Today is Monday and the start of a new week, but it is a national holiday in Japan. It is called Greenery Day, and it was created to encourage people to appreciate nature and develop a rich sense of mind. Japanese holidays sometimes change their names or dates over time for various reasons, and this holiday was originally on April 29. It was a warm and sunny day today, which suited the holiday well, though the wind was a bit strong. The wind has been quite strong both yesterday and today.
It rained from last night until early this morning, so even though it was sunny today, the humidity was a bit high. So I was glad that I had already finished attaching the Aruki panels for the hexagonal boxes yesterday. I stopped by the workshop in the afternoon and thought about what to work on. To continue with the hexagonal boxes, I moved on to the next step, making the side panels with the ichimatsu pattern. Attaching them also takes some time, so I will need to work on it little by little. There are six side panels, but I cannot attach them all at once. I do it in two stages. Even though I say two stages, it is actually one panel first, and then the remaining five. First, I attach the fixed panel, which can be thought of as the bottom of the box. After that, I work on the box again, and then attach the remaining five panels. It’s like using that one fixed panel as a reference for attaching the others. Attaching five panels at once requires some skill. Since I am using glue, I need to be careful not to let it spread onto other areas. Of course, I fix them with rubber bands, so I also need to work quickly.
After that, I had a little time, so I worked on gluing the three-color ichimatsu yosegi pieces I cut yesterday to make small blocks. When making this kind of yosegi sheet, it’s better to use a different type of glue than usual. Since the block will be sliced thin later, I use a glue with less moisture so it will remain strong even after cutting. If the glue has too much moisture, it gets absorbed quickly into the wood fibers, and the bonding strength becomes weaker when the sheet is finished. After each step, I need to let it sit for about half a day to a full day, so I move forward little by little. Next, I will connect these small blocks into a longer piece to get closer to the final size of the yosegi sheet.
