Wood carver course

The wood carver is an expert craftsman who decorates furnishing accessories or wooden friezes with his creativity through the practice of carving, an activity that consists in removing, through the use of special tools such as gouges or burins, material mainly from wood but also from stone, metals and semi-precious stones, in order to adorn objects and furnishings or to create works of art. Usually the style furniture requires the help of skilled carvers to sculpt figures and ornaments, but for every artistic work at the base of this art there is the drawing, in addition to the manual ability, and good taste. It goes without saying that the carver stands out for his artistic works, since they are handmade and cannot be reproduced in series. The types of processing that a wood carver uses are the following: in the round, relief on the top, bas-relief and high-relief. There are no universal techniques, they can only be acquired with experience, but some guidelines to follow can help those who want to undertake this art. As far as I'm concerned, I use the method of making a 1/1 clay model after an accurate and sometimes three-dimensional drawing. The first operation to be carried out after choosing the wood is tracing which consists in drawing the outline on three faces (in the round) of the block. At this point it is shaped with a band saw or by hand. Then the roughing is started with the large gouge. When the desired volumes have emerged, a second tracing must be performed, which consists in defining the details. The work will be finished with the help of the other tools (as needed). This is also the most delicate phase, because a mistake can jeopardize the success of the work, as the wood once removed cannot be re-glued without the joint being invisible.