A 'Portable' Carving/Printing Kit (entry by Dave Bull)
Here in Japan (at least here in Tokyo!), one's living space can be quite restricted. The luxury of having a separate room for a workshop is not something that many woodblock printmakers enjoy. Tools and materials usually have to be cleaned up and cleared away whenever the working space is needed for other family activities ... like sleeping!
Some years ago, faced with this problem (and under the immediate impetus of having to travel considerable distances to do printmaking demonstrations), I designed and built myself a woodblock printmaking 'kit' - a carving bench, printing bench, and tool storage unit which all packed up into a single box for storage and travelling.
It might be easier to show you if we do this backwards - and start from the outside ...
Here's the kit when it is all packed up, ready to travel. Four heavy-duty luggage latches keep the two halves tightly together. (When travelling, I also use tight luggage straps to ensure that it won't come open in transit.)
Opening the latches allows the two halves to separate. Note that the dividing line between them is not 'straight', but cut at a slant to the perpendicular. Doing this ensures that the two bench tops will be tilted - the carving bench towards oneself, and the printing bench away ...
Here, the section that will become the carving bench has been flopped forward and laid down on the floor. The two end leg sections are still folded into the storage position.
In the background, the printing bench, with the tool storage rack still inside awaits its turn ...
The legs of the carving bench are flipped down into place, and held there by a stretcher of wood. Note that there is no 'lip' at the front edge of the table, thus allowing my legs to slide underneath as I sit there cross-legged.
Back to the other section. The tool rack has now been lifted from its position, (The underneath of the rack acts as the bottom of the complete trunk ...)
The printing bench is now in position. Again, there is no lip on one side, allowing my legs to slide underneath. The cover of the tool section has been rolled down, and you can see the pigment cups, knife roll, etc. etc.
And here is the complete set-up, ready for action at a gallery demonstration. Notice that there is a small stand attached to the slanted top surface of the printing bench (this stand was visible lying on the floor in a previous picture). This allows my pigment, paste, etc. to be ready at hand, but not slide off ...
Note also, that in this picture, the carving bench is serving as a paper stand. A sheet of clear heavy mylar is pinned to the top, and the moist paper can thus be kept protected from drying out ...
This little 'kit', although originally built for a particular demonstration tour, has turned out to be so useful that I am still using it for all my daily work, nearly ten years later.
Many many thousands of prints have come from its benches, and I'm sure that many thousands more will follow ...