Japanese girl giggling into her sleeve

I have started to carve deeper to get more form into the subject. The top of her sleeve in this case. It gets more difficult but I think the results are better.

I enjoyed making this one, the composition is pleasing to me and it pushed me further technically. Titanium is becoming my metal of choice. So far I have used heat to colour it but I will start anodising as the colour choice is more presice and subtle.

Enzo 5

To Discover where a path will lead
One must walk it

Enzo 4

Blue Clouds
Hang Low and Flat
In a gap
The Sun!

Enzo 3

The Sun Rises
The Moon Sinks
A Poor Night's sleep
Is Packed Away

Having done more reading on enzo, I've seen they normally have poem or a few words along side them. As I don't know neither Japanese nor kanji I tried English and western lettering. Western lettering developed from pressing a stylis in clay to chiseling in stone to writing with a quill to ball point pen. It is not suited to the brush and looks sloppy. I will perhaps use a pen or a small hard bristle brush next time.

New tagane

I made a new tagane, flat cut but with a rounded top, it let's me cut down at angles without hitting anything accidently with the top of the chisel. It means I can add volume and not just line.

Enzo 2

I started today with a little shoulder warm up as I noticed yesterday that a stiff shoulder made little corners to my circle.

100 days of Enzo

I have embarked on a gong. A gong is a hundred consecutive days of doing an activity. Consecutive means if you skip a day even if it's day 99 you start from 1 again.

Enzo is a circle. Some Zen students and masters paint Enzo every day as both a contemplative activity as well as to produce something for others to contemplate.

So begins my 100 day journey into early morning Zen practice.

Interesting thought from Ford Hallam

Zen

I have avoided writing about zen for a while now. Not because it's not pertinent to what I do but because explaining it completely is near impossible. The closest I can get to an explanation is perhaps 'A state of observant mindfulness'

In western culture we might say we are 'in the zone' where, whatever your activity, your mind is calm and centered and you can respond to subtle cues to produce work which is beyond your normal capabilities effortlessly. 

Zen pervades all traditions in Japanese culture. The concept that it is not what you are doing but the state of mind you do it in which is important. The tea ceremony is most indicative of this. The simple act of making and pouring tea becomes an exercise in mindfulness in which every movement is important. Our minds enjoy thinking of other things whilst doing mundane tasks, it is a discipline to focus on one thing only. The tea ceremony fills the mind with attentiveness, there are so many requirements, correct posture, breathing, hand movements, position of implements as well as focusing on making these things flow into a moment of beauty that the mind has to be present. 

Yugen

Yugen is a Japanese word meaning subtle profundity. It forms one of the core principals in traditional Japanese aesthetics. Yugen is to suggest or imply rather than to describe exactly. It is a feeling of awareness of the vast subtleties present in the universe.

Memory of motion

This is how I feel about the marks made by the passing of the tagane

Shudan

Shudan directly translated 'hand talking' or a conversation by hand. What it means to a craftsman is a communication between himself and the materials he works with.

I know that I can get the results I have so far, or a close copy, using a barrel burr in a flexible shaft motor. While the look would be similar, the experience making it would be very different. It's a bit like speaking to my brothers overseas on Skype or chatting to them in person.

Using chisels requires you to be attentive. It is slower than using powered tools but that just gives you longer to 'talk'.

Titanium and tagane

It seems titanium is more demanding on the points of the tagane (tagane are the collective name for the types of chisels I am using) I may have to re-heat treat these or find a better material to make them from. The ones I have are high carbon steel but if I want to chisel titanium I may have to get some high speed stainless blanks. Tungsten I think would be too brittle.

The 'lost' crafts

I was all set to write a post about how much craft and craftsmanship we've lost since the industrial revolution, a sentiment which has become cliché.

However I got to analysing the actual situation and most crafts have their leading proponents. These are people who are passionate about what they do and pursue an avenue regardless of what others may tell them or how lucrative it may or may not be.

Perhaps what we've done is separate the wheat from the chaff, perhaps those who were stuck in being weavers or potters because of social standing or poor access to education are now doing other jobs.

I make jewellery by hand because it's part of who I am. When you ask a craftsman 'why pottery' or whatever they're up to, they always look a little confused by the question. To take a deterministic approach, one could say 'being who I am, I could make no other choice'

There is something inherent in each activity which ignites a part of our personality, often to the point of obsession. We allow it to take over our lives and then we express our lives through it.

"Find what you love and let it kill you" Charles Bukowski

Every day carry

In knife and gun circles, there is the term every day carry, shortened to edc. It refers to defence equipment you carry with you every day. Used in sentences such as: I like this when I go fishing but this is my edc.

This got me thinking, because we wear jewellery we don't think of ourselves as carrying it. People have jewellery for occasions, some they keep but don't wear any more, some which weren't built to last more than a night out but mostly, there is a core collection which is their edc.

Sumi-e fledgling

I have been taking care of a little fledgling for three day. I decided to take him to C.R.O.w so that he can be re-wilded once he can fly and eat by himself. I had grown quite fond of the blighter so decided to paint him this morning. One of the instructors I have been watching on youtube said observation of spirit plus technique equals good painting. I think I have been able to capture an essence of his spirit with these drawings.

On cherry picking

Cherry picking is a term used to describe a process of picking out the bits of evidence which support our cause, and discarding other equally valid evidence which would detract. I am aware when I talk about 'Japanese design ethic' what I am actually saying is 'this particular design ethic expresed by a large group of Japanese craftsmen' 

A critique written by Janet Koplos of the book Contemporary Japanese Jewellery includes the paragraph:

"The selections favor Zen austerity far more often than the equally Japanese attraction to the baroque or, recently, pop; Zen tends to be the Western interpretation of what's "really Japanese." 

You can read the full review here

I am aware that I am looking at one aspect of a vibrant culture, I am also aware that in terms of technique, I am barely scratching the surface of an art which requires a lifetime to master.

I have chosen to investigate traditional techniques which have lead me to traditional values and design considerations.