Sunday 9 March 2008

Humpback whale menuki


This is a pair of menuki I started making more than 14 years ago. I think they got put on the back burner once I started getting inundated with restoration work. They're shakudo and are made using classical uchidashi technique. At this stage they need the addition of some inlay, (okigane and kisegane in Japanese) and some more refinement. The surrounding metal would be cut away once they were completed...one day. The actual menuki measure about 7cm in length, O-menuki ;-)

2 comments:

Lorenzo said...

wonderful. Menuki usually are covered with tsukaito... "mottainai", (it's a pity) because we loose a lot of details. o-menuki solves in part this kind of problem ;)

Fred Zweig said...

Ford,

It is a delight to see your menuki in progress.

I spent the entire weekend teaching a workshop on repousse and chasing called "Making Faces" using both western and Japanese tools.

The tool I had them make is a variation of the curved namekuri. I also showed them the utility of the Dashtagane with it's textured surface.

Fred