Lessons |
WOODCARVING A brief presentation by sculptor Dick J. VanderEyk |
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Such a joy! Carving wood is a wonderful experience that gives many hours of pleasure. It is such a terrific feeling to look at this piece you are in the process of creating, made from a rough piece of wood. Whether shaping the wood in a traditional or contemporary piece of art, I get a great deal of satisfaction of what I am "composing". And that is what gives such joy! Time and again I realize that it is entirely up to my own inspiration, concentration and mood to create something unique. I take great delight in chiseling or carving the so many different types of wood, favoring hard wood over the softer ones because of, usually, being able to carve more details.
The way you cut can be quite different from one wood to the other. During my courses and lectures I explain that, very often, the hardwoods have a much shorter fiber, a fact that makes carving much easier than the long-fiber/grain types. It is essential to immediately detect the unique structure(s) of a certain wood grain or fiber, thus adjusting technique in chiseling or carving. |
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Fragrance & substance When I carve cedar or other such fragrant wood, I will collect the cuttings and chips, keeping them to freshen up the house or workshop. When I carved sandalwood in Indonesia, I would save the cuttings and, once enough, would hand them to a Balinese priest for his prayer offerings. With a sharp chisel or knife, just cutting pieces of wood can even be an experience. For example, I can still remember the thrill when I carved mulberry wood for the first time. Each sliver seemed tinted with gold! I actually thought it a shame having to throw out the bits and pieces of carved shavings - - - |
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Tools Although I have carved since I was in my teens, the finer aspects of using the right tools for the job I learned in Bali. The art of carving has been developed over many centuries in Bali, first because of their extraction of the Hindu religion and later for the pure reason of creating art. The one knife I use most is the curved bench knife which I usually call the "Bali" knife (although applied in Bali, exactly the same design is used by the First Nations / Native people of the American West coast as well). Imagine a very pointed and straight knife that is sharpened at both sides at the end for about 30 mm. Making the steel pliable the end is then heated until red-hot, whereupon the steel is bent into a curve. It will function as a gouge that cuts either left or right (rather than straight from or towards you). The chisels are usually made out of large industrial saw blades. Based on their long experience, the Balinese have designed many different types of chisels. A complete set usually has a total of 32 pieces, from small to large. |
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Mallet For a mallet, I have learned to work with one that is made of the heartwood of the tamarind tree. It is quite incredible that indeed "the composite of hollow, needlelike cellulose fibers bound together by a chemical glue called lignin, is in many ways as strong as steel" and that certainly applies to the tamarind heart! |
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Teaching Courses in "the basics of woodcarving" may be conducted in the near future. Please email for further information |
mail: eykcan@eastlink.ca |