Here is an opportunity to have a Workshop at your classes. The most recent Workshop which I held was at the National College of Art & Desigh, Dublin, Ireland in April 2003. That was three days Workshop for the 18 of the 3rd year (BA, printmaking) students. Followings were guide-line of that Workshop. Any enquiries, go to CONTACT page !

		[ Woodcut Print Workshop with Water-based inks ]
		*Students: Bring a pencil, eraser, ball-pen, cutter knife, ruler, apron and your sketch book, please. *Birch Faced Plywood (6.5mm thickness / 5 layers) cut in sizes, Japanese paper cut in sizes, woodcutting tools.

		[TIME TABLE]
		(Mon) 7th April: Introduction * Preparing the paper This is a part of the demonstration which will be held in the afternoon. Students can have a look how to prepare dampen papers. * Slide Talk *General Information + Have a look actual prints Wood, Paper, Tools, Inks, Brushes, Baren (Printing pad) and Registrations. * Printing Demonstration Use 3 Relief plates and an intaglio plate. (Wed) 9th April: Workshop * Making a plan + Colour Separation Students make a plan on their tracing paper, and transfer the image to the Wood blocks with Carbon paper. * Cutting and Carving How to use the Cutting tools and how to sharpen them. Please Mind Your Fingers ! Use Clear Varnish if needed. (Thu) 10th April: Workshop * Printing Students bring their Wood blocks ready to print. (3 Relief plates and an Intaglio plate)

		[TECHNIQUE]
		You use both very traditional Japanese methods of printing, similar to those used by ukiyo-e printers, and also very modern techniques, materials and tools. The traditional tools are so beautiful and pleasant to use, but they are difficult to find and expensive. Modern tools are very practical, easy to find, easy to maintain. 1. Making a plan First of all, we need a detailed plan of the picture on tracing paper. Because we need a colour separation for each plate. We use L-shaped registration for this time. 2. Colour separation We transfer to each wood block, using carbon paper. Due to the nature of printmaking, the picture needs to be reversed. 3. Cutting and carving We use a modern cutter knife, round-shaped cutter and V-shaped cutter. Cutters need to be very sharp so we need to use a whetstone. Also we can use an electric machine called a Router, which makes removing extraneous wood much easier. After the rough cutting, we smooth the surfaces, using sand papers for the perfect finish. For the Intaglio plate, I put satin varnish on the wood where I need highlights, and carve all the lines with a V-shaped cutter. 4. Preparing the paper Japanese paper is extremely strong and has a long life. The fibres of the paper is very long and twined together. Papers should be cut to the same size and dampen, and pile up the damp papers layered between blotting paper, apply a weight to the top and leave them for one night. 5. Printing (relief) We use water based inks. Water is a very important element in all Japanese art. Japanese brushes can apply sufficient ink on the wood and also remove any excess ink. The traditional baren, made from bamboo skin, still gives much better results than you would expect. Modern baren have a lot of tiny balls on the surface. Each ball applies pressure to the paper. In this kind of printing, everything can be done by hand. 6. Printing (intaglio) After the colour relief plates have been printed, we print an Intaglio plate with black ink. This plate works like an etching plate. We use acrylic colours with retarder medium for this plate, and wipe all over with a squeegee and then print using a traditional baren. 7. After printing You can leave all the prints on the floor and when they dry, pile them up and leave them under a heavy weight for one night. The prints should be flattened.

		Useful Contacts:
		*John Purcell Paper, London (for Japanese paper) (Tel)0044-(0)20-7737 5199 www.johnpurcell.net *Intaglio Printmaker, London (for Cutting Tools, Baren, Inking Brushes, Japanese paper, etc.) (Tel)0044-(0)20-7928 2633 www.intaglioprintmaker.com *Moss+Co., London (for Birch Faced Plywood) (Tel)0044-(0)20-8748 8251 www.mosstimber.co.uk

all texts and images: copyright reserved by Nana Shiomi since 2003