Tom Sterling
Carving Netsuke
Carved Barnacles (Left and Center) Real Barnacles (Right) All you need are some small wood dowels, some instant glue and a material that contrasts with the main part of your carving. I’ve used ivory most often, but light colored woods (like boxwood or holly) or bone will work fine too. With a bandsaw, I cut small blocks of ivory just slightly larger than the barnacles I want to make. I glue these onto the flat end of one of the dowels with instant glue so I have something to hold onto. Some of the barnacles are quite tiny. Then I carve the outside of the barnacle block into a cone or volcano, the basic shape of a barnacle. I make them with 4 to 6 sides on the bottom, and tapering towards the top. In general, a diamond shape. Just don’t leave them square. The angular bottoms will help you put them together into a close fitting colony later on. Often a fine structured carbide bit will work well, because one of the things we will eventually do is put vertical lines along the taper. The structured carbide does much of this for you. With a small ball cutter, I carve a trench around the flat top of the volcano shape, and slightly oblong to represent to opening parts of the barnacle shell. Depending on the size, you can detail this as much as you like. For some in each colony I use the ball cutter to drill all the way through, simulating the dead ones you always see in a barnacle colony. Be sure to vary them, both in shape and size. After the basic shape is complete, I add random vertical lines to represent the plates that barnacles are made of. You need quite a few of these for convincing looking barnacles. Be sure to look at a seashore guide for photographs of the various types of barnacles. I often do this with a fairly stiff wire brush. When the lines are in, use a sharp knife to cut the barnacle free of the dowel. I generally do this inside a shoe box, because the barnacle always pops off and flies into the nearest pile of sawdust. If the barnacle is going to be applied to a curved surface, use a diamond or ruby ball cutter to cut a shallow concavity on the base. Then glue it onto the netsuke. You will need quite a few to make a convincing colony. Once I have a few glued in place, I try to cut the rest so the bases will fit fairly closely together. A nice touch is to make sure the barnacles you apply are the kinds you would find with the other subjects of your marine netsuke carving. Don’t put Pacific Ocean barnacles with an Atlantic octopus scene.
Ukibori Bumps and Warts
The old netsuke masters developed an interesting technique raising small bumps and lines on wood and ivory carvings, called ukibori. No one living today has yet been able to completely recreate all the seemingly impossible things the old carvers were able to do with this technique, but the basics are understood. The best of the old masters were able to create tiny raised bumps as texture, and even raised writing. They are so perfect and tiny, to see some of these in person is quite a humbling experience. Some contemporary carvers are using the ukibori technique, but none yet have produced anything like the old masters. Although the basics are quite simple, good ukibori is definitely an advanced technique that will require practice.
Copyright © 2006 Tom Sterling