'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [0])

Given that I had the afternoon/evening 'off', I pulled out my list of pending errands, found a few that could be strung together, and got on my bike. Only one of them concerns us here - I went to visit a guy I know who works at the local newspaper office. This newspaper isn't one of the 'big ones' that blanket the country, but is a small affair that covers the immediate area. They have written about me now and then over the years, and I thought it might be possible to 'hit them up' for another story. But not about my own printmaking this time, about the staff 'problem' for Mokuhankan.

Problem?

Well, yes. It's been more than a half-year since I opened up and started working with other people here, and although some of the things are coming along quite well (Tsushima-san's printing, for one), progress has been incredibly slow.

Although she has made good advancement on her printing skills, the fact that she can only be here for a very limited amount of time each week means that we can't get much production out of her. Ishigami-san is a few steps behind her in progress, but she too has many family obligations. Now none of this is news; I knew from the start that this would be the case, and that's simply the situation I have to work with. It's time to get some other irons into the fire.

So I sat down with the guy at the newspaper office, and we talked about a 'Help Wanted' ad/story. Here's a rough translation of the proposed approach:

Now wait a minute! Four employees? Just where is the money for this going to come from? Well of course, I don't have that kind of money just lying around. Here's the thinking ...

For the two new printing trainees, it won't be that expensive. I'm looking for more 'housewife' types, and as with Tsushima-san, they will only be able to do a limited number of hours per week. Assuming my own next project moves forward as planned, I should be able to 'carry' them.

The woodworker? Well, for my next project, I need a case. The case for the previous series cost me something over 500,000 yen. Cash. Gone. So as long as that kind of money is 'budgeted' anyway, why not try to use it a different way? For that money, I can get - if I can find him - the 'services' of a young person for a couple of months, and have enough left over for the raw materials. Working under my direction, he (she) should be able to make the cases for my next Treasure Chest. He (she) could then get busy on the handles and cases for our knife project. After that, Mokuhankan wouldn't have enough work to keep him busy, but he could then either start printing for us, or - and this is where you may start rolling your eyes - have a go at producing some of the many wooden toys I designed back in the late '80s, before I gave up toymaking to start the ten-year poets' series. Make a batch, and then get on his bike and try and 'move' them. If that project won't fly, then it'll simply be 'sayonara'.

The business (office/PR/etc.) person? Where on earth will the money for her come from? The business/office work is getting more and more necessary here, but it doesn't generate any revenue directly. Well, I have some aces up my sleeve. Thousands of them. Specifically, in drawers in the Library room upstairs and in the cupboards in the stockroom up on the top floor, I have back number prints. I have a lot of back number prints. They are sitting here because I simply have never had the time to make any efforts to get them out into peoples' hands; all my energy and time is always expended on the current series of course. But they are beautiful prints, and none the less interesting than they were in the year that they were made. The huge poets' series - for just one example - sold tremendously well in the years just after it was completed, when I was still talking about it and giving interviews, etc. etc. It now simply 'sleeps' - more than twenty full sets of it - but I see no reason why an energetic person can't stir up some interest in it, and get them moving out of the drawers. Get on the phone; get knocking on doors - those things that I myself am absolutely no good at ...

In any case, the die is cast. Or it will be in a couple of days when the newspaper people get back to me with their offer. It's going to be one of those 'I buy an ad, and they write a story' kind of deals. My acquaintance there is a long-time reader of my newsletter, so has a pretty good idea of my financial situation. Hopefully, their offer will be something I can afford. Just what will happen after it runs, I can't predict. A flood of applicants? Silence?

We'll see ...

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [0]

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [9])

These planks were purchased (for 400,000 yen - just over $5,000) of course for use as woodblocks. They are a fairly light and clear cherry, which would be best for colour blocks, and are thus not so 'rare'. If they were the heavy and hard type suitable for key blocks, I wouldn't even consider using them for any other purpose, but ... there they are, unused for around 13 years, so let's see if we can get just a little bit of our money back, shall we?

They are heavy beyond belief, but I wrestled one down and laid it out. (I chose the one that has become slightly cupped over the years - the other three are still perfectly flat.)

I sliced a small piece off one end:

Because of the cup, it won't lay flat on the table saw, but that's easily fixed with a shim underneath:

It's pretty rare for my table saw to have to cut stuff this thick, but the blade just makes it. I chopped off a few small pieces to start:

And then got out my old jigsaw/sander combination. I'm sure she was happy to be dusted off and to get some exercise!

And that's as far as I was able to take it this afternoon. I have to get back to the printing bench this evening, for 'real' work, and in any case, I can't move forward on these handles without building some little jigs for the table saw. There is no way that I am going to mess around with making all the angled cuts on such small bits of wood without working out a way to do it without getting my fingers anywhere near that blade! And of course we will need such jigs anyway, once production begins (assuming that this is the way we will go ...)

But they are indeed already beautiful little pieces of wood ...

Taking the measure of that plank, I calculate that I can get 1200 handles from it. That works out to about 80 yen each (just over $1). That's kind of high for a raw materials cost for such small handles, so before I do much more chopping away at it, it'll be worthwhile looking at some other options, I think.

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [9]

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [14])

That's not much of a 'plan', and if I passed it to somebody else to build, they'd just scratch their head. But a couple of hours later, it was coming along well. Here's an interesting shot - a box in a box!

What's this? We're including a set of carving tools inside the next Treasure Chest? Well no ... it was just that the new Treasure Chest sample box that was near at hand on the bench was the perfect thing to use as a gluing jig for this new little box ...

After the glue was set, the basic shape of the box was visible:

Next step was to fashion the lid. There are three basic approaches possible for that: a lift off-on top like those on most tool boxes of this type, a sliding top, or one that is hinged.

I decided to try making a hinged lid, but as I don't want to use hardware, I made this first prototype with wooden pin hinges. Here's the result (front view):

And the back ...

Pretty nice, I think! Don't look too closely, because the workmanship is a bit rough, but this is just a prototype ...

I then grabbed a piece of cloth for the inside, chopped a quick 'n dirty tool support, and put a few of my own tools inside. (Note that this selection does not represent the selection that will be in the actual set.)

Not so bad ... That pocket in the lid is for the CD-type booklet that will have information on the tools, their history, and their maintenance. But now that I see it 'done', I think it looks a bit 'top heavy'. We'll have to have a bit of a re-think here perhaps ...

(Comments on that would be appreciated - do you think it is necessary for the booklet/pamphlet to be stored in the case itself?)

The open space on the underside of the booklet slot would be the place where the label gets pasted: 'Mokuhankan - fine prints and tools', our address, etc., along with the name of the person who ordered the set, the date of manufacture, and the 'serial' number.

I'll take this with me to the Tuesday meeting with the knife maker, and in the meantime, I'd better get working on the design of the shipping carton, because that is going to take time to receive after placing the orders. (Or no, perhaps I should get some work done on the website for the upcoming print series ...) (Or no, perhaps I should work on the expansion of the Mokuhankan bookkeeping system to encompass this new venture ...) (Or no, perhaps I should make that visit to the employment office I have been postponing - I have got to get a helper/manager here!) (Or no, it's time to get down to the lumber market at Kiba to find a supplier for the paulownia wood for the cases for the new series ...)

(etc. etc. etc.)

But no. Today it can be none of the above. I have to get some paper wet for the second batch of printing on the final Mystique print ... and I have to do that right now!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [14]

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [9])

First, let me show you a snapshot of a couple of the chisels in my own toolbox:

These are aisuki, the blunt-nose chisels used for general clearing near the lines. The top one is fairly new (unused yet, actually) and the bottom one has been with me since almost the beginning of my printmaking, being purchased in Tokyo in (I think) early 1981.

For those of you who have no experience with these, this next photo shows how they 'work' - the brass sleeve comes off, and the handles (which are a single piece of wood split in two) open to reveal the blade in its slot. The theory is that the blade can be replaced once it is worn out (from becoming just too short through repeated sharpening).

Now that's a nice theory, but in real life, these chisels wear down so slowly, that replacing the blade becomes a purely theoretical matter. The blade in that lower chisel is still the original one. (Note that this is not true for the main carving knife - I replace that one in the space of months ...)

So given that the blade really doesn't need easy/quick access, professional carvers here do not use handles with the brass sleeve. Here's another of my chisels, with the sleeve tossed away many years ago, and cord being used to keep the thing together. (You can see the shape where the handle was cut to receive the sleeve ...)

Now let's take a peek into a traditional carver's toolbox. This is a snapshot of some of the tools belonging to Motoharu Asaka (about whom we will read in my upcoming newsletter) (click for a closeup):

No sleeves at all (on the chisels). All tied with the cord.

So ... given this background, Sato-san and I had to come to a decision with our new chisels. Go with the 'modern' sleeves, or use the traditional pattern?

There are various pros and cons:

• Modern - plus
• sleeve is easily removed, making blade change easy
• this is what people have come to expect
• Modern - minus
• the sleeve falls off in times of dry humidity
• the sleeve can sometimes bang the work, causing chipping
• the presence of a sleeve is (in some ways) an indication of a lower quality item
• Traditional - plus
• no sleeve to cause problems (banging the work, falling off, etc.)
• easier to hold, with no interruptions in the shape of the handle
• a generally 'high class' appearance
• Traditional - minus
• more trouble to change the blade (the owner may not know how)
• may be resisted by consumers, who have come to expect the brass sleeve

We tossed these points around and came to a unanimous decision on which way to go. Given that we want these tools to be the highest-quality, most attractive ones on the planet, we're going with the cord. No sleeves. Potential purchasers have advance warning - get your fly-tying skills in shape! :-)

Now of course, we are not going to leave you on your own. First is that each of these sets will have a pocket in the lid of the paulownia box, in which will be a small booklet, along the lines of a typical CD booklet. This will have background information on the tools, and of course plenty of information on care and maintenance, including instructions on how to tie the cord. And we're thinking of one more step - if we can figure out how to design it, we'll add another small pocket, and in there will be tucked a small coil of shamisen string of the proper gauge, because - yes indeed - that's the material of choice, and we rather doubt you will be able to find it at your local corner store!

(Of course it doesn't have to be shamisen string - the kind of cord fishermen use to tie their flies is also perfect for this. It's very strong for its weight, is resistant to coming untied, is cheap, and is available anywhere.)

Now with that decision behind us, what's next? Well, Sato-san has asked me to meet him at the knife workshop on Tuesday morning. It seems that they have something to show us!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [9]

The young craftsman Sato-san, who did the work for the Senshafuda prints I published last year, has been spending quite a lot of his free time doing research on the content of the steel used to make the blades in our carving knives.

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [4])

Back on the first day of the year, I made a post over on my Woodblock RoundTable blog, catching up with bits and pieces of news. One of the items - just tossed off in passing - included this content: "... one day was a visit from a young craftsman who has some interesting thoughts on the steel with which our carving knives are made, and he brought over some sample blades which we 'cooked up' on my kitchen stove, but as he is not ready to make his endeavours public yet, he has asked me to refrain from blogging about it. More about this later ... (I hope!)"

Well, 'later' is here already!

The young craftsman I mentioned was the carver Sato-san, who did the work for the Senshafuda prints I published last year. He has been spending quite a lot of his free time doing research on the content of the steel used to make the blades in our carving knives. All the traditional carvers complain about the quality of the blades in recent years, but most of us have felt that there just wasn't much we could do about it. Making knives is a very specialized job of course, and our segment of the overall hardware market is extremely tiny. There are actually more people still making samurai swords than there are making knives like ours!

Sato-san's researches - and his tenacity at digging up information - led him late last month to a small workshop in one of the suburbs of western Tokyo. Here's a snapshot from the workshop:

Sato-san found that one of the men there shared his interest in investigating the various types of steel that could be used to make such tools, and some interesting discussions began, followed by some hammering of steel ...

For the past few weeks I have been testing out a blade from this workshop, one made and tempered to specifications set by Sato-san, and I have been mightily impressed. Not only impressed - worried. Worried that I might not be able to get a replacement, after this one is worn down!

Well, one thing led to another, and this little item may give you a hint about where we are going to take this:

That's his new Mokuhankan meishi (namecard). Yes, Sato-san is joining our team! (Part time, as he will continue his apprenticeship at the Takumi Workshop.)

Now 'Manager for Tools and Supplies' could have two meanings. Perhaps he will be arranging the tools we need for our own use. Or perhaps you can think of another meaning ...?

This is going to be fun!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [4]

Back at the 'grind' after the winter break!

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [3])

After a very long break over the year-end, the ladies have all returned to the shop to pick up where we left off in December.

Yasui-san spent the morning printing mats for the Mystique series prints. When I say 'printing' I mean with our Epson ink-jet printer. This is a monster of a printer, which I can barely carry myself. I know this, because that's what I did this morning - brought it down to the workshop from its usual location in the 'office' upstairs. Yasui-san agreed to do this printing job on the condition that she could do it down here ... and regular readers know why!

She's catching up with back-number prints, and will shortly begin preparation for the shipping of print #18, the one I am currently carving. So this part of our news today should technically be over on the Woodblock RoundTable, where my own work is featured ...

While she worked on that, Tsushima-san was busy with 'real' work (meaning actual print production ...). She is going to make an edition of the Plum Blossom print, which is currently out of stock, and which I have back orders for.

But before she can start actually putting pigment on paper, she needs to get her brushes ready. I ordered some new ones for her last month, and today she worked them over on the sharkskin:

They cut down pretty quickly, and here is what the results look like:

The one on the left has yet to be done, and is 'raw' from the maker. The middle one is now a nice 'general use' shape, and the one on the right needs a bit of explanation.

If you look at that print design:

... you will see that there is an ate-nashi bokashi - the yellow area on the moon. For this, she will need a brush that can take a tiny dab of pigment, and gently brush it out into a vague circular shape. So she has shaped this brush to have a bit of a 'point', which will of course be the center of the pigmented area.

She has now started a short test run of five sheets, and once they have been approved and adjusted, she'll begin a normal edition; perhaps we'll run 40~50 sheets.

And I think - I haven't yet discussed this with her - that we might put them on a special spring sale (seasonal blossoms, after all) to commemorate her 'debut' as a true working printer!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [3]

Our year-end wrapup ...

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [1])

With the final batch of new year prints being dropped off at the post office this evening, the year's work can finally be said to be finished! As it is still 2011 here in Tokyo, I don't want to post an image of the print just yet, but it will be online tomorrow morning over on the New Year card page of the site.

And in what is a 'first' for me, the print this time wasn't hand-carved and printed all by me. It seemed to make no sense to make two prints - one for the collectors of my personal print work, and one for the Mokuhankan business - so we wrapped all the mailing lists together, and sent everybody the same print.

I carved it late in November and then gave Tsushima-san the job of printing. Or should say, almost all the printing. We did it the traditional way: the 'master' printer here did the key block, and she did all the colour blocks. And as we needed 300 copies, this was quite a substantial job for her, far and away the most copies of anything that she has printed.

We split the batch in half, and did 150 at a time, mostly so that she could get any particular colour done in one session, something that would be very difficult for her if there had been 300 in the batch.

While she was working on this, I spent a couple of days this past week getting the bookkeeping done for the year. As part of that job, I had to go over the past months' time sheets for the printer trainees, and was a bit surprised by some of the data that turned up.

Because Tsushima-san has a family (including a baby girl) she is limited in the time she is able to spend here: she comes on three days each week (at most), and usually only about four (sometimes five) hours each time. The time sheets show that she started coming here on the last day of June, almost exactly six months ago. Adding up the hours, I see that by the end of November, at the time that she was about to begin this new year card printing job, she had accumulated exactly 160 hours here.

Based on a 40-hour work week, that means she has put in about one month, if calculated like a 'normal' employee. The day she came, she had never held a baren before. After 'one month', she was ready to take on the assignment of doing the colour printing for my new year card - in an edition of 300 copies. The reject rate? I guess there are about a dozen or so copies that I would rather not send out. No worse really, than I would probably have done myself.

So I think we're 'ready'. She's off for the year-end break now, and won't be back again until the 10th of January (when her kids are finally back in school). I've got the next couple of months work now planned out for her - she'll be doing re-prints of some of the images I originally published in my Surimono Albums and the original Treasure Chest. And her output is going to go straight into our catalogue.

She has been earning 1,000 per hour (just about $13 US), so my investment in her training to this point runs to something just over $2,000. It'll take a bit of time before that all comes back, but we're in no hurry ... and the 'payoff' will continue for a very long time to come, I think!

In other year-end 'news' I can mention that on the Saturday before Xmas, we had our first Mokuhankan staff get-together, with everybody bringing the kids over for an afternoon of food and games.

The ladies outdid themselves with the food, and we all had a good time playing with a bunch of the wooden games and puzzles that I still have here from those days a quarter of a century ago when we first arrived in Japan empty-handed, and I had to quickly, and on a very tight budget, create some stuff for my kids to play with ...

I wrote a bit about our party over on the Story A Week site too ...

A nice way to end off our year! (I wonder how many of us there will be working here come next December?) A dozen?

Or just one again? :-)

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [1]

Two enjoyable (mostly) visitors today!

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [4])

Today was planned to be a simple, peaceful day of printing work. I had hoped to do the final impressions on the last batch of the Ito Jakuchu image, and Tsushima-san was planning to do another impression (or more) on the new year presentation print. But neither of us was able to get our work done properly, at least this morning. Two visitors 'intruded'.

The first was 'someone' who came by yesterday afternoon for a very quick visit - too quickly for me to grab my camera. But he came again this morning while I had the webcam running, so I quickly turned the camera to point out the window as he strolled by ...

I'm not exactly sure what this is, beyond that it is a 'heron' type of bird. I sometimes see a similar one (but grey) and I might guess that would be an egret, but I think this white one is probably a 'common garden' heron (heh heh ... common in my garden, anyway!)

I have learned not to even bother trying to go outside to take a proper photo. The instant I turn the doorknob and begin to open the door, no matter how quietly, he is off. These photos are snaps taken from the preserved webcam footage. If you want to see him walk by, I have saved the video clip over at my Ustream channel.

As for our second visitor ... if you have watched that video, you will have heard her (little) voice, as she talked to her mother ...

Yes, this is one of those "We knew this was coming," moments! When Tsushima-san showed up this morning, she brought her daughter with her. Because of a very slight fever, the girl had been 'rejected' from the day care center, but as Tsushima-san is part-way through one of the colours on the new year print, she decided to pretend that this was 'Bring your daughter to work day'! When she arrived, she wasn't quite sure how I would react, but ... hey, what are you gonna do ... :-)

I made space for her; spreading out a mat on the floor near the heater, and making a quick trip upstairs to get some toys out of storage.

But Tsushima-san wasn't able to work well, as of course the child kept coming to her for attention, making it impossible to keep a steady work rhythm. So she called Ishigami-san (our other new printer, who was 'off' today) and she came over to do a little child-minding while Tsushima-san finished up that colour.

I think it will be a very long way in the future before we are big enough to have a dedicated 'day care room' for the employees (and the very tight regulations on such things here in Japan will probably make it impossible anyway), so we'll just have to play it by ear as these things happen ...

"Mom! Let me try!"

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [4]

A very busy day at the workshop ...

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [0])

It's sometimes not clear whether to put any particular post into the Woodblock RoundTable, or here into the Mokuhankan Conversations - the work being done falls into both areas ... as is the case today!

Here's a very unusual scene at the entranceway - four of us here today!

It's not that we've added a new person, it's that Yasui-san - the lady who has been doing print mounting, etc. (she made the folders and packed all the Senshafuda prints) - usually works at home, but was here with us today because the job at hand was something she had never done before and needed to work through it together with me.

It would be kind of a long story if I told it all, but I can simply mention that her job for the next couple of weeks is going to be doing a 'catch up' with some mounting and packing work that has been long 'postponed'. As you can see in this next picture, she is making folders for prints from my Surimono Albums!

These prints have been waiting in drawers patiently for about eight years, and are finally getting put into folders and into albums ...

She spent the morning doing that, while behind her the two printer ladies kept very busy. Tsushima-san (on the left) is beavering away at this year's studio New Year print. There are 150 sheets in the batch, and she'll run two batches. We think there will be seven impressions, so this will be the largest job she has yet tackled by a long shot.

Over on the right in that shot, at my own printing station, Ishigami-san is doing a batch of the Plum Blossom patterned snack wrappers. That project is kind of on the edge of exploding; the head of the local Chamber of Commerce heard about it, and is really excited about getting it up and running in all the snack makers in town. He has dreams of it becoming a 'major' attraction for the town ... We'll see ...

With all this going on, there was really no chance for me to get any serious work done, so I found a corner of the table at the back of the room (as you can see in this frame grab from the Woodblock Webcam), and trimmed paper for my next batch of prints (the second batch of the Ito Jakuchu design). I'll be printing those tonight ...

And once the ladies had all gone, it was time for me to make a 'Monday' trip to the post office. Monday trips of course include all the prints ordered over the weekend, and today's pile - Gift Prints mostly - filled my backpack right to the brim!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [0]

Today's post is a quote from a blog run by the Wall Street Journal

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [1])

I don't normally do this, but today's post here on the Mokuhankan Conversations is simply going to be an 'outbound' link (although trust me, there is a connection with our woodblock work here!). The Wall Street Journal has a number of associated blogs, and one of them is 'Japan Real Time', in which they follow both news and 'trends'. (If I had no access to any other news source here in Japan, this is the one I would follow to keep in touch with what's happening in this society.)

Anyway, long story short, given that the single biggest 'problem' facing me at the moment for getting Mokuhankan onto its next level is the challenge of finding some more 'good' people, today's post on the Japan Real Time blog is extremely interesting:

Japanese Women Quit Unrewarding Careers

"It’s no secret that Japanese women are a woefully underutilized talent pool in the domestic labor market. But in a departure from the conventional wisdom that women tend to drop out of the workforce for family obligations or because a baby has arrived, a new study shows that the overwhelming reason for the female labor exodus is because their careers are unsatisfying."

So why mention this just now? Well, I was talking to a 'little birdie' the other day, and heard ('peep peep') that printer-trainee Tsushima-san - who has now been coming here for just over four months - looks forward to coming to work here each day because this place is 楽しい.

Translation? The dictionary gives us: "pleasant, enjoyable, delightful, happy, pleasurable, merry, cheerful, delectable ..."

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [1]

The pile of Gift Prints waiting for their turn to head to the post office!

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Our Gift Print 'season' is off to an excellent start; the order page has been open for just one week now, and we've sent out just about 50 prints so far.

Back in May I showed you this photo of 'helper' lady Yasui-san, as she prepared the folders for our first Senshafuda print set:

She did an excellent job with those, so I co-opted her to do the wrapping of all this year's Gift Prints. Here's the batch of them she finished up a few days ago:

We've got four different styles of wrapping paper on hand this year, and that makes it easy for us to keep track of which package contains which print (there are four different designs on the Gift Print page).

I'm very happy with her work. She gets them folded so the flaps meet up just perfectly!

I'm not sure what to add about the level of inventory we have on hand. I don't want to get into an "Order now before they are all gone!" type of spiel, but there is no question that after this very quick start, it is quite possible that we are going to run out before we reach the post office mailing deadline for overseas Xmas mail in early December. Should we get the blocks out again? ...

(PS: you can always check our remaining inventory of any Mokuhankan print on this page.)

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [0]

The two trainee ladies are making excellent progress!

'Stretch' to read the full entry | Separate page (with discussion [1])

In complete contrast to the struggles that I have been having with the 'outside' staff working on Mokuhankan projects, I can report that the 'insiders' are coming along very well!

We passed a small (and un-noticed) milestone yesterday afternoon - the first work done by one of the new printers has made its way into the Mokuhankan catalogue. A couple of weeks back, when Tsushima-san was working on the Koryusai Peony print, we thought this might happen with that one, but her final prints still weren't quite good enough to sell. We're going to come back to that one a bit later, but the oncoming Gift Print season has made us put it aside for now.

And yes, it is with the Gift Prints that Tsushima-san has joined the 'productive' team here. She and I did a run of the Hokusai 'Floating Carp' print yesterday and today, and out of the 52 sheets we had in the batch ... we have 52 that are good enough to go out, a ratio I can live with!

She cut and prepped the paper (including moistening it), I printed the key block, she did a couple of the colours, and I then finished the batch off in the evening after she had left. Today, she mounted them all on card stock, and we've put them into the drawer to wait for the wrapping stage later (which we'll do after a bunch of the other prints are also ready ...)

I myself am now doing the first batch of 50 of this year's upcoming new Gift Print (which will be unveiled when the page goes live around the end of the month), and next week we'll do another 50 or so of these together, along with some more batches of the other prints in the 'series'. Once we have enough stock on hand of them all to see us through November/December, she'll return to her practice routines (and I'll finally be able to get going on my own next print!)

As you can imagine, she's pretty pleased to be able to actually start contributing to the running of this place. And I too am of course happy to have the money start - just a little bit - to flow the other way. I think in years to come, she'll be a very good asset ...

As for Ishigami-san, having started a couple of months later, she is still not quite ready for prime time. Here are the two of them beavering away the other day (Tsushima-san is sitting at my own work station, as I have yet to build a second work place for these women):

What kind of stuff is Ishigami-san working on?

Well, I'm not supposed to show you. Not that we here have anything to hide; it's just that she is using some blocks that I carved many years ago for kids to use at a Culture Day event, and they involve copyright material that I have no permission to use. Perhaps you will recognize some of these characters ... Here are four samples of the prints she has made these past couple of weeks (including while I was away ...)

She's doing pretty well; it's too bad we'll never be able to sell these!

'Shrink' back down ... | Discussion [1]