But in addition I just got a real kick out of using a 19th century plane once used by someone in France, or a chisel used in England or early America, etc., etc. There is something much more rewarding, though with a learning curve, in hand tools, like chisels and planes. I had gotten tired of power tools, which probably are necessary if you need to work quickly, but otherwise are to me just a pain. Back when I dabbled, and I do mean dabbled, in fine carpentry, I loved buying using chisels and planes from the 1800s or earlier(always at a very cheap price I should add). But it also entails I think an appreciation for the maker of the tools, especially all the hand tools that are used in mokuhanga, as well as for their history.
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You can't do much carving if you don't have sharp tools and know how to use them. I have no problem at all with this type of craftsmanship. In mokuhanga in particular it means that you learn, slowly, how to use the various carving tools, and also how to sharpen them, learning how they differ from most western-style tools. Today I finally realized that craft is learning how to use the tools of your craft. Good tools are a gift to humanity, just like art and nature.
There is a great sense of both accomplishment and also something akin to moral grounding in appreciating a good tool and learning how to use it for its intended purpose.
The revelation, at least to me if not necessarily the rest of the world, is that craft and technique are different! Though I've never really cared about technique and did not have an artistic education that stressed it I nonetheless have always been appreciative of tools, of any sort, and learning how to appreciate them and use them as they were made to be used. After thinking about a new blog post that would talk about the 4th International Mokuhanga Conference as well as the craft and technique that is part of mokuhanga I kept coming up with this big caveat: I generally don't like technique in my work or anyone's. I will start printing edition today or tomorrow. Most of the proofs I made as I developed the moku hanga of the Bobolink at Dixon Meadow Preserve. The bamboo was softened before wrapping using the stone at bottom right. Along with baren that has just been newly wrapped in bamboo sheath. What kind of wood makes good prints? What kind of wood is pleasant to carve? What kind of paper makes good prints? What kind of inexpensive paper will do? How do you go about inking and printing the blocks? How wet is too wet? How dry is too dry? What level of wetness/dryness is best for which papers? How do you handle the paper? How do you handle really thin and floppy paper? How do you make a decent damp pack? These are all relevant questions, some of which I have (perhaps tentatively) answered, and some of which I haven’t.My carving tools for moku hanga, including a newly sharped aisuki chisel. So I didn’t touch it again for two and a half years.īut now I’m taking a moku hanga class at the Lawrence Arts Center, and getting good instruction from Yuko Ito, and it’s a whole other endeavor.īut it’s still a pretty steep learning curve. I think my paper was too thin, and I didn’t know how to handle it, and despite my kento marks, I wasn’t registering it properly, and all-in-all it just seemed like too much trouble for the results. I was totally inspired, bought the book Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop by April Vollmer and a few supplies, and gave it a quick whirl at home, producing this not-very-adequate print. Several years ago, in 2016 at the Southern Graphics Print Council’s conference in Portland, OR, I sat in the front row for an afternoon of demonstrations for moku hanga.
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