Koi Tsuba (sold)

When prompted by Ford Hallam to describe my thought process behind this Tsuba design. I wrote the following and thought it might be informative to share my thoughts here.

This Tsuba shape is simply one of my favorites. It has both feminine and masculine qualities. The shape is very complimentary to the sword and cross-sections of the mounts. In a practical sense it is roomy. It gives a relatively large canvas to work within. It is functional with nothing to snag or poke the user. This Tsuba is carved from flat plate. Any areas that have not been carved down are lightly stoned scrubbed so as to retain some of the plates natural rust pitting. Pitting is not usually sought after, but it works on this particular piece as a misty effect.

Fuchi showing bottom heavy shape.

Fuchigashira made to compliment the Tsuba

The splashes of water under the rock face are deliberatly thick and smooth. In person this generates a feeling of age and wear and invites the fingers to touch and rub it. Complex splashy waves feel rough and are not pleasurable to touch. Like the face on an old worn coin the details are simple and appear fatter. The first thing people do when they handle it is rub the waves while looking at the koi. This is just what I had hoped for.

The water fall is deliberatly smooth with little deflection from the fish jumping through it. I wanted to achieve some tension with the fish and gravity. So the fish is falling after a jump. I wanted the fish to feel as though it could fall off the scene. The action of falling in a water fall creates much less disturbance that climbing. The whiskers are pulled forward as the fish drops down. The waves rolling back up under the water fall give a sense of slow and heavy which contrasts the fast light movement of the water fall. I should have made the Gold dots in the waves larger to echo this contrast. 

I really struggled with the tail. I knew the pose I wished to express, but admist laying out the inlay pieces I envisioned the water dividing the tail in two. I was not sure how this was going to turn out ok. Taking a risk I gave it a try. I am glad I did as it worked out well. I figured if it did not look good I could always remove the center rib and replace the tail with a single inlay.

The back side as with many of my Tsuba is left mainly undecorated. I echoed some fat worn wave elements to frame in my signiture and left the rest of the surface with some natural rust pitting. The patterns of the pitting break up the smooth field just enough to take the curse off all that flat steel... I would love to refine the finish work more and continue to work this piece, but there was only so much in the budget.

The Tsuba plate is made from carved steel. Solid gold dots are inlayed as water spray. Solid gold whiskers inlayed on the fish. On the reverse the Kao (an art signiture) is inlayed in solid gold. The fish is is inlayed shakudo covered in thick gold. the gold was selectivly removed form the shakudo to create the dark highlights.

The patina is a mix of Sabi suke (iron rust) and Roshuko paste to darken the exposed Shakudo. Sealed in Ibota (Natural Cicada wax) the iron takes on a stable dark chocolate color.
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