Japanese Woodblock Printing Week: Designing, drawing and cutting

 Day one (Monday)  of Japanese Woodblock ( Mokuhanga) print course at Morley College  with Carol Wilhide-Justin  started with an introduction to it's history and a fascinating account of her  scholarship residency  at MI-Lab in Japan.

 She had  bought an original book from 1830's and it was wonderful to gently handle it,  admiring the  qualities of  the papers and the printing .

Working on a 30 x 22.5cm piece of  Shina Plywood  with an image size of 15 x 10.5 cm ( which allowed 2 separations on each side) , she shared some ideas from her own work  showing how to break down an image into  separate layers ( by colour or to make a pattern simpler to cut) . I liked the idea of combining different shapes and colours ( above and the results below)

But I'd already put quite a lot of work into  developing ideas continuing with my breakwaters theme so despite working on a much smaller scale than  I'd imagined , I decided to combine different elements from  these 2 photos

Having made an accurately sized drawing , this was traced and different colours used for what would be different blocks/ colour separations.

Then  reversing it, these 4 different element were  traced onto the  plywood using carbon paper, paying attention to the direction of the grain. 

The plywood had already been accurately marked out with the area for the image, surrounded on 2 sides with a 1cm gutter and 1cm registration for the paper ( the paper will overhang the edge when printing, a cunning way of getting the most out of the block)  

Then cutting! We used a non-slip mat rather than a bench-hook, much more maneuverable , especially as we had to continually move the block around to ensure cutting away from you. I was first to have a go with the Ken-toh chisel to make registration marks on the corner and along the longest side, watched by the class demonstrating  how not to do it!  My 4th one wasn't too bad.

A set of tools were issued once we'd demonstrated that we could use them. And then the lesson was over and our homework  is to do all the cutting on our blocks for printing on Friday ( this is usually a 8 week rather than 2 day course! )  

On Tuesday , appropriately enough, I went back to the Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum  so I didn't get a chance to do any cutting until Wednesday and Thursday. My orders of 'Powergrip' tools and   Japanese Woodblock  book had arrived in the post , it was good to have  photos and instructions on the very particular ways the different tools are used , a reminder of what Carol had demonstrated.

 So here are my finished blocks ready for printing tomorrow .  I love the nuanced effects of the watercolour used  and that it can be done at home  without a press, something I've struggled with when lino printing.

I think my dad would have been proud of me -  he was very keen on working with wood  coming from a long line of wood carvers from coopers in the 1700's to my grandfather who was a  pattern maker on the Glasgow shipyards before becoming a gardener.

30 years of wielding a scalpel probably helped too!  

UPDATE - see  what my  friend Margaret did on the same course - a different approach to design  but very effective.

Exhibitions

My 'Taplow Vase Reconstruction' made in response to a Roman vase in Slough Museum is having another outing - currently at Gallery @49 in Bracknell as part of 'Whatever Floats Your Boat' exhibition. Hope to get there on 17 December to sit and stitch and chat to anyone who might pop in.

On Thursday , went to a presentation to staff by David Nash about the  exhibition of his work next year at Kew Gardens.  The lecture theatre was packed and due to technical difficulties with slide projector (everyone uses Powerpoint these days) there was the opportunity to catch up with colleagues . Talk was mainly about how the strike had gone  but also found that the Hardy Orchid book I've been working on for 6 years will be published on 16 December!

He was such an engaging speaker, particularly recounting the construction of the Ash Dome and travels of the Wooden Boulder . Existing outdoor works will be situated throughout the gardens and these will be supplemented with new works created on-site at  a  'wood quarry'. There will indoor works in the temperate house, Shirley Sherwood Gallery and Nash Conservatory. It sounds fantastic!!

On a different scale , tomorrow afternoon I'm going to the gallery talk by Lesley Millar at Japan House on current textile exhibition 'Bite Size' which so many people have raved about. I'll be reporting back in my next blog post.

Shinkansen (International Quilt Challenge)

 Ever since  my first digital camera , I've been taking photos from trains at speed - I love the blurring. I've made a few journal quilts and one experimental piece  but have always wanted to scale up . The current theme 'Through the Window' of the International Quilt Challenge  gave me an opportunity to start  down that road (or should that be rail?!!!!)

 In 2006 I travelled with Susan Briscoe to Yuza-machi  in Japan   and took lots of photos from the Shinkansen train from Tokyo to Yamagata. The  green of rice paddies, the purplish grey roofs , the mountains and the coast were so different from the train photos I'd taken in the UK

 Techniques and materials used? Photos  were printed on colour catchers treated with 'Ink Aid' . I used Photoshop to increase saturation slightly but that's all -the blurring is as captured by camera. These were applied to a section of lightweight fabric from a secondhand kimono bought for Pojagi in Tokyo.

A silk organza scarf with woven lines was laid over the top and attached with twin needle stitching. Interesting difference  between the raised ridges produced  when stitched through 1 layer of kimono and the flatter ones where stitching through both kimono and colour catcher. I really should have stabilised the kimono fabric first but I actually like the effect!
I'd like to produce an even bigger piece next perhaps  inspired by the paintings of Atsuhide Ito although quite how I'd photograph it and display it....

Re-visiting Previous Work

I was going to add some more photos from Iran ( lots more still to share) but then I went off track when reading Olga's blog and got to thinking about how ideas for pieces of work can seem suddenly relevant after a few years laid to rest. Perhaps some have a greater gestation period than others or need to be put aside for a while. The paintings of Atsuhide Ito that Olga highlighted really resonated for me with some ideas and sample pieces I made in 2004. I hadn't had my digital camera that long and coming home from the Festival of Quilts I snapped out of the train window and really liked the blurred landscapes and the reflections off the carriage windows. I experimented with printing double images on cotton and overlaying with silk organza for that months Journal quilt

I then did some printing of some simpler images onto silk and applied them to some old wool blanket and joined the whole lot together with twin needle stitching. There were 6 sections in total and I was planning how I might extend this idea, making an even longer work. One of the problems was that long narrow pieces are difficult to photograph and display ( as for fitting them into a quilt category........) so I didn't take it further at the time.

Train Sequence 2

Train sequence 4


Train sequence 6

I still continued to take pictures from trains including a trip to Japan - I loved the familiarity of the images ( tracks, pylons , stations, etc) but also the differences -, the scale of landscape, the colours (bright green rice fields) and shapes of buildings. I have a whole folder called (imaginatively! )Japan Train - some images below.

So why haven't I worked since on blurred train images? I think that might go back to 7/7 2005 when I was on the last train from Kings Cross seconds before the bombs went off. I was at a meeting in Peterborough and thought I would be stranded there with no information about what had happened to friends and family. In the end I got home very late thanks to someone giving me a lift well out of his way and coming into Ealing from Reading on the train. My July Journal quilt was based on that experience and I did think of using photos I'd taken previously on that route and calling it 'the Journey home' but it felt wrong - it was too obvious , too personal and quilts with meaning spelt out are not my style.

But I'm excited now about re-visiting the idea of a 'train' quilt , especially with the Japanese images. Just don't read anything into it........