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Rabbit Themed Tsuba by Ford Hallam


Vermithrax16

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I have had the extreme pleasure of seeing Ford Hallam work his iron brush magic on a rabbit themed tsuba over the past few months. When we started planning, these were the parameters:

- Iron
- No kozuka/kogai ana holes
- Katana size (over 7.5cm-8.0cm)
- Rabbit and moon features, inspired by Motoharu rabbit tsuba
 
Designs were refined, changed, and Ford took things to a whole new level. No more words, just going to share then I am going to spend some time with this artwork tonight:
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I have many pictures of the work as it was done, it's incredible to see all the fine details and how they are executed. 
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Dear Jeremiah,

 

Congratulations!  Will you tell us a little more about the commissioning process?  Beyond the parameters and the Motoharu model, how did the back-and-forth of the design process unfold?  I assume sketches, etc., but how much input did you have in the final composition?  How long did the whole process take?  Do you plan on pairing this with other kodogu?  Will there be a film??? 

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Dear Jeremiah,

 

Congratulations!  Will you tell us a little more about the commissioning process?  Beyond the parameters and the Motoharu model, how did the back-and-forth of the design process unfold?  I assume sketches, etc., but how much input did you have in the final composition?  How long did the whole process take?  Do you plan on pairing this with other kodogu?  Will there be a film??? 

Hi George,

I reached out via DM right here on NMB to open up a discussion with Ford. From there it was email and Facebook DM. That was back in February/March. Generally that's about all I gave Ford (Motoharu inspired/Iron/No ana/Size) and left it to him to find the art his way.

 

Yes, some sketches and things evolved over time before work began. In the collage below you can see an early test engraving plate Ford did to have an idea on the rabbit. He moved in another direction right as the chisels were about to fly, and that's reflected in the progression. I honestly did not offer much, as I was very happy with things as they went and I wanted it to flow organic.

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Thanks everyone, for your kind appreciation.  

 

From my perspective projects like this are a sort of balancing act.

 

I was given the original Motoharu piece as the inspiration and starting point. With this as the concrete model and wanting to make my version be linked I wanted to make some direct references in terms of design and approach but then with that established to take certain aspect further in my own way. 

 

The overall composition, the mood, stream, placement of the subject, the rabbit, were all matched with Motoharu's  version. I started on thr back...and immediately got carried away with the stream. Where Motoharu chose merely to delineate it with a few chiselled lines I decided to carve the entire surface of the stream to provided a more expressive contrast between the flowing water and the soft stony 'as forged' surface of the plate. This juxtaposition is as aspect of the work that is very important to me and one I find very expressive. It's a lot more work but, for me, the time and effort are irrelevant in pursuit of a feeling I'm trying to evoke. 

 

I did a bit of 'sketching' with pen and chisels to get a sense of how the flowers and foliage were done in the first tsuba so that when I emulated this part if the design my take on it would be reasonably informed by Motoharu but also reflect a little of my own sensibilities.  The silver and gold flowers are, I think, a more personal approach, and certainly the actual inlay technique is a method I may have recently 'invented' without any clues from the past. But this is how it always was, I suspect, the development or technique and methods precisely to express a particular aesthetic or feeling.

 

The mood, well that started off pretty conventionally, fine nunome-zogan on a very thinly relieved moon amid delicately scribed lines outlining and suggesting the shifting qualities of the clouds. Then I got carried away again...I polished through the silver to show the fine cross-hatching and create a more mottled moon surface...and then I got silly and polished more carefully to suggest a little leaping rabbit in the moon's surface.  

 

And then the rabbit.  The test version I did wasn’t really a practice to copy Motoharu but rather a way for me to properly understand what and how he’d approached his carving. Having done that I felt comfortable in developing my own rabbit expression. I created a the pose to capture certain rabbit qualities, the tilt of the head, the ears, etc, all deliberately settled on so as the give my rabbit a particular attitude and ‘expression’.  I didn’t sell my practice pieces, but in this case a lady in Germany did ask if I would so I sent it to her as a gift. It’s now beautifully framed on some suitable wrapping paper and in her new baby’s bedroom. That makes me smile.

 

The decision the raise the head and one ear above the ground was quite pragmatic, I wanted more 3 dimensionality and structure in my piece. And I do enjoy that sort of technical challenge in service of an aesthetic device.

 

We’ve also filmed a bit of a post production look at the tsuba, with my thoughts about what I did. This will be edited and on-line shortly. I’ll post a link here when it is for this of you who are not yet bored . :glee: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The eye of the rabbit is in fact fine gold wire, super thin, in laid into the iron. A super nice touch and I would imagine very difficult. The only scary part of the process was the beginning of the patination process. Here are a few pictures of both along with how the flower gold and silver inlays are planned out then made:

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