Hi Dave!

It's always very impressive to see how your knives cut through the wood so easily! It makes it look like butter!

Hi Dave

Had you planed on cutting a separate block for the gradation before your revelation

We have been planning to use a separate block for the straw all the way along. I might have said in the video something like 'just discovered', but this particular issue has been known to carvers and printers all the way along with this image. Different publishing companies have handled the it in various ways: copying the original, using separate blocks, or even doing a 'half-way' version with a slightly darkened straw on the rear boat. What I have never heard before is the expression of the idea that this particular block layout shows that the gradation was not originally part of the image ...

Dave, continued amazing work, thanks for keeping us informed.

Could you write out the Japanese words for your "monkeys falling from trees" quote?

Thanks!

The Japanese 'proverb' is: 猿も木から落ちる, or 'Saru mo ki kara ochiru'