There are only about 50 netsuke artists in the world and most of these are Japanese men. However, amazingly enough, one of the best netsuke artists in the world is a woman and she lives in Melbourne. Our House visits netsuke artist, Susan Wraight to check out her work and find out more about the art and how she ended up carving netsukes.

Netsuke (pronounced "netskay") originated in Japan. It came about because traditional Japanese dress didn't have pockets. A woman could put small things in her sleeve, and samurai could hang small objects from their weapons, but this really wasn't ideal so they began to suspend everyday things from the sash (obi) with a silk cord. The netsuke was a little carving that was positioned at the top of the sash to stop the whole thing from falling to the ground - it acted as a fastener.

Netsuke is a small, thumb size sculpture that is figurative and highly detailed. The carving can be of animals, figures, mythical creatures or almost everything to do with everyday life. Traditionally, ivory and wood as well as other organic materials such as bone, shell and coral were used. Half the appeal was that they were using a non precious material and giving it a highly decorative, precious treatment.

Netsuke was at its peak during the Edo period 1615 - 1868 when the arts flourished. However once western dress with pockets replaced traditional Japanese clothing, the need for netsuke faded and they became collectors items.

Susan became interested in netsuke 20 years ago when she was studying to become a jeweller in London. One day she had an artistic block for a project so she followed her teacher's advice and went into a museum for inspiration. It was there in a Japanese exhibition she discovered netsuke.

She loved how each carving had its own story, that they were intimate and very engaging. The gallery was so quiet that she felt if she leaned forward you'd be able to hear them whispering to one another. They were small and portable, didn't have functional restraints like jewellery and were totally 3D sculpturally.

At the time Susan was unaware there were people who would collect netsuke so she planned to make one for fun and then go back to jewellery making. But that plan is history. Susan now works full time on carving netsukes and makes between 15 to 20 a year. Depending on how detailed a piece is, they take her about three weeks to complete.

A long time is spent researching before Susan starts carving. She looks through books, photos, at creatures in the wild; she keeps pets, hassles staff at the zoo and she will even examine dead animals for close up detail to the point where she keeps snakes in jars and dead animals in her fridge. First Susan makes a plasticine model that serves as a pattern and then she will start to carve in wood.

Susan prefers to use wood that is hard, dense and tight grained like European boxwood and holly, which will hold the fine detail. She doesn't like using traditional ivory and substitutes a material called Tagua nut which is also called vegetable ivory. To inlay the eyes she uses amber, Hippo tooth, mother of pearl, gold or Tagua nut.

A range of about 30 tools is used in Susan's carving process, from an electric bandsaw to tools that get smaller as the carving does. A couple of these tools are from Japan but Susan prefers to use her jewellery making tools.

Some of Susan's recent carvings include:

• A monkey in a raincoat
• A little feather tail glider
• A bat in flight with a moth on its wing
• A gecko hatching from its egg
• A frog on a leaf.