I was supposed to go to a small dinner party this evening, but the hostess phoned in the morning to let me know it was being postponed for a couple of weeks. There is a major flu thing happening here these days, and either one of the guests has already come down with it, or she is getting nervous about having a get-together in such circumstances. So instead of a pleasant evening of conversation with my friends in this geijutsu-ka guruupu ('gathering of people from the arts'), I suddenly find myself with a free evening.

'Free' being a relative term of course. I'm only part-way through the printing of the final batch of the final Mystique print, and the latest newsletter came back from the printer last night, so I now have to get the labels, etc. ready, so that the ladies can mail it out on Monday. Then the newsletter itself has to go onto the website, both English and Japanese versions, and also I have to get Tsushima-san's two new 'Debut Prints' into the Mokuhankan catalogue online, because once the newsletter starts arriving in people's mailboxes, the orders are going to start coming in ...

So those of you who are waiting for more news about the new knife set will have to wait just a bit longer, please. Today's news is on another front.

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 ...

But as we have no direct access to that workshop, Sato-san and I have found it difficult to properly communicate our wishes. So while we wait for those samples, we're also exploring other avenues. This afternoon I started my own prototyping. To tell you about this, I'm going to have to take you back ... way back!

Long-time readers of my website may remember an item I posted back in 1999, about buying some cherry planks. The wood I bought that day has not yet been used for woodblocks. After Shimano-san (the block supplier) passed away, Matsumura-san stepped up his wood business, and I have been using his wood (for the most part) since then.

So the four long - very long - planks have been waiting peacefully since that time. At present, they stand in a dry and well-ventilated corner of my upper basement:

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.

I myself have nothing to do with the actual making of the blades themselves. Beyond discussing the type of steel to be used, and the tempering, etc., I won't be touching that stuff. Of course.

But the 'accompaniments' - handles, storage box, shipping container, pamphlet, etc. - all fall within my purview. And as we are really starting completely from scratch, everything is wide open. I'm trying to get work done on all these things, bit by bit, and yesterday it was the turn of the storage box to get my full attention. I spent the entire day down at the worktable in the shop, surrounded by small hand tools and a pile of paulownia wood offcuts.

This was the starting point:

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!

First was a stop at one of the shops selling/making paulownia boxes. Given that this new project involves so many things that all have to be up and running before we can get the product on the market, Sato-san and I thought that it might be a sensible idea to use a ready-made box, if we can find a place to supply them at a reasonable quality and price.

The people I spoke to in the box shop took down my description of what I want, and will get back to us next week with a quote. The stuff in their shop looks to be a good quality, and we'll see what kind of price they will give us.

Another option on the table is for me to make the boxes myself, and as I am going to be tooling up next month to make boxes for my upcoming print series, we may indeed end up going that way. We'll see ...

But a more important decision we made yesterday was on the fundamental design of the chisel handles. We met up at the restaurant where the craftsman's association was having a get-together, and during the dinner (we sat next to each other) we snatched bits of 'private' conversation where possible ...

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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? :-)

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 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!"

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

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!

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 ..."

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:

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.)

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!

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!

Summer officially arrived at the Mokuhankan workshop yesterday afternoon, with the delivery of a small package from printer Tetsui-san.

Relax in the cool breeze of evening, sitting behind your sudare (bamboo screen) ... take a visit to one of the fireworks festivals on the river ... or join the crowds of kids on vacation down at the aquarium, where you can have an 'encounter' with a species from another world!    :-)

Yes, better late than never (is it?), the Summer Senshafuda set has finally arrived, and is now being prepared for shipping (our wrapping lady Yasui-san has been waiting patiently for over two months for this!).

In the (unlikely) event that there is still anybody out there waiting for these to arrive, you can find them on this page of the Mokuhankan website.

(And when I get a minute, I'll post something in the comments below about what has happened to put us in this ridiculous situation ... and where we are going from here.)

A number of collectors have written asking about the progress of the Summer Senshafuda set ... is it still on the rails?

I called him up on Monday, but he wasn't there; his father said that he was out on a music job. I called back the next day, and managed to catch him. He hasn't started yet.

I had also been repeatedly calling and writing emails to illustrator Seki-san, to try and get the Autumn set moving forward. She sent me the first roughs in the first week of September, but they weren't suitable at all, and I had asked her to try again. The new batch arrived on Sunday evening. They have some promise, but I have a number of things that I'd like to talk with her about in person (email is too difficult), so wrote to her to try and arrange a meeting one day this week before I leave. I suggested (in turn) three different dates, but she wrote back each time to tell me that she had 'other affairs' that made it not possible. She finally wrote asking if we could meet when I got back from Canada.

But that won't be until October the 13th ... not exactly the best schedule for getting started on the Autumn set!

I got a bit peeved, and just told her to 'forget it' for now; I'd get back in touch later.

So there we sit. The project that showed such good promise back in the spring - with all three of them being enthusiastic about it, and (apparently) eager to move forward - has bogged down in prevarication by two of them (Sato-san the carver has been exactly the opposite of this - his work has been done extremely quickly, with great enthusiasm).

I chatted with Sadako about all this last night, and her analysis of the situation is that I've been 'too strict' - Tetsui-san and Seki-san have thought I have interfered and 'complained' too much ...

On some reflection though, I'm not ready to accept 'guilt' here. I think I have been flexible and understanding at every stage. If they think I'm too domineering, they should slip back in time a bit to meet one of the old publishers!

So what happens now?

I'm not sure. I'm going to give all this some thought during the next ten days or so while I'm away from the workshop, and decide what to do when I get back.

Partly this has been because she is basically doing the same sort of training work, simply a few 'rungs' further back on the ladder ... and how many images of the kagegami prints do you want to see?!

But over the past few sessions, it has become apparent that her built-in 'skill set' is different from the one that Tsushima-san has shown. For example, on Monday morning, I set her to work on making some copies of the famous Cat Bus image from the My Neighbour Totoro film:

(Before you ask, I have to say that no, I'm sorry we can't let you have any of these ... we have no rights to use this image commercially, and this is just for our own internal training ...)

I was wrong. Maybe around a half-hour later, a bit more I guess, I turned to check on her, and found that she was done. Finished. All three impressions, on all the sheets. And they weren't half bad! (That's one of them, above.)

This lady is fast! Now there is a price being paid for that speed, and it is clear that she is being a big 'rough' in her approach. She's kind of jamming the paper into the registration marks, and as a result, some of the colours are a bit mis-registered. We're going to have to work on finding a better balance between speed and quality.

But it is indeed very interesting to see them moving in different directions already. Tsushima-san approaches her work in a very slow and careful manner. Her registration so far has been pretty much perfect, and the colours are (for the most part) smoothly applied. But the price she pays is speed ... or lack of it. We're going to have to work on finding a better balance between speed and quality!

:-) Fun!

Here's today's result from Ishigami-san, another in the 'manga' series of blocks that I have here ...

This is four impressions (resulting in six colours on the sheet), and she ran a batch of 15 copies (plus practice ones on dummy paper).

This will be the last update for nearly two weeks. In a couple of days I'm heading over to Vancouver for a 10-day family get-together/reunion. But these two ladies have the keys to the workshop, and they will be coming in on their usual schedule, to continue their practice sessions. They have blocks, paper, tools and everything they need. I'm looking forward to inspecting the stack of prints when I get back!