This was a truly massive job. It is one thing documenting how a netsuke is constructed, taking photos of the different processes, and another actually making the same subject four times over with the roughing-out as well. I honestly doubted I could do it because to be effective it was important that all the carvings should be as similarly sized and consistant as possible. Since every carving is subject to the vagaries of my accuracy this was indeed a tall order. It was important to choose a subject that was impressive and yet fairly simple. I chose snails... I should have known better. Snails, you see, have a very complex shell, the volume and slant can be very difficult to get right once, let alone so many times.
Eventually I hit upon the idea of using a pantograph to make sure I got the sizes right but this was very hit and miss since the thing was designed to be used for much bigger objects. From there on it was a matter of making sure that I didn't make any mistakes for I wanted the carvings to all come from a single block of wood, ensuring consistancy in the grain and colour.
The snails are a re-working of 'A Gentle Passion', two snails mating I came across several years ago. They were so motionless, wrapt in their own affairs, that I was able to study them minutely before replacing them. For some reason what was so touching about them was their very different sizes. Since there is no lack of large snails around and they are hermaphrodites,I wonder what made them choose each other.
Each carving is 2" (5cm) long.