Of Woodblock Printing, Early Storage Technologies, and other amusements.

Dearest Snarklings[1]

Today’s discussion will be of woodblock printing and storage. And of clickies. But first, a short story…

Yesterday, while at a Faire at which I was commenced to slave labor, I experienced pinchy-bugs, shiny wears and various goods, and Chinese Woodblock Print. I had wanted to purchase a lovely piece of art from a wonderful woman by the name of Leah “Locks” Barrows, most of which were in the Thirty and Forty dollar ranges. The original prints were done in a Chinese woodblock style, the pieces costing around one-hundred and fifty dollars.

Kellianna: singer/songwriter.

Upon entering a raffle ticket drawing at the last minute (I had previously been running around with 75-pound boxes, meeting Kellianna, and yelling at small children to not stick their glittery crafts into electric outlets…), I commenced to pick out the winners of the prizes. After watching numerous people win double or triple prizes, I picked out of the bag for a rendition of this particular print that I had coveted for seven hours. As the DJ read out the winner through a microphone, I realized that I had won a beautiful piece of work: a Buddha print, with shades of purple, blue, and grey with eighteen karat gold and silver leaf adornments. After the glee of receiving my prize evanesced, I felt compelled to research woodblock print when I had gotten home. Of course this did not happen, so I made a mental note to research this when I had free time in Shop.

Upon entering shop, I realized that I had a project that I was late in turning in  (and I was working my stripy tail off), and that part of it was to research an old storage technology. Of course the one I chose was woodblock print…

 

The lesson

As we travel back in time to a world where entertainment is a sacred gift, of these are oral storytelling traditions- stories that are passed down through generations. Chinese woodblock print was invented in 200 A.D. during the Han Dynasty, as a means of visually recording these stories, myths and tales of old. Mythological records are entitled “Ukiyo” in Japanese and translated as “Tales of the Floating World”. There are very early scriptures in woodblock, most widely know are the Buddhist Sutras (or aphorisms- parts of

Earliest printed Chinese book. 868 Han Dynasty

manuals, Scriptures, and Laws.) [2]There are many teqniques and various styles, but I will stick to the most popular.

·         The earliest prints from the Han Dynasty are found only on fragmented pieces, and are of silk printed flowers in the three primary colors (red, blue, and yellow).  They are neatly preserved due to the dry weather conditions of the area. In comparison to this advanced civilization, Egyptions didn’t start cloth printing until the fourth century.

Creation of Prints:

New York woman creating raven prints.

Ukiyo-e prints were made using the following procedure, which was perfected by the Chinese. It spread to Europe with Westward expansion and is still used all over the Globe today.

1. The artisan produced a master drawing in ink.
2. An assistant (hikkō) would then create a tracing (hanshita) of the master.
3. Craftsmen glued the hanshita face-down to a block of wood and cut away the areas where the paper was white. This left the drawing, in reverse, as a relief print on the block, but destroyed the hanshita.
4. This block was inked and printed, making near-exact copies of the original drawing.
5. A first test copy, called a kyōgo-zuri, would be given to the artist for a final check.
6. The prints were in turn glued, face-down, to blocks and those areas of the design which were to be printed in a particular color were left in relief. Each of these blocks printed at least one color in the final design.
7. The resulting set of woodblocks were inked in different colors and sequentially impressed onto paper. The final print bore the impressions of each of the blocks, some printed more than once to obtain just the right depth of color.[3]

Basic Teqniques

1.    Stamping

{ The earliest form of printing, from 200 AD, popularly used after 630 AD. Used for many fabrics, and most early European woodcuts (1400–40) These were printed by putting the fabric or paper on a flat surface with the block on top, and pressing (or hammering) the back of the block until desired results appeared.

2.   Rubbing

{ The most common for Far Eastern printing on paper at all times. Used for European woodcuts and books in the 15th century, and very widely for cloth. The block goes face up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top. The back is rubbed with a hard pad, a flat piece of wood, or leather.

3.   Printing in a press

{ Presses have been used only in recent times (1480 and after). A man of Mechelen, Belgium in Flanders (present-day Netherlands) in 1465 owned "unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines ... cum 14 aliis lapideis printis" ("an instrument for printing texts and pictures ... with 14 stones for printing") This is much earlier than Gutenberg’s type printing press.

I haven’t created one of these beautiful pieces of art in years. The last time was way back in Secondary School in grade seven.

 

Art project challenge FOR ALL OF YOU: create a print- best winner gets a prize. Are you going to try?

 

This is the picture that I one. How many faces can you see? How many dragons are visible?