Nice little bench! Could you share the dimensions with us, particularly the angle of the slanted top. The small shelf in front would be for ink/pigment, etc.? I like the offset of the top too - less chance for the slanted top to bend under printing pressure

It looks like your new printers are going to have a 'happy' workspace.

Ahh! The Mokuhankan atelier, early stages. First apprentice printer.

There's a story here. I know that much. Do tell...

The angle of the slanted top ...

Actually, I have no particular way to measure the top angle very accurately. I built it so that the angle matches the slope of one's legs as you sit/kneel on the stool. I'm thinking that in use it will pull forward to 'snug up' against the waist ...

The traditional setup is like this:

... but there is no way that anybody starting this job wants to sit that way nowadays. And as for the other common option - standing at a table/bench:

... although it works for Numabe-san - as you can see in that photo - when I have tried this, I have found it uncomfortable to be working while looking 'downwards', not to mention that is difficult to work out an angle that doesn't bring wrist pain.

So ... we'll give this little setup a try. All very experimental ...

Do tell ...

I was going to do that tomorrow evening, after we're done with our first day. With pictures (if they aren't too shy for it ...). The 'story', such as it is, began a couple of weeks ago, when I was getting my hair cut at a place down the street (a woman who has a little barber/beauty shop in her home ...). She feels it her 'duty' to engage her clients in conversation of course, and I guess I bent her ear about the 'problems' I was having with getting the Mokuhankan thing pushed forward. Maybe that was the day I got those crummy prints returned in the post from that Tokyo printer, I'm not exactly sure.

Anyway, more tomorrow ... (And I'm not sure about the webcam. I rather suspect that on somebody's first day, they're not going to be so enthusiastic about having the workshop broadcast 'live' around the world, so please hang on a bit for that ...)

The bench looks neat, but the seat is something else all together! Is this standard issue office furniture in Japan? I used to print sitting at my bench, but I found that the static pose made my unused shoulder sore. Now I stand up to print and I put my paper stack a couple of steps away on another bench. It slows things down, but I find that moving around while printing is much more comfortable. I guess my skeleton was not trained early enough to sit and print all day long.

The 'kneeling' chair? I have no sense that this is something particularly 'Japanese'; I would guess the idea is imported ...

This one was left behind here in the workshop by Slav, a Ukranian friend who came here to 'work' for a bit a few years back. I have never used it for printing, but parked it in front of the workshop computer, and am now quite used to it. It gives a very nice 'falling forward' feeling, which is exactly what we want for printing.

(Workshop cleaning is now done for the morning, and the new bench is ready for its first test run, when the new 'team' members arrive in an hour or so ...)

The chair is an ergonomic office chair. They're quite widely available, certainly in the UK, and are used to improve posture when sitting as it keeps your back straight. I used to have one which was on castors.

I can't recall why I got rid of it, though. I think I managed to develop a new way to slouch on it over the years which was worse than sitting on an ordinary chair.

I, too, would appreciate knowing the dimensions--I'd love to make one for myself!