A brand new set of instructions for beginners has just been uploaded. They target three groups, people who have bought a Printastique! Home Printing Kit, Printastique Greeting Card Kits and participants at our Art of Blockprinting workshops. All three guides aim to help beginners achieve a great first time result. View the slideshow or download the PDF at:
http://www.bramtan.com/ukiyo-e-kits.html
and
http://www.bramtan.com/workshops.html

I just finished editing a four part video on printing Katsushka Hokusai's Dream of a Fishermans Wife. They cover an introduction to the 3D printed kit and contents, colour choice and and colour mixing strategy and printing from start to finish. I really enjoyed this one! I think the video has found it's way to some fans sand I've started receiving orders for this advanced and challenging kit.

'Dream' is one of Hokusai's most famous Shunga/ erotic works. The large size printing kit of 7 plates makes roughly A3 sized images, I used paper measuring 700mm long x 500mm wide to achieve a nice sized border. The print is very satisfying as there is a variety of shapes and details that make up the image.

Check out the videos here: www.bramtan.com/ukiyo-e-kits.html

I completed a piece for an old friend who is a tree surgeon. The company needed a new letterhead design and it was decided that it would be one of my prints. Sam asked for a lone oak tree about 100 years old. I wanted to merge his requirements with an unmistakable Ukiyo-e feel.

Although it was to be an English Oak, I live in France so I studied some trees in Bourgogne and came up with a composite tree that fit the brief. All in all I made seven prints before arriving at the right one. However I also gave Sam an extra print I could not resist making, an Autumn themed one!

The artwork was modified into a monochromatic form later, to become the company letterhead. My client was very happy with all the results.

A idea for a greeting card printing kit has been in the pipeline since Spring of 2022. I have finally conceptualised, tested and perfected several finished kits consisting of Hokusai's famous views of Mount Fuji and his classic studies of 'Large Flowers' series.

During the Summer I made a bunch of handprinted greeting cards that went on sale on my Etsy shop. I used this experience to develop the kits further. Now they come with paper, envelopes and all the instructions and tools needed. They are very easy to use and with practice, multiple beautiful cards can be made in a less time than you imagine. Check them out here: http://www.bramtan.com/ukiyo-e-kits.html

A selection of original pieces by Bram Tan was exhibited at Micro Folie, Saint Germain en Laye from September 4th to end October 2021. Among the pieces were reproductions of classic Japanese prints by Hokusai and Bram Tan's originals

Micro Folie, Saint Germain-en-Laye. 1 Place des Rotondes, 78100 Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Email: micro.folie@saintgermainenlaye.fr
Tel: 01 30 87 20 32

Henri Riviere was a big fan of Hokusai and even created an homage to the great Japanese artist with '36 Views of the Eiffel Tower'.

Wikipedia: 'Between 1882 and 1886 Rivière created a large number of etchings. He also showed an interest in photography, making a series of picturesque scenes of everyday life.[5] He later experimented with colour woodcuts and chromolithography in the late 1880s. Rivière first visited Brittany in 1884, spending most of his summers there until 1916. Together with bustling Parisian life, rural Brittany constituted the majority of the subjects of his landscape works.

Rivière’s prints were generally intended to be published as collections. These include forty images used in Breton Landscapes, created between 1890 and 1894. He also made colour woodcuts for The Sea: Studies of Waves, and prepared other sequences that remained unfinished, including 36 Views of the Eiffel Tower, which were eventually published as lithographs. These were influenced by the vogue for Japonism at the time, modernising the famous prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai of 36 Views of Mount Fuji.

His colour lithographic series' include:

• The Aspects of Nature (1897 to 1899), 16 images
• The Beautiful Land of Brittany (1897 to 1917), 20 images
• Parisian Landscapes (1900), 8 images
• The Magic Hours (1901 to 1902), 16 images
• Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower (1902), 36 images
• The Noirot Wind (1906), 4 images

Rivière ceased making prints in 1917, effectively retiring as a professional artist, but continued to work on watercolours in his later years. He died on August 24, 1951.'

I found a cool online tool called Zebratrace - 'ZebraTrace is a simple tool to trace bitmap images into a pattern of curves with a variable width. You can control amount of curves, resolution, min and max width, functions for plotting the curves. The application was created primarily for Guilloché pattern design and all kinds of creative engraving.'

I've used a photograph of the Eiffel Tower I snapped during winter when it was covered in snow. I think the results are very interesting. It was a good test for the 3D printer and the process. However I prefer a less photorealistic look. I believe the Guilloché effect is similar to that used to render images in the design of banknotes.