These photos show the preparation and printing of a large woodblock print called 'Metal Pagoda' in the Monumental series. The process uses a jigsaw rather than knives to create a relief block. The wood is cheap furniture plywood found in any Bangkok lumberyard. 

First, I drew my design directly onto three sheets of plywood (90 x 60 cm), which I laid in a row to make the full image, which is 180 x 90 cm. Then I cut the design into many smaller sections using a jigsaw. These sections I numbered for reference and then glued into position to a backing board to create a relief block. 

All of the sections were glued in positions that were a few millimetres separate from each other. Therefore the final block was slightly larger than the original block. The separated shapes would create white lines on the actual print. 

   

 

I widened some lines or cut extra lines with a power gouge strong enough to cut into the hard plywood.

 

The three blocks were inked up in stages. I laid a large sheet of washi over the top which was then printed in corresponding stages. I printed a light black texture on the first stage, and then printed over this with a dark blue.

  

It's not a particularly difficult process, rather a laborious and fiddly one in parts. I was not trying to achieve a finely finished print, but one that would show the discrepancies between a handcut woodblock printed image of an electricity pylon and the precise geometrical lines of an actual one.