Man has been engaged in the artistic processing of wood since ancient times. Carved wooden products brought him both beauty and benefit. Dwellings were decorated with ridges on the roofs, carved doors and platbands. Three examples of artistic wood processing - the manufacture of wooden toys, dishes and souvenirs, which our ancestors traditionally did.
A huge number of palaces and temples scattered throughout Russia are decorated with wooden carvings. The ensemble built on the Kizhi of Lake Onega in 1714 serves as a classic example of a masterpiece of such architecture.
The production of turned and carved wooden utensils in Russia had a wide scope. It was customary to impregnate it with drying oil, paint it with oil and natural paints, and finish it with gold and silver. A good example of the artistic processing of wood products is the well-known Khokhloma painting.
Let's look into the past
All artistic processing of wood could be carried out in a variety of styles. For example, a style calledbaroque is characterized by dynamism in the form of mobility of forms, festive magnificent decor, numerous images of cupids, flower wreaths, stylized birds and animals.
Solid wood furniture looked luxurious when decorated with mosaics, inlaid with bone or metal, as well as covered with colored lacquer or with sophisticated carvings.
Luxury examples of classic and baroque items were made in retro style. And today there are also samples of unconventional solutions by designers of new forms and designs, popular among young people.
Today, artistic woodworking is a creative direction of specialized work, which is taught in many educational institutions. Nowadays, interest in this topic does not dry out. As part of the school course, the boys learn the basic techniques of working with wood, allowing them to create simple products. The technology of artistic wood processing is taught as part of the profile course of art universities.
Let's talk about hand carving
In the artistic processing of wood, a special place is given to the process of hand carving. There is a great variety of different types of it. Speaking about the most common, we should first of all mention the flat thread. Further - geometric, slotted, contour.
A characteristic feature of the first variety (flat serrated) is making depressions of various shapes on a flat surface. Geometric refers to one of its modifications and is a seriessquare, triangular, rounded elements. The model in this case is a cutting board with repeating decorative details.
Contour carving is performed by cutting thin bilateral or dihedral notches of small depth along the contour of a certain pattern. It is used mainly in the process of depicting animal figurines, birds, floral ornaments and leaves.
Which is easiest?
The simplest type of thread is slotted. It is performed with a jigsaw, which cut out the contours of a variety of shapes where you need to see something through the slots (doors, screens, sideboards, window trims). There is no background for such a wooden product. In some cases, it can be replaced with a bright fabric.
The technology for performing artistic processing of wood (wood carving of this kind) is quite simple: a pattern is transferred to a workpiece with a surface prepared in advance (polished or planed). It is also possible to use tracing paper.
Several holes are drilled along the contour of the future drawing, into which a jigsaw file is inserted and the entire contour is carefully sawn through on a special table called sawing.
How the woodworker worked
Such types of woodcarving in the artistic processing of wood, such as contour, slotted and flat, have long been used to decorate Russian furniture. Openwork is a type of slotted carving that has a relief pattern. As a rule, it was decoratedfurniture craftsmen working in rococo and baroque styles.
If products made using the slotted carving technique were nailed or glued to a wooden base, it was called an invoice.
Classification of artistic woodworking equipment has always been carried out depending on the type of work performed. How, for example, did the workplace of a carver working with wood look like? It could be the most ordinary table with a chair or a system of workbenches equipped specifically for this purpose.
The height of their lids was at the level of the master's elbows. The light fell on the left and in front. On workbenches, workpieces were fastened with screw clamps or wedges. Chisels were mainly used as cutting tools.
Tools for different types of artistic woodworking
Chisels can be straight flat, with which they protect the background when performing relief or contour carving. Grooved is useful for almost every type of work. Cranberry with a long curved neck and a short blade is used if you need to cut a recess in a hard-to-reach place. A chisel-corner is taken for cutting grooves. With the help of cerasic, narrow veins or grooves are applied.
For geometric carving, flat chisels are taken, called jambs, cutters or kosyachki. They can be short or long with a different bevel angle of the cutting edge. The roughest types of work are done with a chisel.
Each of the instruments musthave a quality pen. The blades must be well sharpened with fine-tuning on the whetstone. In the case of a well-made instrument, it is possible to get a high-level job.
How the process works
Start woodcarving by marking the selected pattern. To do this, use a ruler, square, protractor, compasses, stencils, as well as ballpoint pens or pencils. The pattern for geometric carving is a set of squares, rectangles and triangles.
Each of the recesses (recesses) is cut with a joint across the fibers, and then along them. At the same time, the joint is held in the right hand and the toe of the blade is placed with a slight inclination on the marked line. The blade is cut into the wood and a line is drawn towards itself.
Thus perform all the middle lines. If a slanted cut is required, the jamb should be tilted to the left or right at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees. The marking line should not be cut. The carving process must be carried out smoothly and slowly, pressing evenly on the jamb. The tool is firmly clamped in the right hand. Sometimes you need to hold it with your left to avoid leaving in the direction of the fibers. Those who have just begun to master the process of carving are allowed to hold the tool with both hands.
The procedure for cutting trihedral notches is reduced to processing the sides of the drawn triangles with a joint held vertically in the hand. The cut goes from top to bottom. These tricks are very simple. Mastering them will not take much time and will allow you to move on to cutting out other, much more complex shapes.
About safety regulations for artistic woodworking
1. Keep in mind that chisels are dangerous cutting tools and should be handled with care.
2. The left hand must not be kept near the cutting tool.
3. Too much effort when working with a chisel is prohibited.
4. If it is necessary to strike the handle of the chisel, it should be taken in the left hand, and the mallet in the right. The tool is placed in place of cutting, then light blows are applied to its handle.
5. Chisels should be stored in specially designated places (in cabinets, workbench drawers, etc.).
Study and learn again
Those who decide to achieve results in wood carving should not rely only on their own creative abilities. Serious woodworking involves constant learning to master its various nuances.
There are a huge number of methods that allow you to create wonderful carvings. An example of one of them is the Tatyanka style. It is based on the technology of performing floral ornament. The peculiarity of the carving style that appeared as a result of a creative experiment is that the product is processed only once. Re-finishing is not allowed, and, in principle, it is not needed, since all elements come out from under the cutter ready, not requiring additional processing. Therefore, in this case, applyspecial tools.
Recommended style
Using the "Tatyanka" style saves time compared to the execution of forms in other types of artistic woodworking related to relief carving. The tool in each case is selected taking into account the characteristics of the tree species. It is known that it can be hard or soft. Each of the devices needs to be sharpened well.
The "Tatyanka" style is multi-layered. Each of the layers is processed in turn, and quality assurance is important at any of the stages, otherwise the subsequent work loses all meaning. Before any detail can be reproduced, its location and design must be carefully considered. If an element is cut incorrectly, it cannot be restored.
Products made in this style are quite popular among buyers. Therefore, the master who has mastered this method will never be left without work.
Other woodworking methods
Recall once again that each carving technique requires the appropriate tool. For example, through carving, the result of which looks voluminous, requires the use of a saw, jigsaw or chisel. Such openwork carving is widely used in decorating houses - the relief form gives additional volume.
In the technique of flat-relief carving, the background is selected and cushioned.
These days it has become fashionable to create wooden sculptures with a chainsaw. sculpturalcarving is one of the most complex of all available artistic woodworking techniques. At the same time, it is very interesting. By processing the original piece of wood with the correct proportions, you can realize your plan to turn it into a figurine of an animal or a person. Volumetric details make the sculpture extraordinarily alive.
Another type of artistic woodworking is wood burning. This is also a whole layer of the most interesting skills and artistic techniques that require a separate story. By burning it is possible to obtain a rich variety of patterns of various subjects.
Beginner Tips
Before starting complex work for educational purposes, you should work on any of the simple sketches for carving, familiarize yourself with special literature, view classic diagrams and sketches with their detailed description. It does not hurt to look into the State Standards for the artistic processing of wood.
Beginner carvers should start carving small figures with minimal detail. To move to products of complex shape and master the art of woodcarving, constant hard training will be required.
Types of flat notching
It can be geometric, contour, nail-like or black-gloss. Each of these techniques will require your own sketches and a set of tools in the form of a knife and chisel.
The process of creating a carved geometric pattern is to cutsquares, rhombuses, hexagons, etc. with subdefined angles. If the pattern is created using circular or triangular grooves, we are talking about the contour carving technique. If the surface is coated with black paint or varnish before starting work, the finished drawing will look extraordinarily impressive.
Workstation of the master
If you decide to work in the "Tatyanka" technique or in any of the above, you will need a wooden plane with a flat surface. It can be a workbench, a table, a window sill or even a stool. A table or workbench is preferred as it is heavy and has a wooden top.
If the table is polished, it can be covered with a piece of plywood or a drawing board. This protects the tool from breakage in the event of an accidental break. Lime blanks are quite soft in themselves, it is customary to rest them against something hard.
A wood carver's workplace requires good natural light or artificial light with a wide spectrum. This is due to the painstaking nature of the work and the increased requirements for accuracy and accuracy. Ideally, a table with a lamp should be located next to the window.
A workflow teaching board needs constant moisture. The required humidity is about 12-15%. You can moisten the board in advance by washing its ends.
Carving material
The wood used for the carving process must have a smooth, even surface without knots and otherflaws. If you deliberately take a tree with knots, then in the process of work you can beat them artistically and make a decorative composition based on them.
An excellent material for creating wooden compositions (especially in the style of "Tatyanka") is linden. This type of wood is easy to cut in any direction, which makes it ideal for novice carvers. When choosing a board, pay attention to its end. According to it, you can choose a sample of dense, uniform and not loose wood.
It is best to choose a board sawn from the edge of a log, close to the bark. In this case, the layers are placed hollow with respect to its surface. This board is easy to cut. If it is necessary to take a break between work stages, it is not worth moistening the training board by wrapping it in a wet cloth or placing it in a wet bag, since a wide variety of bacteria may appear and multiply, followed by darkening of the board and mold formation.
It is best to store such boards in rooms where there is no heating, for example, in sheds, hallways, bathhouses, on balconies and loggias. It is not recommended to store study material in the bathroom, basement, refrigerator or in the sun.
Which tool is better?
There is a special tool for the "Tatyanka" style with parameters designed to work with plastic wood species. If your tool is homemade or factory, it may be of little use due to mismatch in size and other parameters.
Working with the wrong types of cutters greatly complicates the process of learning to carve andreduces its effectiveness. The first simple educational ornaments are made using the most common student set, consisting of chisels No. 6 and No. 17 (semicircular medium diameter) and a joint knife. The blade of semicircular chisels in cross section looks like part of a circle. If you place such a tool end face on the board and then turn around the axis, the blade closes the circle, cutting through the wood.
An important quality of a chisel that allows you to make deep cuts is maneuverability. The knife-jamb is one of the main tools. The name comes from the shape of the blade with an oblique cut. Its size is usually suitable for a medium-sized hand.
