Sculpture in wood

[deshranjan]

Hello Everybody

I have worked in different mediums like cement,clay,paper,cloth & wood in natural form for making sculptures.However, recently i wanted to sculpt a wood piece. But i am finding it quite difficult to give it shape.I might have chosen a wrong wood. Can anyone tell me which wood is most suitable for making sculptures specialy human form.

[fritchie]

desh ranjan - Hi! - Glad to hear from you. It might help if you gave us more information about what you are trying to do, specifically size and degree of detail. Are you working on a full human figure, or a partial figure such as a torso or head? Is it realistic or impressionistic? Also, most people on the site will be familiar with North American wood, and perhaps not what you are using.

I once did a bit of simple wood carving for a base - just chiseled an irregular, more or less flat ellipsoid. In general, I think you want a fine-grained, medium hard but not exceptionally hard wood. And you may need special tools. Rasps and carpenters’ saws and chisels may work, but I bought two woodworking chisels, very sharp, curved chisels, for this job. I was pleased, but haven’t done more, because the incident was a sort of emergency that hasn’t been repeated.

[rderr.com]

Dear desh ranjan

I once passed at about mid-night through your city going to Manali from Delhi. I work always from wood, eventually incorporating other materials or end by casting in bronze. Here in Houston my neighbors import architectural pieces from India and I some times help with the restoration. It is us who should be asking your instructions on the CRAFT of carving and casting. What your culture has done in these media with simple tools is an instruction to us.

How ever. Teak is available. You only need several chisels. But, most importantly your culture has and respects a living corps of craftsmen Art is not a useless luxury but necessary. Go and be instructed.

Ardore

[Aurora]

You can tell if a wood will be easy to carve with a few observations.

- Find a lightweight piece of wood. A heavy chunk of wood is too dense and not good for a beginner.
(exception - driftwood is light but tends to be petrified so leave that alone).
- Pale coloured woods tend to be easier to carve than darker woods.
- Pale woods are better for detail carving because they cast shadows, whereby dark woods hide details.
- Press your thumbnail to the wood. If it indents, it is good. If it springs back, the wood may be too wet or spungy.
- Wood that was cut atleast 6 months prior is better than newly cut wood which will crack on you.
- Sharpen your carving knives to the point where you might shave your arm with them. Dull knives will surely frustrate you. Keep them stropped (run along leather) to keep the sharp.
- Carve with a bunch of little chips as opposed to trying to get a mass off with each stroke. 10 little ones are better than one big one that gets out of control.

Let us know how you do.

[jwebb]

I've found all "fruit" woods beautiful for carving; cherry, crabapple, etc., also dogwood. They need to be well dried or they will "check" or crack though, and the drying hardens them. The pine, fir and cedar common to my region are very soft, straight-grained, and prone to splitting. The native people in northwest US and Canada made wonderful masks and totems and also very subtle and beautiful chests and "utilitarian" objects from cedar. It has the added benefit of being very fragrant. I don't know which if any of these might be in India, though it seems you have about everything somewhere in that huge and diverse country.