My First Woodblock Carving

After a weekend templestay-visit to the Museum of Ancient Asian Woodblock Prints in Wonju, Korea, my friends and I were walking out the door when Director Han (owner, director, curator of the museum) challenged me to participate in the woodblock carving contest currently being held. All submissions would be judged under the three categories of experience: highly experienced/professional, students of art, and amateur—definitely my category. My three friends and I had been given a hands-on woodblock carving experience during our visit to give us understanding of the precision and detail needed in carving the perfectly precise Buddhist sutras and pictures. Therefore, I had enough knowledge to create a woodblock carving on my own. 

I had exactly 13 days to get material, choose or make a design, carve it and mail it in! I love challenges, and I love art, so ... challenge accepted! 

Sunday, Nov 20: accepted the challenge!

Monday, Nov 21: bought supplies

Tuesday, Nov 22: thinking and thinking on what to carve ... tiger? horses? cranes?

Wed & Thurs, Nov 23-24: scoured the Internet for pictures on crane and lily pad inspirations and from multiple pictures, designed my composition (exhausting! carving was easier than designing! carving is mindless and somehow rhythmic and cathartic, but designing is demanding!)

Friday, Nov 25: traced my design on the board (the fragile fibers of the board get damaged by repeated erasing so best to design then transfer); carved 2 hours

Saturday, Nov 26: -------
Sunday, Nov 27: carved 12 hours!

Monday, Nov 28: carved about 7 hours
Tuesday, Nov 29: carved 6 hours — finished! inked the woodblock carving

Felt the time pressure and got a bit hasty — nicked a chunk off the leg of one of the cranes;
to the observing eye made a couple other small but noticeable mistakes .... aaaiigo!

Now the test, ink the woodblock to see if the carving is good or not!

My ink-spreader was a brush, not a very good tool for laying ink evenly, but then I have no intention of carving much so didn't purchase the expensive roller tool. And my tool for smoothing the paper is just the edge of a cardboard box. The way I see it, my job in the competition is (thankfully) not inking, but carving. Amateur-me blobs up one area and wipes another free of ink. Nope, won't be sending one of my inkings to the competition!

Aaaigo! Can't get a good copy. My board is slightly curved, and I'm an untalented inking "artist".

The best ink job I achieved. Good enough to send my mom an idea of my work.
Director Han will just get the woodblock. I figure he'll want to test out the quality of reproduction
for judges and himself anyway. 

Wednesday, Nov 30: mailed the woodblock carving to meet the Saturday, Dec 3 deadline

Wednesday, Dec 14: Announcements were published with the names of all the winners for each of the categories. I didn't place at all, not even an honorable mention, but I'm certainly proud of my small piece — about 9 1/2" x 15. It was very satisfying to create something so unique and unusual and to try a totally new art form.

Rather doubt I'll do much with woodblock carving in the future. My index finger is still a bit numb (two weeks later), and my neck and back have been grumpy since the intense few days hunched over paper then wood. Well, maybe I was just too intense with the whole project. The quiet time of carving after work hours was very cathartic, but this is not an art form that makes my heart sing. That said, I just might join the woodblock carving competition again next year. Another challenge to mark my growth in art!

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Imagine my surprise when I went to the awards ceremony at the Gopanhwa Museum of Ancient Asian Woodblock Prints and discovered that I did indeed get an honorable mention! Wow! I was totally stunned!