Book 3 - The writing's finished
The book is 196 pages, 356 photos, and 164 diagrams, and gives detailed instructions on how to make 45 hexagonal patterns.
This will bring the Shoji and Kumiko Design series of books to an end. The three books give instructions on five complete (but scaled down) shoji, and more than 80 different patterns. I started writing the first of the books more than five years ago.
The following photo is the tentative cover. Provided it looks good on the proof copy I'll receive, this will probably be the eventual Book 3 cover.
Hopefully, all the checking will be finished and the book will be ready for publishing before the end of the year.
New patterns — Futae-zakura and wa-tsunagi
The second is the wa-tsunagi (輪つなぎ), which means a connection of circles, and in this pattern, the circles are formed by the hexagon and triangle shapes.
This now brings the number of patterns for Book 3 to twenty, so I've completed roughly half of what I want to include in the book. All going well, I hope I'll be able to finish making and writing some time mid-way through next year, and finally publish it no later than this time next year. Fingers crossed.
Two new patterns — Dragon's claw
Ryūsō asa-no-ha 龍爪麻の葉
Ryūsō kikkō 龍爪亀甲
Two more benten patterns
The first pattern is the benten tawara kikkō (弁天俵亀甲). The tawara kikkō pattern was covered in my 11 July blog entry, and if you look carefully, you'll notice that the benten tawara kikkō is simply that pattern with the addition of a triangle in each jigumi triangle. The dimensions of the individual pieces have, of course, been changed to give, in my view, a better balance for the new pattern.
The second pattern is the benten mie-kikkō (弁天三重亀甲). Mie means triple, and this pattern consists of triple hexagons with the benten triangle structure.
Both of these patterns are quite fiddly, and the benten mie-kikkō in particular is perhaps getting towards the upper end of the difficulty scale. The half-lap joints of the pattern pieces are quite close together in some parts (3mm), and there were a few breakages, so it was also a good test of patience. Very satisfying when the last piece slid in.
New patterns — Urahana variations
The three patterns are:
Urahana kikkō 裏花亀甲
Yae-urahana kikkō 八重裏花亀甲
Kawari urahana kikkō 変り裏花亀甲
These are quite interesting patterns to make, and each has its own set of challenges.