A few years back, I made a post on this blog attempting to answer one of the most common questions we get asked here: "How many prints can you make from a block before it gets worn out?"
At that time, I answered by showing one of the woodblocks used in the Print Party room in our Asakusa shop. Well today ... I can basically repeat that post, almost word for word!
This is the 'yellow' block for the print we have been using in the Print Parties for nearly a year - our famous 'Microwave'. It has been clear for some weeks that it has reached the end of life. It has become so worn that the carved areas no longer reach to the black outlines, and people have been thinking that their registration is off.
But just as with the replacement block for the Momotaro print some years ago, the solution for this is the same - it's just a matter of a couple of hours work (on the back side of the same piece!) to recut it:
Clean and sharp! Ready for another few thousand copies!
Here's another 'before/after' pair for comparison:
And I can simply repeat the same sentence I used to end the previous blog post! "The one I'm dreading is of course the day when the key block for our Great Wave print becomes unusable. We're a long way off that day yet, but given how long it will take to get a fresh set up and running, we had better start planning soon!"
Posted by Cameron Hilker on February 14, 2020 [Permalink]
New items are available on our website! Mokuhankan has long been your home for beautiful woodblock prints. This week, we added gampi paper to our catalogue and are finally taking the first steps toward also providing the supplies needed to make your own prints wherever you are in the world!
We are excited to be slowly diversifying our offerings here at Mokuhankan. Starting now, we are offering 100% gampi paper sold in full, uncut sheets. Each sheet has approximately 96 cm by 62 cm of usable area and natural selvage around all four edges. We will ship it rolled up in a strong cardboard shipping tube.
We currently have this gampi paper in two weights:
We at Mokuhankan use gampi paper as transfer sheets, to move the image from a keyblock or computer-printed image onto our wood blocks. The thicker (5-monme) one is perfect for a smooth, 10-out-of-10 peel, as you sometimes see Dave do on the live stream on Twitch.
The thinner one does not peel quite so smoothly, but is useful in other ways. For example, it is so thin, that you can sometimes carve straight through it without peeling it at all (depending on how darkly you printed the image).
We do plan to make a video or photo guide showing how gampi is used for transferring images to blocks, so keep an eye out for that, too. There are also numerous uses for gampi outside the realm of mokuhanga printmaking, but we will leave those up to you to discover.
In the two photos below, I held one sheet of each weight of paper the same distance away from me. You can easily see in the second image how much more transparent the 3-monme sheet is!
Here I held one sheet of each paper, putting my fingers behind them to again demonstrate the difference in opacity.
Here is small 3-monme gampi paper in a small, staggered stack.
Kirra took a picture of me as I got the paper out and ready for the other pictures.
We look forward to adding other supplies to our shop over time.
In past posts, we have shown you how Aoyama-san takes thinly-sliced pieces of cherry wood and turns them into wood blocks usable for carving and printing. This time, we are going to show you the beginning of that process, by following the steps he recently took to get us some new wood from the source.
First, after several months of back-and-forth with a contact in Tochigi Prefecture, Aoyama-san placed an order to pick up some cherry wood in the winter. They would contact us as soon as they had felled the tree, and Aoyama-san would go pick it up. We got the call in mid-December, and off he went to the forest-covered mountains!
Aoyama-san is not one to just wait for others to do things. He got involved, and measured out the wood himself!
Then he sliced it up with a chainsaw to make it fit in his car. It looks like he enjoys power tools.
He then took a closer look at his work...
...and loaded it into the car. With something as precious as this, he made sure to buckle it up!
The wood is now sitting next to the front door of our shop because it is too heavy for us to take it upstairs! We are hoping it will dry out a bit and we will be able to carry it eventually, but we are not yet sure when that will happen.
The next steps are simply to wait and periodically slice it into smaller, more usable pieces. If we cut it thinly too early, then it will radically warp during the drying process. It is a delicate process, but we have high hopes that we will end up with lots of high-quality yamazakura to use in our printmaking!
Posted by Dave Bull on December 30, 2019 [Permalink]
Video alert! I’ve cut it pretty close this time, but I did get this announcement of the 2020 subscription series published before the end of 2019 … just! :-)
Ayumi Ohashi is back and printing with us again! We were so glad to have her again with our printers on the third floor of the shop that we held a little photo-shoot.
Ayumi has rejoined our printers upstairs after taking a break to spend time with her new daughter. For the first time in a long time, we had four printers all working simultaneously on Wednesday! She has jumped straight back into printing, and is currently working on a batch of our new year print, which we will be sending out to supporters of our work, suppliers, friends, and family around the world.
Here you can see her grabbing her baren and getting started.
Now that another printer has joined the team, we hope to keep more of our prints in stock!
After getting a couple shots of Ayumi, we decided to get a picture of everyone all together, too. They had many ideas for how they would like to pose...
The one above this is the one I think came out the best, but right after taking it they all burst into laughter!
We're glad to have such a fun group of people here with us at Mokuhankan.
Fabiola Gil from Spain is visiting Mokuhankan for a few weeks. I took some photos as she demonstrated how she uses carbon paper to take a first impression on her newly-carved key block.
Fabiola Gil is a mokuhanga printmaker based in Zaragoza, Spain. You can find out more about her and her work on her website, though most of the information is Spanish, which unfortunately may be a limiting factor for many of the readers of this blog.
She makes interesting work, which you can find in her shop or other pages around her website as well as on Facebook and Instagram, where she is regularly posting about her time here at Mokuhankan. She is spending this time here at Mokuhankan not as an apprentice or intern, but instead as an independent printmaker observing how things are done here, and pursuing her own work.
Fabiola brought with her many new designs, planning to turn one of them into a woodblock print during her time here. She got started right away and this first photo was taken early in her time here at Mokuhankan, just as she began carving the key block for her new design.
Not long after, initial carving was done!
Before applying the pigment the first time, she prepared carbon paper and some thin washi paper to make a first impression. Doing initial impressions is important in order to double-check that the key lines are carved the way she wants and that she did not miss any spots in the design. Once the key lines are ready, these impressions will also be used to prepare all the subsequent color blocks.
In the below photo you can see her attach the white paper she uses for the first impression directly to the woodblock itself using a few pieces of tape. She then slides the carbon paper with the carbon side up between the block and paper.
Then Fabiola uses the baren and prints, being careful to keep the thin white paper from tearing.
Finally, she compares the printed impression to the original design and makes any necessary adjustments to the carved block.
While carbon paper is not a tool I have seen used by other printers here at Mokuhankan, it is definitely one more technique you can put to use if you start making your own prints!
The 2019 version of our Share in the Fun Certificates have now been sent out to waiting Patreons!
These are so late this time around! These Certificates are supposed to be sent to Patreons at the appropriate level, who have been with us for at least 12 months. Some of the people who are getting them now, should have received these some months ago ...
The other day I sat down with a stack of the completed certificates. Each one gets a number - the only prints we have ever issued that get numbered!
After numbering, I date each one and then sign it ...
These were all posted this afternoon, so if you are one of the waiting Patreons, please hang on just a bit longer, and you'll have it soon!
Thanks so much to all those who are helping us with our work this way!
Posted by Dave Bull on September 4, 2019 [Permalink]
Video alert! Update time … I’ve finally got the first update on the Eight Views of Cats project ready for you, including a selection of interesting designs received so far!
Video alert! Update time … I’ve finally got the first update on the Eight Views of Cats project ready for you, including a selection of interesting designs received so far!
Please note that the schedule for accepting submissions has been extended, and there is still lots of time to get involved. More details on the Eight Views website ...
Video alert! The next David’s Choice episode is ready! This special episode has a ‘double punch’ - not only will you learn about a beautiful set of old Meiji-era woodblock books, but an important part of those books has come to life for you to use here in the modern day - we have recreated the original Hasegawa font!
After watching the video, please visit the font page!
Video alert! You didn’t expect this one so soon, I’m sure ... We have something ‘a little bit different’ for you today - a short little video that will show you how to discover some hidden Easter Eggs in our Ukiyo-e Heroes Portraits prints!
Video alert! You didn’t expect this one so soon, I’m sure ... We have something ‘a little bit different’ for you today - a short little video that will show you how to discover some hidden Easter Eggs in our Ukiyo-e Heroes Portraits prints!
The next in our David’s Choice video series has just been uploaded to YouTube. Viewers of our Twitch livestream had a ‘sneak peek’ at this one around ten hours ago, because this morning’s stream was a ‘candid' view of Dave doing the recording from his desk in the Asakusa shop.
The content? The famous crepe paper books published by the Hasegawa Company in the Meiji era ...
Video alert! … AND … New Series alert! … AND … collaboration chance alert! Can you design a new woodblock print for us to publish? Watch the video and learn more!
Suga-san keeps taking on harder and harder projects, and she has just finished her first batch of one of the most difficult prints in the Mystique of the Japanese Print series, 'Classical Beauty'.
The Mystique of the Japanese Print series of woodblock prints was originally put together by Dave in order to demonstrate various techniques and unique qualities of Japanese printmaking, while also challenging himself as a carver and a printer. This means he made the prints difficult for future printers who would use his blocks. Suga-san did not let that deter her, and she has just wonderfully demonstrated her skills by printing a lovely batch of 'Classical Beauty' - print #15 in the series.
In the above picture, you can see the pearl powder reflected in a spider web design around the collar of the woman's kimono. Applying pearl was a new process for Suga-san, so it took some practice. Once she became accustomed to using it, though, the results were gorgeous!
Above is a full view in which the pearl is less obvious, but you can see the effect of the deeply embossed border, which had not yet been pressed into the paper when I took the previous photo.
You can truly see the mark of a great printer here in this close-up shot of some hair on the woman's forehead. By applying just the right amount of pigment and pressure, Suga-san made the hairs dark enough to be seen, without any 'tamari' - where the pigment pools in places where it's not supposed to be. Each line on the ruler marks 1 mm of distance, so she was working with some very fine details.
Wonderful work, Suga-san! Some of you reading this may be waiting for this print to be delivered since it was on back-order for a little while. It's on the way out to waiting subscribers now, and I believe it will have been well worth the wait.
We have a new supplementary video, adding more images and information to the previous video featuring ‘8 Views’. In this one, the focus is on the famous set of woodblock prints designed by Suzuki Harunobu in the 1760s - 'Zashiki Hakkei' (Eight Views in the Home). It’s mostly just a simple slideshow featuring the prints quite close-up, but there is a bit of commentary here and there …
This is one of Dave's two blogs - and deals with the work he produces together with other craftsmen, under his Mokuhankan 'brand'. The Woodblock RoundTable blog covers his private work (self-cut, self-printed).
The Vision
Please make a visit to Mokuhankan in the year 201x. We're still not quite able to see just how many years it will take us to get there ...
Table of Contents
One way to make sense of the jumble of postings is to refer to the Table of Contents page.
YouTube Channel
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