Netsuke - Ox (& the Art of Listening)

I discovered Onbeing at the beginning of the year. I have no recollection of the thread in the web that brought me to Kristas Tippett's website but ever since I found it I am a complete fan of her heart warming inspiring interviews with poets, thinkers, speakers, makers, teachers.... from all over the globe.

I'm listening to Gordon Hempton's soundscape of nature's silence 'A Hike through the Hoh rainforest.' He takes us on a guided walk along the trail through tall tree, ferns and moss, a winter wren twittering, a river echoing of the edge of the valley and the call of a Roosevelt elk. In his conversation with Krista Tippett he talks about the art of listening.

"Listening is not about sound - If you ever find yourself listening for sound, that's diagnostically a controlled impairment. Simply listen to the place and when you listen to the place you take it ALL in - We're about to enter into a giant driftwood log -Sikta Spruce log, the material used in the crafting of violins - when the wood fibres are excited by acoustic energy -in this case its the sound of the ocean itself - the fibres actually vibrate and inside you get to listen to nature's largest violin.” Gordon Hempton - Onbeing

Shiko Munakata & Kiyoshi Saito

While I carve my second ox, I wonder where this magnolia wood was growing and how many years it stood rooted in the earth before being cut into blocks. The death of the magnolia tree. The aliveness of mark making. The transforming of tree to print. This time I leave more wood, less carving, more outline and I am more gentle as I listen to the sound of the hangito cutting into the block. I love how Shiko Munakata really listened to the wood when he was carving. He let the wood speak as there is no right and wrong, just the doing of it and the way Kiyoshi Saito, another master of the Creative Print Movement (Sosaku Hanga) embraced the texture of wood grain when printing flat bold areas of colour.

"Flat areas of colour and the texture of the woodblocks' grain communicate the essentials of the nature of bold and harmonious designs. Saito's simple style possesses great freedom and spontaneity, and there is an international avoidance of elegant refinement. " Masterful Images - The Art of Kiyoshi Saito. Barry Till.

"The nature of the woodcut is such, that even a mistake in its carving will not prevent it from its true materialization." Shiko Munakata

I have returned to using the Japanese carbon ink as I am not yet used to the smell of the sumi ink. I use dry Japon simile paper and rub the baren over the woodblock. The plastic cream baren is hard and unforgiving of the slightly uneven surface where I had put too much pressure on the wood with the bone folder. I use my shredded bamboo baren and the next print is much cleaner. This ox is better than the last one but still with its many imperfections. I stick a sample into my notebook along with the previous samples.

I wonder whether sketching these netsuke from 'life' will make a difference. The central archives department at the British museum have forwarded my request on to the department of Asia and sent me their email so I can contact them directly. I send another email to the department of Asia and wait for their reply.

Netsuke - Ox (Signed Tomotada)

I usually would prefer to draw from life so it's a bit frustrating drawing from my dark grainy photographs. It's prompted me to write to the British Museum in the hope for an appointment to view and sketch their collection of netsuke. They have an extensive collection of 2300 netsuke. I will wait and see and I finish up my sketch of an Ox signed Tomotada.

Listening to the World

While listening to Krista Tippett's podcast On Being I begin the process of transfering the image to the block ready for carving the Ox. Krista Tippett is interviewing the American poet Mary Oliver who always carries a pen and paper while she is walking in the woods. The woods is her sanctuary where she finds creative inspiration. She never writes her ideas directly on to a computer and advises others to do the same - I understand the positives for doing this but I'm finding the combination of digital and analogue world work well together for me. There is much more ease and efficiency using both. I scan the sketched ox into the computer and open it up in photoshop. I've deliberately kept the fine lines. Usually I thicken the lines directly on to the paper after I have made the initial sketch but I print the original sketch on to the tracing paper and rub the image on to the wood.

The image is more faint than usual and it's difficult to make out all the lines but I'm going to have a go at carving the ox with fine lines.

The result is over carved and with chipped outlines and an unsuccessful patchy print. I print out the sketch of the ox and draw over the original sketch. The lines are thicker. There is more black with smaller areas of white. Lets hope this one works out better than the last one.

Ox signed Tomotada - A.957 - 1910 Salting Bequest. British Museum

"When you make something, when you go through the process - all the steps and at the end you have a finished project you made with your own hands, out of your own mind, that is your own design - it's a reflection of your soul."Eric Hollenbeck - Portrait of a Master Wood Worker. Blue Ox Millworks

Netsuke - Tiger (Signed Okatori)

This tiger by Okatori has big heavy eye lids and a swirling tail curled up on his back. His markings are carved slithers of wispy leaf like patterns. He crouches with his hind leg reaching up to his mouth, licking his paw - a yoga pose definitely to aspire to!

I sketch what I can from my dark grainy photograph and scan the sketch, print on tracing paper, rub the image onto the block, carve the tiger and ink up.

Two bottles of ink sit on my studio table like two characters, a bright green squat rounded shape with a black cap and a tall black cuboid with a red cap. I have been using the little green bottle of Japanese Carbon ink which smells of cool mint. Today I am going to try the tall bottle of Chinese sumi ink. The smell is pungent almost like stale blood. I recently read 'Colour' by Victoria Finlay. Each chapter is titled by a colour. In 'Black' she explains the origins of producing ink from soot and sometimes from dead bodies and I wonder what concoction this bottle is holding as I find it hard to get used to the overpowering smell.

Wood Tiger

Before inking up the wood I look at the carved image. I can't make out the shape at all. First I see a dog, then a monkey and then finally my eyes adjust to the lines and a tiger emerges from the grain. I am still printing on dry paper as I just want to get a quick idea of the kind of print this wood will make. If it's a bad print at least I won't have wasted time dampening Hosho paper. Fortunately the first print on Japon Simile does reveal a tiger and not one to be messed with. His eyes are staring wildly, much more than the one behind the glass at the V&A. It's the biggest print of the mini prints so far (9cm x 7cm) which shows that tigers really do need their space.

"Although the tiger is not native to Japan, it has been widely used as a motif in Japanese art because it is one of the 12 animals of the East Asian zodiac which derives from Chinese cosmology. The 12 animals, one for each year, were used in a fixed order that was repeated every 12 years. The traditional order is rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog and boar. The rat, monkey and tiger were among the most popular of the zodiac animals. A tiger netsuke might be used over the new-year festivities for the year of the tiger, as well as at any time throughout that year." V&A online collections

Japanese Woodblock Printing Courses

I have so many questions I want to ask about this process and a few months ago I had booked a one to one day course with printmaker Laura Boswell. Laura had kindly offered to come and teach at my studio in Bristol but unfortunately due to unforeseen family matters we had to cancel the date. I hope to try and book in with Laura again some point in the future. For now I look forward to her exhibition at R K Burt Gallery in London with Ian Phillips from 12th - 22nd May.

In the mean time I have been looking at alternative Japanese Woodblock Printing courses. I had decided it was too far to travel to Edinburgh Printmakers a few months ago when I was researching courses but today I'm feeling adventurous. Paul Furneaux will be teaching the course at Edinburgh Printmakers. I came across Paul Furneaux a few months ago and really like his work. His approach is very free, direct and expressive. Here's a video showing the process of dampening paper for printing.

I ring the college to find out more. There is one space available...I click the book online now button.

Resources

Laura Boswell

R K Burt Gallery

Paul Furneaux

Dampening Paper video

Tiger by Okatomi (430-1904 Dresden Bequest)

Barens

From my trip to London I have come home with some new woodblock printing materials. The outer layer of bamboo leaf on my baren had shredded and on reflection, if I had known about keeping it well oiled I am sure it would have lasted a lot longer. I made a special trip to Intaglio Printmakers, about 15 minutes walk south from the Tate Modern.

Intagio Printmakers sits at the bottom of wooden staircase. In this basement full of art materials filling shelves to the ceiling it feels more like a warehouse than a shop.

Choosing a Baren

I have found the Barens. There's more than one kind of Baren in the cabinet. The natural bamboo one like the one I've managed to shred, a black plastic one, a makeshift DIY looking one with a big handle and a large sleek cream disk Baren. I like the materials to be as natural as possible so I am not sure about the plastic ones. They are 4 times the price but I am swayed by the shop assistant's enthusiasm for the cream baren which is made from hard wearing plastic. The bamboo barens wear out much more quickly and I'm told the black ones tend to warp out of shape for some unknown reason and the DIY one doesn't create even pressure. The cream disk baren is by far the best design, being stronger than the others, has a larger flat surface area with with raised circular bumps to distribute the weight evenly when pressure is applied. It's the most popular with printmakers today. I guess it will probably be more economical to buy this one as it sounds like it's going to last a long time. I also add a some 'Flexicut SlipStrop' to my purchase. This will help maintain my new wood carving tools to keep them in good condition. The SlipStrop is recommended for new tools rather than a sharpening stone which would be best if the tool is chipped or worn out of shape.

Awagami Call for Entries

On my way back up the wooden staircase is a board full of leaflets, adverts for all kinds of printmaking courses and events. On the window sill is a an A4 'Call for Entries.

I like the sound of this and check out the suggested url address for Awagami's submissions.

Carving Tiger

I moved into my studio in March 2012. I set up my Adana 8 x 5 platen press and began to print. No computer. No digital printer. Just the simplicity of my printing press, tools, inks and paper. This was good for a time but when I recently started to explore woodblock printing I realise the beauty of combining the print world with the digital world. I was initially sketching my images directly onto the tracing paper and then rubbing the reversed side onto the wood but soon realised its limitations - if I needed to re-carve any of these netsuke I would have to sketch from scratch each time as I did with Recumbent Goat. So a few weeks ago I brought my old computer and printer to the studio, which has been a break through and another step forward in getting to grips with this process.

Every month I meet with Lilla and Meg. We carve out time and space to explore print making, stamping, make connections, conversation and share our explorations. I have brought the tiger ready to carve. I know it's going to be the most difficult one to carve so far as the image is so small (5cm h x 4cm w).

I start carving...a couple of hours later I've already taken out some of the tiger's eye. The outlines are unrecognisable. I take it home to finish and know that this little tiger is far too small for my limited experience with Japanese wood carving tools. I have lost the definition from the original sketch.

The good news is I can re-size the original image in Photoshop and print on a fresh piece of tracing paper to transfer to a new block. I notice also that the tools are not as sharp and it's time to use the slipstrop to hone the blades.