A design of a toad; inlaid in a 3 different tones of shibuichi and silver.The eyes in aokin ( a mix of 20%silver and 80%gold) and shakudo. The bowl in raden; crushed mother of pearl set in Japanese lacquer. It's about 4 cm across. I made this just over a year ago. I was trying to capture the subtle character of an ink wash painting by keeping all the colours very muted and close to each other in terms of tone.
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Toad gazing at the moon
A design of a toad; inlaid in a 3 different tones of shibuichi and silver.The eyes in aokin ( a mix of 20%silver and 80%gold) and shakudo. The bowl in raden; crushed mother of pearl set in Japanese lacquer. It's about 4 cm across. I made this just over a year ago. I was trying to capture the subtle character of an ink wash painting by keeping all the colours very muted and close to each other in terms of tone.
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8 comments:
The facial expression of that toad reminds me somehow on myself being sleepless.
Is there a slight change in colour in the background between the ishime and the migaki areas?
Hi Ford,
What a great toad! It has a huge amount of character and it does look like a wash painting.
Dick
What kind of lacquer you use to glue raden? Urushi or something else?
Thankyou.
Hello Karl, the change in colour on the background is due to the texture. It's the same piece of metal.This toad may have insomnia, and that may be why he's gazing at the moon...do toads usually do this? He may even reflect my insomnia...
Thanks Dick, this was great fun to carve too. The original drawings I actually did more than ten years ago, I'll dig them out...
Ciao Lorenzo, yes, I use urushi, it's not as difficult as you might imagine...as long as you are not allergic to the raw lacquer. I like the look of the work you are doing too, good to see.You can get materials from Namikawa Heibei. There is a link at the bottom of my main page.
Thankyou Ford. Actually, i studied urushinuri in Okayama (my wife comes form Okayama), in Tanaka sensei atelier. Me too i am Namikawa's costumer!! Sometimes the world is really small ;)
I do not know if i suffer allergy or not, i always use latex gloves.
Here in europe i can't find shells for raden, just something (and sometimes) on ebay. Do you know some good shop online?
About my works, i sill have a lot to learn, so please teach me a lot!
Hi Lorenzo, I think you said your wife is Japanese...if so she could try Tokyu Hands ( they are on-line )for the materials you need. Also metalwork supplies. I have added an urushi suppliers to my links too.
Dear Ford, yes, my wife is from Okayama. Thankyou so much, with thoose links you made me happy.
Lorenzo
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