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I first came about the hamano tsuba by chance,
while I was searching on the web. I was deeply touched by the beauty of it
and saved the picture. Days passed and I took it as a challenge
as how to get myself finally started into the art of wax
carving. I needed an excuse and the hamano tsuba
became the challenge.
I've designed jewelry such as the
goldfish necklace and the
black signet necklace among
other pieces, and sword furniture in contemporary
styles, but never went into something that I felt I had to do
myself before having it cast in mokume-gane.
Two generous people and friends were of incredible help.
Joe
Walters
and
Jim Kelso.
Joe encouraged me and had the trouble of ordering me the
carving wax, wax carving tools, then he cut three slices for the
tsuba, 7 mm thick, shipped it to me with the beautiful
textured tsuka tanto
and gave me precious
advise.
Jim also not only gave me precious advise based on his
great
experience, but also helped me in locating and talking to a
friend who is also a jeweler and a caster.
Then, when I felt I was ready and had everything planed in my
mind, all work figured out after pondering on all the newly
gained advise and knowledge, I decided to start the making of
the tsuba.
There is no way of learning something other then
experimenting. And in this case I do not want to make anything
go wrong. I plan to succeed on my first attempt. Its not about
being arrogant or over-confident. It is about figuring out
before hand what to do and how to do.
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The
appeal lies on the challenge of the many parts of the tsuba.
The petals are 40, alternating in the way they face the
viewer.
Then there is the central part which is pretty tricky
because all I could do on the paper designed template, was
guess work on the proportions. The center is flat where the
seppa will be while the rest will be part of the pollen
pouches with a bee poised on it.
I gave up trying to copy the proportions based on this
photograph but would rather create my own proportions based
on the width of
the wax. The bee is exquisitely stylized. |
Prior to
any advance, I made sure I had all the tools that I would
need for the job, while I sometimes pondered how would they
behave or how could I make my will be applied over the wax.
I had asked Joe Walters for 4 boxes of wax for stock,
and as usual, Joe was more than kind.
I had already some Japanese saws and I instinctively chose
the one with the smaller teeth while I assembled the wax
carving tools as well as very small files for delicate jobs.
At least I had the tools. |
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The printed
layout |
Basic markings
on the wax |
A closer view of the markings |
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More definitions
of the tsuba |
I used a real
seppa for template |
I can now see
the proportions... |
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The fixed size
of the wax section was smaller than the tsuba so I had to
adapt. I will carve the bee separately. For now I am just
feeling the wax and seeing how it reacts so I can
proceed in a safer way. It is going to be
a very tedious job carving 40 petals. I still have to mark
them, but I am confident that once I carve two or three I
will get the feel. I'll me making the right size scrappers
for the petals' carving. |
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I cut one
petal and used it as a template to achieve the markings of
the petals. Then I went on to cut the wax (another feeling
of the wax) with a saw, and missed a bit, but the the file
will solve the problem. |
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I will now
make a smaller circumference and round
the wax with a file. The center picture shows the almost
rounded circle, just about 2 mm smaller. Then the fully
rounded tsuba can be seen.
The filling was a good exercise on perceiving how
does the wax react.
I will now have to mark down the edge each of the petal's
divisions, so as to mark everything on the other side,
before I use a jeweler's saw to cut open the nakago-ana.
At this stage I am feeling pretty confident on this
new media, and while I worked, ideas have been growing on my
mind about the fuchi and the kashira. |
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The next
step was to start cutting the lobes shape with a jeweler's
saw. This will also help in the markings of the other side.
Presently the thickness of the wax piece is still 7mm and
has to be brought down to 5 mm.
More to come in a unforseen time period... |
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