere. And with large numbers of graduates being unable to find jobs, housewives are sort of expected to pull back from the market somewhat, to leave as many jobs as possible open for regular 'breadwinners'. So anyway, the point is that we have a situation where there is a vast pool of extremely competent people sitting around with nothing to do. These women don't want a full-time job, as they have family responsibilities to cover. But if there were a job available that: made use of their 'handy' skills, allowed them to fix their own working schedule, allowed them to stay home when the kid is suddenly sick from school, paid them a reasonable amount per hour, and etc. etc. ... they would be very interested.

OK ... that's one side of the equation, but we're not talking about artificial paper flowers here, we're talking about woodblock printmaking, one of the most difficult and highly trained jobs on the planet. Right?

On the face of it, that is indeed true. My own skills are very hard-won, and when you look over my entire output, you have to admit that this is not something that a 'housewife' can sit down and just pick up in a few minutes.

Heh-heh ...

Here she is again:

You can see scattered here and there among those two snapshots some small woodblocks (and there is a box of them on the desk just above her head). These are old blocks that I picked up in flea markets here and there. They were originally used to print kakegami, wrapping paper for Japanese gift confectionery. Here are a couple of images I just scooped with a Google search, showing modern papers of this type:

 

And here's a sample from my own collection of one from many years back, when they were still made by woodblock printing (you can see the faint fold marks where it was wrapped around the box of confectionery):

So you can see where we are going with this! Tsushima-san was here this morning for three hours in all. She has never touched a baren before. Here are some quick snaps of her results from a random few of these little blocks (none of these are complete 'pictures' by themselves, they are just single blocks from sets broken up long ago ...):

 

 

Clean. Smooth. Precise. After a bit of practice, I 'tested' her by asking her to print the same block twice - the 'ultimate' test of whether a printer is properly controlling the positioning of the paper in the registration marks.

No problem.

OK, this is all getting a bit long, so I'll try and tie it all up, in point form ...

• presentation confectionery was once upon a time always wrapped in woodblock printed paper
• over the years, the makers all switched to press-printed papers, obviously to keep costs down. The idea that we can somehow reverse the course of history would seem on the face of it not to make sense, but for a few other points ...
• a woodblock printed wrapper would nowadays be a very special - and rare - item. It would add tremendously to the 'value' of the gift being presented.
• We are thinking that X% of the purchasers of such confectionery - if given the option at the point of purchase to pay (say) an extra 100 yen to have it wrapped in a woodblock print - would do so.
• 100 yen? Sell colour woodblock prints for 100 yen? Is that possible?
• Well, in today's first 'test', Tsushima-san, who - as I mentioned - has never held a baren before, did impressions like the ones above in about 20 seconds. (She had no idea I was timing her, but after each little practice session, I asked her to do a 'run' of 5 copies, and quietly timed it.)
• OK, let's be conservative and say 30 seconds each colour; giving around 120 impressions per hour. Let's be even more conservative and knock it down to 100 per hour.
• At a pay rate of 1,000 yen per hour (which is about 300 yen more than the 'supermarket checker' rate common around here), that gives a base cost for us of 10 yen per colour per sheet.
• Suppose we had a kakegami involving 5 colours; our 'factory cost' would then be 50 yen + 10 yen paper (a machine-made paper, of course) = 60 yen.
• Hmmm ...

Something else important to mention. I had the webcam running during our practice session this morning, and just after we finished, and I said goodbye to Tsushima-san (and the friend who had accompanied her), I returned to the workshop to shut it down. As I did so I received a call from a long-time collector who had tuned-in to the last part of the session. (He may identify himself in the comments below ... we'll see!)

As it happens, it is this particular collector that I had been thinking of when mulling over whether or not to try this experiment this week. He owns a collection of quite spectacular woodblock prints of the early 20th century, and I was imagining him saying, "Dave, I kind of see the logic here, but why are you doing this? I thought Mokuhankan was going to produce top level stuff - some really wonderful prints! Why are you fooling around making wrapping paper for 100 yen?"

So when I saw his name on the computer screen, showing me who was calling, I swallowed a bit ... "OK, let's see what he has to say about this ..."

Well, as it turned out, I needn't have worried, as his reaction was not negative at all. I won't try and repeat here what he said, because he may well post something below, but I can encapsulate my thinking as I chatted with him. Something like this ...

"I'm stuck. I can't find printers to work for me - to produce the kind of prints I want to make. It has become completely clear that the only way forward is to get people in here and train them myself. But. The situation that we had in the 'old days' - where each workshop had plenty of work suitable for beginners (wrapping paper, accounting ledger sheets, envelopes, etc.) - is long gone. So I'm going to try to re-create that setup. No, Tsushima-san (probably) has no intention of becoming a pro printer. And Mokuhankan does not want to become a place specializing in such inexpensive stuff. But if this little idea actually does work, and we are able to build a little 'stable' of a half-dozen people to print, along with a bunch of confectionery shops willing to take the stuff, then there we are - we would have a structure in place where the 'would be' printer can fit in. He/she could sit here, get some simple training, join this crew and be 'productive' right away. Some such people may soon quit; some may be happy just making kakegami forever. But some - hopefully - will catch on fire, will dig in, and will develop the strong skill set needed for work on those 'spectacular' prints that we will produce ... one day!"

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [10]

And you thought it would never happen!

I just got back from the post office, having dropped off the first bag full of outgoing Senshafuda print packages. Looking back at earlier entries in this Conversations blog, I see that it was on February 11th that I first proposed the idea. It took nearly four months from conception to shipping ...

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [0])

Continued from the previous post in the thread | Starting point of the entire thread is here

And you thought it would never happen!

I just got back from the post office, having dropped off the first bag full of outgoing Senshafuda print packages. Looking back at earlier entries in this Conversations blog, I see that it was on February 11th that I first proposed the idea for this project. It took nearly four months from conception to shipping!

On the one hand, that's a really long time. The print I have just now begun to make in my Mystique series will be on its way to the collectors in a matter of a few weeks. Four months sounds ridiculously long!

But then, I have to remember that the Senshafuda project was - from the start - conceived as a completely different concept. It's collaborative, and the communication and back-and-forth between all the parties, not to mention waiting for each of them to find 'free time' for this, made the long time frame kind of inevitable. So it probably wasn't such a good idea to start with a 'spring' set ...

But anyway, here's a recap of the past couple of days work ... A package with Tetsui-san's first completed batch arrived yesterday morning:

I got out my cutting board, worked out where the cuts should go, put tape to mark them, and got busy slicing:

As I mentioned the other day, new part-timer Yasui-san had brought over a bunch of the completed packs, so the next step was to put everything together. I don't have a complete set of photos, but there isn't much new to see. I headed for the basement to do the spray glue job for the front 'cover' prints:

And then came back upstairs to finish off. Each pack got the three prints from the same sheet as the front label:

They tuck into their 'nest' very nicely, and it looks just like my 'advertised' version!

Slip them into a tight little plastic envelope, and they are ready to go!

[Fun episode: I had the webcam running for these jobs this morning - the gluing (as you see above), and the packing. Those aren't specifically interesting jobs for people to watch, but the Webcam has been off for nearly a week and if people get used to it being 'off' all the time, they won't hang around! So I had it running just for the sake of having it active ... Anyway, here I am sitting at my low kotatsu table, with all the parts spread around: the finished bag of Senshafuda packs, the invoices, the mailing labels, etc. and etc. I fire up the camera and get to work. Few minutes later, just as I am packing the first one, I get a note on the Webcam message board - collector Dale over in the US is watching. The 'fun'? Well, back when I first put the catalogue page online for the Senshafuda prints, but before publicizing it, he was the first person to find it, click the (at that time still hidden) 'Add to Cart' button, and to place his order. So he was 'Collector #1' for this series, and here I am wrapping them, with his invoice on the top of the pile (they printed out in the same order that the orders had come in ...), and he comes online to watch ... Nice! And I was thus able to offer my congratulations 'live'! ...]

So we're up and running now with this series, and although these prints will (I hope) eventually be issued on a three-month timetable, I'd certainly like to get the next package out earlier than that. If we can do it in two months, we would then be primed for a three-month rotation basically lined up with the seasons.

I've already seen Seki-san's first 'roughs' for the summer set, and although I don't want to give away too much too soon, those of you who know something about summer in Japan know that you can usually expect ... some fireworks!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [0]