That's the key block for the first print of the new series, and here is one of the colour blocks (actually a second 'key', as it also defines colour areas):

I had first learned about this young lady in a conversation with printer Numabe-san. He was working on a set of ukiyoe blocks that had been carved some years before in the Kyoto workshop of carver Uetani-san, and told me that some of them had been carved by a girl who was an apprentice there. He knows that we need another carver here, and said that these blocks looked quite good, and that I should investigate a bit further ...

I called around to try and find a phone number for her, and then called her up. It turned out that she was no longer carving. After the workshop had closed due to the age of the owner, she wasn't able to make a living on her own just yet, so had pretty much given up, and found other work (non print-related).

I certainly wasn't ready to just hang up the phone though, so pushed a bit, "If there were some work available, could you take it?" She demurred, "No, I've quit carving ..."

But Numabe-san had really been emphatic in praise of the blocks she had carved, and this just seemed like too good a chance to let slip away, so I pushed a bit more, asking if she would perhaps reconsider, and take a small job for us on a 'no deadline - do it whenever you have spare time' arrangement. She wasn't really excited about it, and we had to leave it there, but after I sent her some samples of the kind of prints we are currently producing - the Heroes and Chibies - she came around to some extent, because when I called her again, she agreed to give it a try.

Woot!

So I prepared a couple of blocks for the first print Jed and I are planning for next year's subscription series, and sent them off to her. As you can see from the images above, they have arrived.

How are they?

Very good. They show that she has an excellent knowledge of the fundamentals of traditional carving (much more than I myself do). She has actually carved a bit 'too much', not in a way that would affect the print, but simply to try and make the blocks themselves look more neat, clean, and attractive. In production work, this sort of thing is unnecessary, but it gives a pretty good indication of her character - she is eager to impress.

Some of the detail work is not so great - we certainly won't be asking her to carve any detailed ukiyoe hairlines just yet - but the fundamentals are all excellent. She has clearly been trained very well, and all she needs from here on in is experience (and general guidance).

I of course called her back right away, let her know that I was pleased with the work, and arranged to ship the blank colour blocks off to her, so that she could get the set completed. I and the printer ladies here are eagerly awaiting their return, and will begin test printing as soon as we get everything in hand.

Where do we go from here?

It's not clear just yet. I'm ready to hire her full time right now starting tomorrow, but she won't/can't do that. She said that her current employment is committed until the end of March (the usual time for employment contracts to run here in Japan). And I myself don't yet know just how much I can afford to pay her, not knowing anything at all about the pace at which she works, which will of course define her productivity to us.

At present, we've left it that we will send small jobs like this, which she will do as time permits. And we've arranged that she will come up here to Tokyo for a couple of days in November (at our invitation/expense) so that we can all get acquainted, and have a serious discussion about where to take this.

In the meantime, I'll start to think about how to rearrange the work space to make room for another carver. I think this will mean taking apart my 'private' workspace - where I do both carving and printing - and convert it for carving only, with two benches side by side. I'll have to do my printing (on the rare occasions I actually do any!) someplace else.

If she agrees to come on board, it will be a major expense for us, one that honestly we cannot afford at this point. All our carving to date has been done 'for free' by me, and because I take nothing out of the business beyond basic food expenses, we have not costed the carving into our prices. That will of course have to change.

The theory is that with the extra productivity on hand with two carvers we will be able to issue a number of new prints, and the revenue from them will go towards paying her costs.

We'll see.

I'll bring you photos, etc. as soon as I have some to show ...

But yes, this is perhaps the best news we've had in a long time, and potentially life-changing for a number of us!