About me.
Although only a beginner I realize well that carving Netsuke is a constant process of learning skills and practicing patience. Now that I'm older I can muster the perseverance and concentration to keep me doing this, values that have always failed me in my younger years; previous attempts trying woodcarving always ended prematurely thrown away in a corner of the room.
For me it is not just a creative process, but also an almost meditative stay in a zone of timelessness and therefore a welcome respite in a hectic life.
Out of respect for protected animal species threatened with extinction, I have chosen only to work with authorized materials such as wood, bone, horn and deer antler. And perhaps gemstone, minerals and seashell in the future; this offers already more opportunities than I can explore in my remaining days of life.
Starting carving Netsuke, I made all the possible beginners faults there are, I guess: equipped with a lot of ambition and hardly no skills or tools, I started with an almost impossible journey, pondering over how to find way through the darkness of ignorance. Thanks to the internet I finally learned more about carving Netsuke by examples of the works of the great Netsuke carving masters and by reading articles about how to carve these small precious objects.
On the other hand, in practice, I decided to follow my own path in choosing subjects and style, maybe sometimes with a wink of an eye towards the classical examples, but, out of respect, without really trying to copy them, for the classical masters of the past have left their work as a legacy to the world, still existing nowadays, filling out the space that justifies their existence completely.
Lone Wolf Signature.
While making my Netsuke, it felt to me like making the uncertain journey of a Lone Wolf; far away from the wolf pack, maybe abandoned, maybe banished, maybe self chosen, but anyway solitary living and free, without other rules than my own, without whatever restriction.
Although many people consider the phrase “Lone Wolf” to mean “Lonely Wolf” I never feel that way, a loner, yes, I am, but I do not know the meaning of Loneliness.
Considering this while thinking about marking my Netsuke, I originally chose a wolf’s footprint as my signature; For in the end, after his life’s journey, all that he leaves to the world is, besides his bleached bones, his footprint, if ever found back.
Technical difficulties however made me cancel this plan and in the end I chose a more conservative way of marking my Netsuke: a Monogram, formed by the initials of my two first names, T and H, as a small calligraphy painted on the Netsuke in golden Urushi lacquer.
Dick (T.H.) Speijdel.