Inlaying the 24 karat gold wire – I folded the wire to fit into the rear part of the inlay pocket, then annealed the wire.
Above is the entire ant, with three folded wire inlays.
All three ants with filled inlay pockets.
I’ve used the ant punches to do the preliminary sculpting of the ants, carefully trying to align them with the (invisible) cavity edges.
Here’s a magnified version after using the punches.
Above is an ant after trimming the excess gold around the edges, followed by burnishing with steel wool.
Here is an ant after a quick patination of the shibuichi.
And an overview. For a more detailed discussion of the inlay process, look here: Ants Miseretto part 10 – Risk Reduction
Next, inlay the legs – that will be 18 total. Yikes!…