Drops of time – "calendar" 2024

Available on my Etsy store €10

https://machawisznu.etsy.com/listing/1587359240

Hand-printed graphics made using the mokuhanga technique (Japanese woodcut). In the printing process, I used paint based on sumi ink and nori glue (traditional materials used in Japanese woodcuts).

One of the basic assumptions of this project was to ask the question: "Is it possible to make an interesting woodcut while ensuring that it will be very cheap (i.e. available to 'everyone')?" With this idea in mind, I designed this graphic so that its final price would be low.

The inspiration for this graphic were old Japanese woodcuts, which often featured the so-called "grass writing". It is a very fluid form of writing that is significantly different from traditional characters (this type of writing can be compared a bit to cursive) and often appears on old woodcuts. Interestingly, many Japanese have problems reading this writing, and it happens that some old woodcuts can only be read by a few people in the world (or sometimes even no one). This does not mean, however, that the typeface itself is not visually interesting 😄 In my work, I tried to write calendar dates (Arabic numerals) in this illegible form. Each calendar is hand-signed and stamped with my printing mark (dry embossing) and a red seal with a stylized record of the year.