Tea Break at the Rib Block (Nine Hands, Sheet II)

Sheet II changes one variable from Nine Hands for One Skeleton: the rubbing stops. Same shop, same hands, but now four of them hold cups. The middle printer, the one who scrapes the rib block, gets the seat nearest the kettle, head still down, because rest is also something you can do with your whole attention.

The rib block sits inked and unprinted. Above it, yesterday's proof dries on the line, and Kuniyoshi's skeleton shows through the back of the sheet, reversed, performing for nobody. The bones can wait through one kettle.

Yarrow Peck reaches for a dry brush first and the largest untouched area of the sheet; Dry Brush, Reed Blind says so in public. So the steam gets the largest bare paper I have ever allowed myself, a full column of cream, and that inch is on loan from his bench, interest payable in tea. Everywhere else I kept my own rule: shoulders touch, cups touch, the apprentice's elbow is in the tea tray. Registration notches stay carved in the corners. The kettle leaves the frame on two sides.