Netsuke Tutorial Page 2

A wood like boxwood could just as easily be used, however in this case I would bleach it's normally yellow color to white, since I'll be coloring the ladybugs red and the boxwood's yellow cast would change the red to an orange. I'm sensitive to this, since the general perception of the public to ladybug color is "red," although I've never seen a red ladybug in real life or in a photo, only orange ones and yellow ones. Trust me on this, I'm speaking from experience. I could have sold this ojime a dozen times over, except I portrayed the ladybugs in an accurate orange color, and got lots of comments that the color should be red. Live and learn - client perception is often more important then biological accuracy. Go figure.

Here are shaped and polished ladybug blanks. I've concentrated on getting the overall shape correct and have sanded and polished the surfaces while they're on the dowels since once they're glued in place, getting polishing buffs into the nooks and crannies will be difficult (top in the image). I'm not going to worry too much about making a bug an entomologist could differentiate down to the species level. My ladybugs are going to be relatively simple, and I'll just strive to obtain the "essence" of ladybug. Once the bug blank is ready to take off, I use a small diameter burr to carve away the dowel just below the bug's base, leaving a small peg (bottom of the image). I can then break or twist the bug off the dowel. Next, using a sharp knife, I trim away any remaining dowel and glue, being certain to scrape away all of the glue. Cyanoacrylate glue is convenient since it sets fast, especially using a glue accelerator, but his type of glue doesn't have good strength characteristics. I'll be gluing the bugs on with slow setting epoxy for strength and any remaining cyanoacrylate glue on their bases will interfere with a good epoxy bond, weakening the work.

In this image, I've carved away an area where I'll be burning a bark texture down into the handle blank. The center area I'll carve flat and smooth to match the flat bases of the ladybugs to ensure a strong glue joint. I'll be placing a group of five on this side, with one on the lizard side.

Here's the bark burned in. I've burned the edges using a fairly high temperature, really burning deeply for texture. The center I've burned at a much loser temperature, looking only for color and not texture, again for a good glue joint.

	Adding Elements to Carvings: Ladybugs
A wood like boxwood could just as easily be used, however in this case I would bleach it's normally yellow color to white, since I'll be coloring the ladybugs red and the boxwood's yellow cast would change the red to an orange. I'm sensitive to this, since the general perception of the public to ladybug color is "red," although I've never seen a red ladybug in real life or in a photo, only orange ones and yellow ones. Trust me on this, I'm speaking from experience. I could have sold this ojime a dozen times over, except I portrayed the ladybugs in an accurate orange color, and got lots of comments that the color should be red. Live and learn - client perception is often more important then biological accuracy. Go figure. Here are shaped and polished ladybug blanks. I've concentrated on getting the overall shape correct and have sanded and polished the surfaces while they're on the dowels since once they're glued in place, getting polishing buffs into the nooks and crannies will be difficult (top in the image). I'm not going to worry too much about making a bug an entomologist could differentiate down to the species level. My ladybugs are going to be relatively simple, and I'll just strive to obtain the "essence" of ladybug. Once the bug blank is ready to take off, I use a small diameter burr to carve away the dowel just below the bug's base, leaving a small peg (bottom of the image). I can then break or twist the bug off the dowel. Next, using a sharp knife, I trim away any remaining dowel and glue, being certain to scrape away all of the glue. Cyanoacrylate glue is convenient since it sets fast, especially using a glue accelerator, but his type of glue doesn't have good strength characteristics. I'll be gluing the bugs on with slow setting epoxy for strength and any remaining cyanoacrylate glue on their bases will interfere with a good epoxy bond, weakening the work. In this image, I've carved away an area where I'll be burning a bark texture down into the handle blank. The center area I'll carve flat and smooth to match the flat bases of the ladybugs to ensure a strong glue joint. I'll be placing a group of five on this side, with one on the lizard side. Here's the bark burned in. I've burned the edges using a fairly high temperature, really burning deeply for texture. The center I've burned at a much loser temperature, looking only for color and not texture, again for a good glue joint.
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