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Blue Storm progress ...
Posted by Dave Bull on September 28, 2014 [Permalink]
As part of the intense juggling act that is going on here recently, one 'ball' that has repeatedly been dropped on the floor is the carving work on the next Ukiyoe Heroes print - the Blue Storm image.
I think we have quite a number of people who are - to put it mildly - not so happy with me about this. It's no good telling them "We kept to our Kickstarter promises very well over the past couple of years, and got those Heroes prints out right on schedule!", because they don't care about that ... they just want to receive this new print that they paid for (some of them months ago!)
They also don't care much about my 'excuses' - the staggering workload that has come to us because of the huge success of this year Portraits subscription series, and of course all the work involved with opening up the new shop in Asakusa. These are both things that were unknown to me back when I promised the delivery date on the Blue Storm design ...
Anyway, I can now report some progress. I left Ioan and Lee-san to work on the shop construction over the past couple of days, and spent as much time as I could at the carving bench working on the final block in the set - the one with a zillion thin lines to print rain over the face of the print.
It took more than a few hours to get 'comfortable' again at the bench - it's been so long since I was able to sit here like this doing my carving!
That rain block isn't yet done, but it's close ... Here are the blocks so far (one side):
And with most of them flipped over to show the other sides ...
But I now have to put this aside, in order to do the test printing on #11 in the Portraits series, because the printing crew will be ready to start work on that one on Monday morning, and they need a good model in place before they can start. If I delay that, 400 people are going to be screaming at me!
And I have to prepare and send the line drawing for the initial Print Party design down to our carver in Kobe - Noriko Kawasaki-san - who is standing by waiting for it. No carving ... no block ... no Print Parties!
And Monday I have to put the final electrical circuits in place in the new shop, because the pro electrician is now standing by to install the main breaker panel, and he (justifiably) refuses to start while (unlicensed) Dave is fooling around with wiring at the other end of the building. Only once my prep work is done, will he step in and do his job (installing the new breaker panel, installing the air conditioning in the Print Party room, and arranging the upgrade of the main power supply from 20A to 60A). And with new power in place, finally we'll be able to start using the bathroom, instead of running to a nearby park many times a day (both the water heater and toilet need electricity to function ...).
I'll be back here in Ome on Wednesday, to do the month-end bookkeeping - which is going to kick us well into the red this time. (We won't be receiving any Kickstarter revenue for weeks yet ... but once it arrives, it should carry us through to the end of the year, maybe.) As soon as that paperwork is done, I'll get back to this carving work - which will sit here quietly waiting for my return.
Once I kill this final block, it will then be time for test printing, and with that final barrier removed, the edition printing will follow quickly.
At this point all I can do is ask the waiting collectors for their cooperation and patience while I dig through this work. (I can promise that I will attempt to make up a bit for these delays by including a 'little something' extra in the package when it arrives, if that helps ...) Thank you all for your support!
Added by: Franz Rogar on October 1, 2014, 1:02 am
I've been added to the waiting list for this print recently; though I guess all the work you have in queue (...like visiting FYP forum... ;-) ), IMHO, we humans tend to love to tore our garments if anything falls outside the expected timeframe. Obviously, that's part of the *evolution* of the society where everything must be done perfectly in the exact expected time, o'clock, or must be scrapped away; which is another way to express people love mass-produced items (exact and in time) instead of handcrafted (prone to human errors and delays [we might die before finishing something in our queue list]).
But, keep up the masterwork! :-)
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