What's Jappening?

Fresh off my door-sized print and inspired by my recent trip to the Nagoya City Science Museum (which kinda looks like that robot from The Incredibles), I decided to go a little outside my comfort zone by producing a three-colour print of a pattern (as opposed to any particular thing). I was still recovering from a pretty painful hand cramp and I was starting to worry about how I'd take all this work home, so I decided to go for a postcard-size print which, in hindsight, I think suits the design perfectly. Unsurprisingly, this print took no time at all to finish, and I made a total of eight, whimsical little prints that I am very pleased with. When I get back to England, I'd really like to go back to this design and reprint it with different colour combinations, it could make for an interesting series!

One thing I should probably tell you about NUA is that, in the middle of the campus, there is a large(ish) gallery space that has a weekly rotation of students' work. It's actually something I really love about this university and I honestly wish that UCA did this as well, because it's so awesome to look at everyone's work and support your friends and fellow students in the process. I think I'll suggest it when I get back to England... Anyway, at our orientation at the beginning of the semester, we were told that there was going to be an International Students Exhibition and that this would be a chance for us to show off the work we'd produced during the term. Admittedly, this exhibition took place about a month before the end of term, so not all of our work would be finished, but the hope was that we would have enough work between us to show off the power of the foreigner (or something like that). Having just missed out on exhibiting my work with the rest o...

So a few weeks ago, I was talking to my course leader here about the upcoming international students exhibition and what I was planning to exhibit. I showed her all of the work I'd done up until that point; my etchings, my first woodcut, my calligraphy etc. and she was a really big fan of the large, floor calligraphy that I'd done at the beginning of the term. She then came up with the idea that I should do a really large woodcut inspired by one of the kanji that I had drawn, with the goal of exhibiting them side by side in a few weeks time. Though hesitant at first due to the practicalities of taking a print that large home to England, I agreed, and she told me that she would have some wood ready for me to carve by that time next week. Blissfully ignorant of what I was getting into, I went about my business, and the next week I came to class with a design in one hand and my cutting tools in the other. People. This piece of wood was big . Like, the size of a large door big. I ...

After my successful first try, I was very excited to start on my second woodcut brief. This time, our design could be any size, but it had to have three or more colours, which meant that we had to carve multiple pieces of wood that would be layered on top of one another to create the full image. I decided to use a photo that I took in Atami for my print, as it contrasted to my first print with it's more geometric shapes and block colours. Given that this would be the most complicated print I've ever done, I thought that going with a more simple image would work in my favour, as I'd be less likely to mess up. I also decided to go with the same size as before because I thought it was effective at showing off the technique without being so big that it would be cumbersome. After sketching out my image, I broke it down into four basic colours; brown, red, yellow and black. As the yellow and black were both relatively small parts, I put them on the same piece of wood, so I woul...

One thing I've realised since I've been here is that the classes move at a relatively slow pace compared to the classes and workshops that I was used to taking back in England. No complaints though, as it gives me time to focus on trying to understand what the teachers are saying. This was never more useful than in my etching class. For those who aren't familiar with the process, it's super complicated and involves a lot of different steps and chemicals. In the grand scheme of printmaking, I wouldn't say it's my favourite technique, mostly because I don't think it's well suited to the kind of work I tend to produce. Having said that, I enjoyed learning about the process, and I'm really pleased with the outcome. We were each given a metal plate which we had to cut into two and then design two images with the theme "folk story". I took folk story to include fables and designed mine around The Tortoise and The Hare. I obviously decided this ...

I am proud to present my first finished work; a woodblock print entitled "Growth". It was super exciting for me to learn a new printmaking technique, and as an avid fan of lino printing, I had high hopes. The process is actually pretty similar to lino printing, but with a bit more room for experimentation and texture. Unlike with linoleum, you can both add and take away from the wood. Obviously, the majority is carving, but you can also scratch into it, glue stuff on top, sand it away and more. This freedom is, however, balanced out by the fact that carving it requires a lot more care, as the wood can splinter off without warning, a fact that I learnt very quickly as I lost an entire branch within minutes of me starting to carve. I was much more careful from then on in. I based my image off a photo I'd taken at Nagoya Castle when the cherry blossoms were still in bloom, and even though we were limited by only cutting one block, I decided to add more colour to the print by...

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to sign up for an Arimatsu Shibori workshop that was made available to the exchange students and I leapt at the idea. Arimatsu Shibori is a traditional Japanese tie-dyeing technique that is based in the Arimatsu area of Nagoya. It involves tightly sewing or folding the material in certain ways and then dipping them into a boiling blue dye. Once dyed the material is unthreaded/unfolded to reveal a beautifully unique and often intricate pattern of blue and white. We were shown the techniques and history for both the sewing and folding techniques, though we only got to try the folding one (probably for the best tbh because it looked difficult af). We each had three pieces of material, each folded into a different type of triangle in advance which, in itself was a learning process. When we got to the dyeing step, we donned out gloves and, one by one, we dipped various corners and edges into the dye before taking it to a massive bath, untying it and wa...