EUCALYPTUS LEAVES
I have always thought that sashi netsuke get less attention than they deserve. Granted they are too long to be enclosed in the hand and unless supported they have to lie flat but they give the artist another colour for their pallet and real opportunity to explore the flowing line and, as in this case, texture otherwise lost in regular netsuke. Himotoshi, too, benefit from the sashi treatment as they can be placed at the extremities.This carving is made from the otherwise difficult to use lower part of the hippo tooth, the white stripe on the reverse of the carving coming from the outside enamel. If you look carefully at the left-hand thumbnail below you can see, just, the remarkable grain effect I was able to achieve by leaving the carving longer than usual in the acid bath prior to staining.

Sadly the photos do not do this effect justice but it is clearly visible on the carving itself. The carving is roughly 1/3rd larger than the photo; the insect is, of course much smaller but, due to the super-fine quality of the material, I was able to achieve an insect to be proud of. At the time I was influenced by the patterns of Damascus steel so I stippled wavy lines, as can be seen in the right-hand thumbnail and the bottom photo, on the reverse.