Wood Carving: Working with living wood
I use green wood which is a by-product of tree surgery or commercial felling and which otherwise would be burnt or chipped. Choosing a piece to work depends on its special features of colour, shape and texture. Several pieces from one source help familiarisation with the wood and working to a theme.
When you strip off the bark and sapwood, you see the beauty of the grain and feel the energies of growth, elaboration, fruition and decay. Then it’s best to trust the wood and let it tell you what to remove, where to go. Look and keep on looking – simplify - and step by step a piece will emerge with a life of its own. It’s slow.
“It’s not the things that are difficult to make but to put ourselves in a condition to make them” Constantin Brancusi
|
