Why Is Registering Important For Color Woodcuts?

Being an over-efficient maniac, 1 of the things that has e'er bothered me when press a la Japanese, is the registration method used in moku-hanga. Don't get me wrong, I have faithfully cut kentos in every cake just like the old methods explain. But I believe this manner of doing things introduces a margin of fault for every single block that is cut. I'm sure the masters, er, mastered this kento cut so that they were identical for every block.

In Western printing, long ago I started using registration boards. I've made them generally of foam-board so that they could be fed through the etching press (or hydraulic press). A registration board is just a "movable kento" system of registration. Any two pieces of material glued together as a square corner, then another slice of material as a paper guide glued at some pre-determined margin. Not really a complicated device. There is some fault introduced in that the block has to be placed exactly in the aforementioned place every time, merely in my experience this is less prone to error than having to cut exact kentos in equally many equally a dozen or more blocks. Seems that every kento in every cake could introduce some mistake into the registration procedure and I would rather spend a niggling time upfront into edifice a semi-permanent movable kento.
With a well-built registration board, the only simply very important requirement is that the blocks take to be cut perfectly square, the paper has to exist cutting perfectly square and the placement needs attending, but no more attention than if placing paper on a standard cut kento.

When I started printing with waterbased pigment, the dampness of the whole process was not compatible with a cream-board registration jig. So I made a epitome of forest with a ane inch margin wood paper guides congenital in. If I desire other margins, as for the tiny tigers, I just glue kento-mat-board to the board at the advisable altitude. Yous can see the margins of the tiger prints in burgundy matboard. They are glued with paste so they just come off past a bit of soaking and scraping. The wood guides are glued with white glue, also steady just removable with a bit more effort.

I used cheap wood and unproblematic staples to see if the board worked okay for printing but I was careful to utilize a square at every pace to make the board corner and the kentos a truthful 90 degrees. Likewise, the "ruler" is simply cheap wood I had around the studio; I used it because it is slightly lower in thickness than my blocks, allowing the baren a complimentary "ride" over the press area without fearfulness of catching on the registration guides. After a few prints, I brushed the whole board and mat-lath kentos with clear acrylic to make information technology easier to repel water and clean paint and paste off (non that I'm messy or anything).

In one case I was satisfied that this was a suitable movable kento for woodblock, I made myself a slightly fancier lath. This time I used a nice board for the backing and brass corners and straight pieces for the "kento". I brushed it with polyurethane over again to brand cleaning easier and installed semi-permanent one-inch and two-inch margin kentos. Despite the polyurethane, matboard notwithstanding sticks to the wood, and then I tin can withal temporarily "install" a shorter or longer margin. Besides the screws can exist removed and the kentos moved according to my next project demands. I screwed the contumely pieces quite firmly and so that there would be absolutely no gap betwixt the lath and the contumely kento where the paper could slip in. The whole board sits on a sheet of slip-proof drawer liner, which I as well use sometimes directly nether the block.
And again, I emphasize, the corners must be perfectly square , every bit the blocks and paper.

Much prettier, easier to clean.

Perfect registration is now a cakewalk, no need for cutting kentos on every block and wasting all that time and wood. Baren glides over the board without problems, cleanup a mere wipe with a damp towel, can life get any better than this?