Woodblock registration &c.

Kento (registration) is part of any woodblock printing course - accurate juxtaposition of the images is very important. Since my first course, two years ago (see here and here), I started improvising with "blocks without borders" and designs for which accurate registration wasn't all that crucial - I thought I could get away with doing it by eye...

No longer: "the assignment" for the advanced course has shown me the error of my ways. One of the cut blocks is waaay out.

Time for some research! Youtube has some "interesting" registration systems. I wrote about some earlier, including that of Søren Bjælde -

Here, the registration marks are screwed onto the board, and the "furniture" is a way of holding the block securely -

A better view - and you can see Mike Lyons' automated delivery of humidified paper in action -

Paul Furneaux lays down the background print, and aligns the next block, then flips them over -

Among her "Tips and guides for Japanese woodblock printing", Laura Boswell has information on registration, showing "a really good example of what can go wrong" - with 18 different kento slots used in the process (the print is 120cm wide).

At that site, I also found this helpful -

Note the set-up here; the block lies on a piece of wood that butts up to thick boards that have the registration marks cut into, or added onto, them. In the photo he's put the paper into the corner kento and is about to print the final colours -

Making a jig with bits of chipboard on three corners of a piece of cardboard; the video finishes before the entire setup can be seen, but you get the idea -

A floating kento can be used - this one has lines at various distances to accommodate different sizes of paper -

Interestingly, the pristine blocks are held in the floating kento when the image is transferred to it, which allows for registration at the outset -

Finally, this method of making the key block and printing it onto subsequent blocks, using a registration jig -

Tom Killion uses a press (with oil-based inks; hmm....) and does the registration by guess and by gosh, repositioning the block as necessary -

When it comes to cutting the block, this is a very informative video, showing the order of using tools to clear the background. The analytical voice-over made me look more closely at the position of the carver's hands - for comparison, have a look here, with both hands pushing on the large gouge.

More generally, I liked this approach: improvising, to some extent, with carving on the block. He mentions taking a small idea and tending it - what an interesting thought - it expresses what happens when you "just start" and that first mark is the small idea, and your hands tend it and shape it.