The countdown begins

Only ten days left here in on Awaji Island, Japan. The pace has quickened and the anxiety level has risen considerably now that we are all in the home stretch and working on our final editions. As part of the program we are required to create three editions using the moku hanga technique and donate three pieces of each edition to the Awaji City art collection. For the past four or five days I have been proofing and editing my blocks, making decisions about color and deciding the order in which to print the blocks. It is not easy, but I think I have reached the point where all I can do is dive in and get started...tomorrow. Below are a few pictures of my fellow residents hard at work and a few more from last week's outing to the Awagami Paper Factory.

We visited the handmade paper studio at the Awagami Paper Factory and watched three paper makers make a sheet of paper 2.5m x 5.5m. It is called Gregory paper, after the artist who originally commissioned it, and is the largest handmade paper in Japan.

We then got to try our hand at paper making. Here we are receiving a demonstration.

I've always considered paper making wet and sloppy...it is.

Back in the studio...receiving some instruction from Keiko-san.

Levi-san wields his hangi-to.

Niccolo does some excellent carving.

Laura making aesthetic decisions.
As I am writing this, Laura has completed two of her three editions!

At the end of our long days in the studio we enjoy dinner together.