This is the stump, upturned, showing the depression I've chiselled out to allow me to more easily plane the rim flat and level. When I have some more time I'll shape the dip to a more even, semi-circular, one which I can use to preform metal discs prior to raising. The chisels I used are part of a set I bought from the French company Ariou. They held their edge very well and withstood the very hard wood and severe beating I gave them without the slightest complaint. That's a big thumbs up to Ariou from me.

The work of a geniune Master

This is a very special piece of work in iron. The maker, Kano Natsuo, is one of, if not the, most celebrated of Japanese artists who worked in metal. He was the first professor of metal work at the Tokyo Art school and was appointed as an artist to the Imperial Court. He died in 1898.

This little treasure is less than 4cm across and is carved in iron with the little bird inlaid in gold. The bowl is lacquered zitan wood. There is an almost identical version held by the Boston Museum of Fine Art. The design shows a partial view of the head of the great Buddha at Kamakura. I still marvel at the gentleness of the modelling and the serenity that the face conveys...and all that in such a reduced space.

If you stop and consider that this is entirely carved and finished by hand I hope you can begin to get a sense of just how masterful these great artists really were. As is often the case with these miniature masterpieces, photographs present but a pale imitation of the real thing.

The end of a sweaty and dusty day...

I'm pretty pooped this evening, I've been preparing a log, of the hardest wood you can imagine, to act as a support for some raising stakes. I used a chain saw to cut the ends level and have been carving the resultant surfaces to some sort of functional finish that won't rip my hands to bits. I'll finish up the base tomorrow and shape up the first of the stakes. This whole effort is to set me up to start making hollow forms in mild steel. I'll take some images and post them tomorrow evening so you can get an idea what I'm actually doing.

As for the forum, I'm afraid I've been far to preoccupied to dedicate any real time to working on setting it up yet. The manual I printed off sits beside me here, on my desk, waiting to be read. It doesn't make for very exciting bedtime reading... I've managed to get some bits for use in creating the forum's banner to my mate, Gavin, he of the spotty paintings. He's a bit of a whiz with photoshop ( he lectures on it, would you believe! ) and he's doing me a massive favour ( which will no doubt cost me some expensive sushi ) by putting it all together professionally. I imagine that once I have that part it'll motivate me to get the thing on-line so we can all get chatting again. It's been a little solitary here, apart from the occasional, most welcome comment via the blog.

It aint half hot, Mum!

It's approaching the witching hour here in Cape Town ( that's midnight for the more prosaic of you ) ...hmmm, I think I need smilies on this blog, I'm sure half of what I intend to convey is lost in the detached appearance of the written word, but I don't think the world is ready for Talk-Ford Radio... just yet! Tonight would be perfect for one of those laid back, late night, phone in radio shows though.

We've had a very unusual few days in terms of the weather ( how very English...talking about the weather! ) . Yesterday, for instance, was 35 degrees C with a discomfort factor of 43, or something...not sure what that really means but it was pretty uncomfortable. The sky was grey and overcast and there was the feeling that a thunder storm was imminent. It's still like that, which is why I'm forced to cool off by drinking chilled champagne. Well, technically speaking it's sparkling wine because the French tend to get all sniffy if the stuff isn't actually made in Champagne. Still, it tastes just like champagne to me, and I have been known to be a bit of a fussy bugger when it comes to anything that passes my lips.

But I digress, the point is; we seem to be experiencing monsoon weather, although we could do with a bit more rain to be really authentic. I happen to enjoy monsoon weather, the way the rain utterly soaks you, you don't get cold at all, it's a bit like having a shower with your clothes on...only without the soap bubbles. And once it stops, or you get undercover, it only takes about 15 minutes to dry out. I just find this to be so amusing, and liberating. I reckon lots of up tight business types would do well having to operate under those conditions. You really can't take yourself too seriously when you look like a drowned rat.

I will confess ( very Catholic word, but appropriate in this context ) another, more philosophical, appreciation of rain. I was raised a Catholic ( but I'm recovered now;-) ) and although it may surprise many who know me, I was very "committed" to my faith. Like many boys, or young men, of my age I served as an alter-boy and prided myself ( sinful lad ) on my memorisation of the liturgy of the mass. If I am perfectly honest with you I must admit that very little of that ethos has any place in the person I am today. One phrase, however, will always spring, unbidden, from my subconscious whenever I see rain fall. It's the bit that describes Christ dying to wash away our sins. The phrase in my recollection ends; "washing away the sins of the world"

The sentiment I feel now is more akin to an almost animist conception. Perhaps even the Shinto idea of purification. The world, and our part in it, is never simple, nor would I wish it to be, but it does feel good once in a while to " wash away the grime", to take a deep breath of that clean, sweet air that follows a downpour and look around with refreshed eyes. Perhaps this is just the bubbles in my champaign talking...or maybe there is still an idealist lurking inside.

This wasn't meant to be a Sunday sermon,( it's far too short for a start! ) far from it. I had no idea what I was going to write when I started so there you have it, a bit of "train of conciousness" rambling. Now...where's that bubbly?

Namaste all, Ford

Slippery little sucker

It's really hot here in Cape Town and I'm up to my eyeballs in trying to get the new forum on-line so I'm afraid yet another kagamibuta from last year is all I've got time for right now. It's the same sort of size as the others, 4cm across. Iron ground, gold and shibuichi snail and a mother of pearl shell. The bowl is black walnut. I'll have to get round to transfering the images I have stored on the laptop in the studio over to this pc, then I can keep 'em coming.

Weathered Iron Tsuba- a work in progress.

This is the front of one of the pieces I've been working on lately. The weathered sort of texture is something I've been exploring for some time now. It's a matter of working the effect out in such a way that I can create subtle areas of interest where I want them, and so that the "design" ( if you could call it that ) has areas of balance and other areas that are counter point empty spaces.

One of the great masters of this sort of effect was Kano Natsuo. This present work of mine was initially inspired by one of his masterpieces which is held by the Boston Museum of Fine Art. I did a version of my own about 10 years ago but this time I am not using the original as my starting point. I feel comfortable developing my own expression and aesthetic in this manner now. Here's a link to the tsuba that started me off; http:/to natsuo Tsuba you can judge for yourself the differences in terms of personality that are expressed by the different modes of working the ground.

This piece I've posted is obviously not finished yet. The patina is at this stage just a trial and there will be an Iris flower and leaves inlaid in the lower right corner, the design will wrap around to the back in a similar way to the original. All the really delicate work follows.

The back of the weathered iron tsuba.

Moon gazing toad sketches

These were the rough, and loose sketches I did when I first conceived of this "moon gazing toad". I was staying in the infamous "Okubo House" hostel in Tokyo ( definitely the cheapest place to stay but not for the faint of heart ) and would doodle to pass the time in the evenings when I wasn't "learning Japanese" in English conversation bars. I think these were done about 15 years ago. This is possibly a good example of why you should always keep your sketch books, you never know when something you did a long time ago will suddenly have relevance to your present work.

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.

Ferns sillouetted by the moon.

In lieu of something more visually interesting or intellectually stimulating ( I need a lot of sleep after a rather tiring weekend spent mainly studying more swords than is probably healthy ) here's yet another kagamibuta I made last year. This one is made of iron and is quite small compared to most I've made, it's just over 3cm in diameter. The gold is applied using a technique called nunome-zogan which is a common, traditional technique.

The iron is first prepared to receive the gold foil by cutting a very closely arranged series of parallel grooves at angles to each other. The foil is then worked into this cross hatched surface and burnished smooth. I wanted the piece to have a slightly worn feeling about it so I polished though the foil in some areas. You can see the pattern of the patterned ground showing through. The ferns are actually a fairly common Japanese design. The inside of the wooden bowl is lacquered and has crushed mother of pearl embedded in it. It occasionally catches the light and flashes through the cut outs. You can just see a hint of it in the picture.