Welcome

Calling this blog "Netsuke Now" might be being a bit previous as I'm new to carving (though not to other artwork) and only have one and a half under my belt so far - plus a folder full of ideas, sketches and photos, plenty of materials and tools and the folly of beginner's hope. Give me a lifetime or so and I might, with luck and a good deal of application, have many more. Though I've got through the daily finger-cutting stage, I've still much to learn and will be sharing what I discover via the blog.

Where did all this interest in making art and craft come from? I think it comes from my parents; my father was a tailor, but was also a musician and wordsmith (yes, I play a number of instruments, used to sing and have published some poetry), and my mother was a chef, but also a painter. She had been encouraged to go to art school, but, as a working class kid, she was sent out to work at 15 as a kitchen maid and made her way upwards as a trained chef and pâtissière. However, in her late 50s she took up painting again, exhibited and sold the results. Their chances of higher education curtailed, my parents looked to me to become the educational achiever. I suppose, all the academic training and years of work notwithstanding, I come from a family of makers and have returned to making since semi-retirement.

So, how did I come to be enamoured of netsuke? I've always loved miniatures, even as a child. A friend of my father collected netsuke and introduced them to me (rather than me to them!) when I was under ten. Though I wasn't allowed to touch them, I was allowed to view them in their glass cabinet for what seemed like hours. My main longing was to hold one, but that didn't happen for a number of years.

We lived a bus ride's journey from the South Kensington museums in London and I spent many Sunday afternoons in the Victoria and Albert Museum, drinking in netsuke, snuffboxes, tapestries and Islamic and Chinese pottery. My brothers, of course, sneered and spent their time at the nearby Natural History, Science and Geological Museums!

At college, I made a friend whose father just happened to collect netsuke and, as his family wasn't interested in "dad's hobby," he spent many hours with me, teaching me about when they were made and who made them, while letting me handle them. Occasionally, we went to viewing days at auctions, including Christie’s and I still have the catalogue of one 1983 sale at Sotheby's. For years after, every museum, here and abroad, that I went to, I searched out if they had netsuke. There was always a feeling of disappointment if they didn't.

I never had the resources to buy the antiques, or even good contemporary ones, so I collected a few, cheap, modern copies, but only those that showed evidence of real skill with carving, so I could study the techniques and make further decisions about what type I really like. Mainly, my tastes are for fine though not over-decorative carving, also for very simple shapes that rely on the beauty of the material for their effect and for netsuke that show evidence of the carver exploring and experimenting with his material and his subject. I see no joy in any work of art that is just about production and doesn't show any development in technique or depth of content.

It didn't occur to me to carve them until about ten years ago, when friends of mine came back from a holiday in the States with a present of an epoxy resin cast of the little cat-geisha in the NY Museum collection. Not liking fakes, but having the chance to examine some of the artistry that way, I thought I'd like to try carving them. I collected some tools and wood, but life intervened and it wasn't until 2008 that I was able to take it up seriously. By then, I'd found three sites online, The Carving Path, Following the Iron Brush and the International Netsuke Society, all of which proved helpful for beginners, so with those, a number of books, some knowledge of composition, drawing and painting, and dyeing and staining, I started in on carving. Time will tell about how far it goes!