Not really idle

Florida Green Anole--proof state on Japanese paper

I knew after I had proofed the Maple seed/leaf prints that I was going to try and print a small edition; but since I expect a higher than usual throw-away rate...I didn't really want to use my $20-30./sheet papers.
My home-sized paper at Euro 7.50/sheet isn't too bad (I'm excluding my extra labor/size costs) but at my last attempt I sized just 4 full sheets and I've used 2 of those on my experiments so I need more paper if I'm going to go that route.

So, I went and sized an additional 4 sheets of hosokawa elfenbein and 5 sheets of plain white hosho and as they're now dry but need to rest/"age" a bit I have a bit of a forced pause.

So, I took out my lizard blocks; As I had registration issues that I wss fixing "by eye", I meticulously reproofed those slowly block by block and now with my newly acquired kento-plug/shifting skills slowly added small shims to the red block, the yellow block (twice as the first time I moved it the wrong way) and one of the green blocks.
A little bit of practice helps as I noticed that when I started to see a slight off-register bit I was quick to just fix it and not just ignore it as I had in the past (afraid I'd make it worse by messing with the existing kento.).
So I added spacers/proofed one/ trimmed it back a hair/printed another and in the end finished 11 good prints (5 on Magnani Incisioni, two on Fabriano Artistico and 4 on my end pieces of the above-mentioned Japanese paper.).
So, I'm ready to go and paper is cut.
I hope to print 100? copies or so--but not tomorrow.
I'm off for a few days of holiday-- but when I come back--next week,
It's lizard-printing time.

Lizards

I drew these sketches from memory before going to the internet to find photos to reference and before I had decided to sprint over to Florida for a brief family visit.
I did find and take this photo of the lizard in question, the green anole,
anolis carolinensis and was happy to see it again in it's natural habitat.

The multicolored dewlap, the flap of skin that the male can extend to attract females and dissuade other males from entering his territory is a prominent feature among most anoles and can range from pale, creamy white to bright orange/red.

Here is a close-up of the printed keyblock (won't be this color but I had a tube at hand while I was proofing) before color blocks have been cut.

I'm using Italian Cherry for my blocks this time around and it is good to be cutting a nice hardwood again. Cherry polishes to an almost glasslike shine and while this is not very densely grained and is a bit coarse, it is taking pretty good detail and resists chipping or splintering.