lock Cutting and the Planning of Blocks

The cutting of a line block needs patience and care and skill, but it is
not the most difficult part of print making, nor is it so hopeless an
enterprise as it seems at first to one who has not tried to use the
block-cutter's knife.

In Japan this work is a highly specialised craft, never undertaken by
the artist himself, but carried out by skilled craftsmen who only do
this part of the work of making colour prints. Even the clearing of the
spaces between the cut lines is done by assistant craftsmen or
craftswomen.

The exquisite perfection of the cutting of the lines in the finest of
the Japanese prints, as, for instance, the profile of a face in a
design by Outamaro, has required the special training and tradition of
generations of craftsmen.

The knife, however, is not a difficult weapon to an artist who has hands
and a trained sense of form. In carrying out his own work, moreover, he
may express a quality that is of greater value even than technical
perfection.

At present we have no craftsmen ready for this work--nor could our
designs be safely trusted to the interpretation of Japanese
block-cutters. Until we train craftsmen among ourselves we must
therefore continue to cut our own blocks.

CUTTING

A set of blocks consists of a key-block and several colour blocks. The
block that must be cut first is that which prints the line or "key" of
the design. By means of impressions from this key-block the various
other blocks for printing the coloured portions of the design are cut.
The key-block is the most important of the set of blocks and contains
the essential part of the design.

A drawing of that part of the design which is to be cut on the key-block
should first be made. This is done on the thinnest of Japanese tissue
paper in black indelible ink. The drawing is then pasted face downward
on the prepared first block with good starch paste. It is best to lay
the drawing flat on its back upon a pad of a few sheets of paper of
about the same size, and to rub the paste on the surface of the block,
not on the paper. The block is now laid down firmly with its pasted side
on the drawing, which at once adheres to the block. Next turn the block
over and lay a dry sheet of paper over the damp drawing so as to protect
it, and with the baren, or printing rubber, rub the drawing flat, and
well on to the block all over.

The drawing should then be allowed to dry thoroughly