Wood carver - Motoharu Asaka

Thanks to barener Annie Bissett for posting on Facebook this Crane.tv video of carver Motoharu Asaka.

Click here Motoharu Asaka

Printmaker Antonio Frasconi (1919 - 2013)

Legendary artist, Antonio Frasconi  died January 8th at the age of 93 at his home in Norwalk, Connecticut. Frasconi had a long and prestigious career as one of the America's greatest printmakers. Working primarily in wood, he illustrated over 100 books, album covers, Christmas cards, magazine illustrations and even a US postage stamp.

Click here to see images of Frasconi's work.

I found this short video and a great writeup on Frasconi's career at the  Letterology blog. Check it out, is a great tribute to a great printmaker:

http://letterology.blogspot.com/2013/01/lasting-impressions.html 

Interview with Living National Treasure - Echizen Washi : Ichibei Iwano IX

This YouTube video from 2010 shows an interview with paper maker Iwano Ichibei. This is the paper that David Bull and many other professional printmakers use and is considered the best paper for traditional Japanese printmaking.



There is a website link here to the Takipaper website: http://www.takipaper.jp/user_data/washi-shokunin-echizen-ii_01.php

It has more photos of Iwano-san. It is only in Japanese but it looks like you would be able to order paper from them.