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Tsushima-san's current project ...
Posted by Dave Bull on April 20, 2012 [Permalink]
With all the frantic work on the 'Arts of Japan' first print ... the wooden cases ... and the new tool set going on, I have been remiss in bringing you an update on what Tsushima-san has been up to since she completed her Hokusai surimono reproduction a few weeks ago.
We of course put her to work straight away on another one, and she has been beavering away at it since then. Here's a snapshot from her workbench this afternoon:
It's difficult to see what she is doing, but she is working with a very small brush, and dabbing 'just' a touch of pigment on it. It's for this impression, which is a very narrow gradation - difficult at the best of times, but here on a curved block to boot:
This is not easy at all. At the time I took these photos, she was practicing getting the impressions consistent from one to the next, taking dozens of them on sheets of scrap paper ...
The print itself will be familiar to (old) collectors of my own work. It is an image of a small Autumn Bonsai, and was originally part of my first Hanga Treasure Chest. That set is now down to its final three or four sets in stock, and I myself will of course never be re-printing it, so it's time to think about putting some of the prints into the Mokuhankan catalogue.
This gradation (on the ceramic tray holding the bonsai) is the final impression she will apply to the print, and after they have been pressed and dried, we'll sort through her stack, and get some ready for shipping. So it's time to open a new page in the catalogue for them!
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