Jan 27.07 -> New Years Show

To my suprise I found that my ino-shi-shi hanga for 2007 New Years has been put on show in Yamagata and Takayama. I didn't realize this until my sensei asked me to come and see the collection at the Yamagata post office yesterday. In Yamagat the display is a collection of about 100 prints at the post office and then a larger collection of about 300 in Takayama somewhere. Both are relitively small showings, but to have my print next to some serious masters of the art of moku-hanga is a real treat!

Jan 19.07 -> Plate 2

Today I started in on the second of 6 plates for my Robot hanga print. I magaed to get about half of it cut, and its coming along well. This plate is fairly easy as there isn't much detail, and its pretty much all straight cuts. One difficulty that I'm encountering is the hardness of the wood. I choose my wood because it was quite hard, and could hold up to the detail of some of the areas in my design, but its also been the downside to much of the project so far. It is really tough to clear the open sections of the plate, and I'm worried that I'm killing my tools doing so. I'll have to make a trip to the knife store to get them properly affter this plate is finished......... fortunately its only 200 yen per tool.

In other news, I'm starting the preliminary sketches and designs for my Takayama exchange. The trade goes down in April, so I have to get cracking to make sure that I have enough time to get it all done. I'm planning a slighly ambitious project for this next print which will have me trying some embossing in combination with inking.............. I'm hoping it will all work out well and I'll learn a little in the process! I'll be seeking guidence from my Sensei along the way though.

LAiNE

Jan 16.07 -> My current project

I just started in on a new hanga project this week. In the end I am hoping it will have 8 colour layers in total, but that hasn't been decided entirely. I have plates created to do 8, but I may do fewer depending on how much time I want to put into the project. I have another print that I am aiming to start and complete by the begining of March that will be for the Takayama print exchange that I am participating in. The size is fixed for that exchange, but that content is open...... I'm stoaked.