When difficulties arose as Janel glazed and fired the first porcelain netsuke-like pieces, years of aesthetic and technical arguments began with herself about the use of porcelain for sculptural pieces.

She finally tried carving wood in the early summer of 1995. After the profound joy of carving her first netsuke from a piece of boxwood, she decided to continue carving wood. She began exploring some of the other more traditional netsuke carving materials and techniques such as inlay, staining or coloration, surface texture and finish treatment.

When she described her first wood netsuke, "Tree Frog And Spring Apple", carved from Boxwood grown in America, she recalls the glow from that piece of wood which gave the little frog a vibrant quality.