Here in Texas we are having a bit more Spring weather than we have recently – It’s not 95 degrees yet! Also there’s been more rain than in past years. It’s welcome; things have been really dry!
I finally finished a new print. It’s another print based on the Atera River, near Nojiri in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, which I visited in April 2 years ago.
This April, I finished the first printing! 26 good prints out of 32 sheets. You can buy it here.
What did I do in 2022? I finally finished Forest Rays! At least I think I am done. The prints are still in the drying boards and will need a careful look-over before I add them to the store, but here’s a preview. I think I captured the feeling I was looking for – humid forest, light streaming through the branches, leaves caught in sunlight glowing brightly.
7 pieces of wood (6 self-made cherry ply and 1 shina ply from McClain’s), 19 printable areas including the key block, 25 impressions. (I had prepared separate key lines for the trees and foliage in the distance, but decided not to use them – that would have made 26 impressions!)
The paper is Shin Hosho from Woodlike Matsumura. When I started printing, I thought “Excellent, this paper is really tough, and I’ll need it for this print!” but by the end it was quite soft and barely hanging on. I had thrown in a few sheets of Student Kozo as warm-up sheets, but I gave up on them about 18 impressions in because they were fouling the blocks with fibers that kept coming off.
I’m looking forward to the next print! It will be a simple one, and I’ll aim to finish within a month – fingers crossed. Back to the carving bench!
Carving is progressing! Somewhat slowly though, since the lines are so fine.
This one is done! 13 impressions, 7 blocks. I’ll let it dry between blotter-boards for a couple of days, then it’s off to Awagami! Also I’ll put it in the store once I trim and tidy them (there are a couple of spots I need to clean up.)
There’s one more block that adds more shadows, then I will play around with some gradations using the same block set.
I still haven’t decided what to call this one. The working title is “floaters”, but there has to be something better!
Here’s the latest block set, hot off the carving bench!
It’s a bit of a departure. No key block, and carved on shina! I’m working on a quick print on A4 paper, for the Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition. The print needs to be in Japan by July 31, and given how unpredictable mail can be these days, I think I need to allow a month for shipping. There’s NO WAY I can have the complicated Forest Rays print done, and besides, it won’t fit on A4. Hence, a temporary diversion.
Shina is quick to carve, and I had a ton of it laying around so I didn’t have to make new blocks. But shina has definite downsides. I’ve had the top ply come off of thin lines before. This piece was part of a fairly large area, so I am surprised it peeled off. I’m just glad I noticed, and saved the piece! I’ll be able to glue it down when the wood is dry.
When I made the plan for how to put the colors on the blocks, it seemed obvious that by rotating one of these 180 degrees, I could fit both of them on the same block:
It turns out it was not that straightforward! When I lined the two transfers up with a light board, to make sure they would both fit on the block without interfering with each other’s registration marks, I ended up with this situation. If I place one of the transfers at the position of the normal corner registration mark (red circle, upper left), the registration corner of the OTHER transfer sheet is hanging out in space (green circle, lower right). So without special provisions, I can’t fit them onto the same piece of cherry.
You can already see the solution (or part of it) in the image above. By gluing the cherry to a larger piece of plywood, and using small pieces of cherry strategically placed, I’m able to move the registration cuts out to locations that will let me place both colors on the same block:
And here are the two transfers, pasted down:
Getting pretty close to finishing the first block! The picture doesn’t show it, but there are some large areas that still need to be cleared. After that, I’ll do some testing/tweaking, and finalize plans for the color blocks.
Just a quick update: I’m mostly done with carving the current block set. There are 4 blocks with two sides, so eight printable faces. Seven of them are carved. The upper left block on the second image hasn’t been carved yet, but I’m holding off because I won’t be sure what else I might want to put on that block until I’ve done some test printing.
The blocks have been cleaned off (except for the un-carved one). Here are a few close-ups!
I hope the ripples on the water turn out OK; I pretty much winged that part.
And in news of international shipping, I am pleased to announce that the glue I ordered on April 11 from Amazon, finally arrived on June 16! Yes, all the way from Japan. In the before-times, this sort of shipment would take about a week, maybe two. I feel sorry for the seller, because they have gotten some unkind comments about something that is NOT under their control. Anyway, I’m happy it finally arrived!
Now, time for test printing!
Vivid Laboratories 