Woodblock Wednesday - printing the blocks for the book

Because I won't be at the Monday class (woodblock-into-book) next week, I've  been printing more of those blocks in the Wednesday session.

But first. Monday's prints -

Inspiration from a book called "Japanese Colours"

Can't decide, can't decide...

A block this size needs a lot of paint!

In progress...

An evening's output, two prints of each

Between Monday evening and Wednesday morning I had a chance to improve the blocks

based on the outcome of that first printing -

Indigo over viridian

 Some white lines were widened, and a lot of the background was trimmed off to let the white show through.

Getting an even printwas kinda tricky -

 and getting the depth of colour to be consistent (ie, how much to dilute the watercolour paint) is a bit hit and miss -

but at least the white is somewhat more evident and I like the effect. Just a little more trimming back....

Next,  the "other" block (on the back of those already printed) - first, printing the background -

 and then inking up the "ribbons" and "net" -

That block has islands in it, because the "net" background was an afterthought, just trying it out... I liked the effect and used it on the other block, but intended to remove it from this block once it had been trial printed. Now I think I'll recut the islands into "nets" and try to ignore the corner with all the background cut away. That still gives the option of cutting away the net areas.

Apart from the faint and irregular printing on the left, and the "ghosts" of the islands on both, something else is wrong...

 ... not just the fuzzy registration of the second printing on the left -

Indeed, it's the colour. Black, not indigo - as I expected from the wording on the tube label.

There were two tubes; they looked the same but turned out to contain different colours...

The supplier is checking with the manufacturer about this. Perhaps the slightly different colour of the label (which is otherwise identical) is a clue.