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 skates on the roofs, carved doors and platbands. Three examples of the artistic processing of wood are the manufacture of wooden toys, dishes, and souvenirs, which our ancestors traditionally did.
A huge number of palaces and temples scattered throughout Russia, decorated with wooden carvings. An ensemble, built on the Kizhi of Lake Onega in 1714, serves as a classic example of a masterpiece of this architecture.
The production of turned and carved wooden utensils in Russia was wide in scope. It was customary to impregnate it with linseed oil, paint it with oil and natural paints, trim it with gold and silver. A good example of the artistic processing of wood products is the well-known Khokhloma painting.
Take a look at the past
All artistic wood processing could be carried out in a variety of styles. For example, a style called baroque is characterized by dynamism in the form of mobility of forms, festive lush decor, numerous images of cupids, flower wreaths, stylized birds and animals.
Solid wood furniture looked luxurious, decorated with mosaics, inlaid with bone or metal, and also covered with colored lacquer or with sophisticated carved elements.
In retro style, luxurious pieces of classicism and baroque were made. And nowadays, examples of non-traditional solutions of designers of new forms and designs, popular among young people, have appeared.
Nowadays, the artistic processing of wood is a creative direction of profile work, the training of which is conducted in many educational institutions. Nowadays, interest in this topic does not dry out. As part of the school course, boys master the basic techniques of working with wood, allowing you to create simple products. The technology of artistic processing of wood is taught as part of the profile course of art universities.
Talk about hand carving
In the art of wood processing, a special place is given to the process of hand-carving. There are a great many of its many kinds. Speaking of the most common, it is worth mentioning first of all flat-grooved threads. Next - geometric, slotted, contour.
A characteristic feature of the first variety (flat-toothed) is to make recesses of various shapes on a flat surface. Geometric refers to one of its modifications and is a series of elements of a square, triangular, rounded shape. In this case, a cutting board with repeating decorative details can serve as a sample.
Contouring is performed by cutting thin thin bilateral or dihedral recesses of small depth along the contour of a certain pattern. They resort to it mainly in the process of depicting figures of animals, birds, floral ornaments and leaves.
Which is easiest?
The simplest type of thread is slotted. It is carried out with a jigsaw, which cut out the contours of a variety of shapes where you need to see something through the slots (doors, screens, cupboards, window frames). The background of such a wooden product is missing. In some cases, it can be replaced with a bright cloth.
The technology for performing artistic processing of wood (wood carvings of this kind) is quite simple: a drawing is transferred to a workpiece with a surface prepared in advance (sanded 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 brought in and the entire contour is gently sawed on a special table called a sawing one.
How a wood craftsman worked
Such types of wood carvings in the artistic processing of wood as contour, slotted and flat, have long been used to decorate Russian furniture. Openwork is a type of slotted thread that has a relief pattern. As a rule, craftsmen working in the Rococo and Baroque styles decorated it with furniture.
If products made using the slotted carving technique were nailed or glued to a wooden base, it was called the consignment note.
Classification of equipment for artistic processing of wood has always been carried out depending on the type of work performed. What, for example, did the workplace of a woodcarver 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 covers was located at the level of the elbows of the master. Light fell on the left and front. Workbenches were fastened to workbenches using screw clamps or wedges. As cutting tools used mainly chisels.
Tools for different types of artistic wood processing
Chisels can be straight flat, with which they protect the background when making embossed or contour threads. Grooved is useful for almost every type of work. Klukarza with a long curved neck and a short blade is used if you need to cut a recess in a hard-to-reach place. The chisel corner is taken for cutting grooves. With the help of cerasicum, narrow veins or grooves are applied.
For geometric carving, take flat chisels, called jambs, cutters or jambs. They can be short or long with different angles of inclination of the cutting edge. The roughest varieties of work are performed using a chisel.
Each of the tools must have a quality handle. The blades must be well sharpened with fine-tuning on the donkey. In the case of a well-made tool, it is possible to get a high-level job.
How is the process going
Start woodcarving with the markup of the selected pattern. To do this, use a ruler, square, protractor, pair of compasses, stencils, as well as ballpoint pens or pencils. A geometric thread pattern is a collection of squares, rectangles, and triangles.
Each of the recesses (recesses) is cut with a pigtail across the fibers, and then along them. At the same time, the jamb is held in the right hand and put the toe of the blade with a slight inclination on the marked line. The blade is cut into the wood and a line is drawn by movement on itself.
Thus, all the center lines are executed. If you want to cut the slant, the jamb should be tilted left or right at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees. The marking line should not be cut. The threading process must be carried out smoothly and slowly, pressing the joint evenly. The tool is tightly 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 threading process are allowed to hold the tool with both hands.
The procedure for cutting trihedral recesses is reduced to processing the sides of the drawn triangles with a pigtail, which is held vertically in the hand. Cutting goes from the top to the bottom. These tricks are very simple. Mastering them will not take much time and will allow you to proceed to cutting out other, much more complex figures.
About safety rules for artistic wood processing
1. Remember that chisels are hazardous cutting tools and require careful handling.
2. The left hand must not be held near the cutting tool.
3. Too much effort when working with a chisel is prohibited.
4. If you want to hit the chisel handle, it should be taken in the left hand, and the mallet in the right. The tool is put in place of cutting, then light strokes are applied to its handle.
5. The chisels should be stored in specially designated places (in cabinets, drawers of the workbench, etc.).
Study and study again
Anyone who has decided to achieve results in woodcarving should not rely only on his own creative abilities. A serious lesson in the artistic processing of wood includes continuous training with the development of its various nuances.
There are a huge number of methods to create wonderful carvings. An example of one of them is the Tatyanka style. It is based on the technology of performing floral ornaments. A feature of the thread style that appeared as a result of a creative experiment is that the product is processed only once. Repeated revision is not allowed, and it is, in principle, not needed, since all elements come out from under the cutter ready, not requiring additional processing. Therefore, in this case, special tools are used.
Recommended Style
Using the Tatyanka style saves time in comparison with the execution of forms with other types of artistic processing of wood relating to embossed 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 must be sharpened well.
Style "Tatyanka" refers to multi-layered. Each of the layers is processed in turn, and quality compliance is important at any stage, otherwise the subsequent work loses all meaning. Before playing any of the parts, its location and design must be carefully thought out. If the item is not cut correctly, it cannot be restored.
Products made in this style are quite popular among buyers. Therefore, a master who has mastered this method will never be left without work.
Other wood working methods
Recall again that each threading technique requires an appropriate tool. For example, a through thread, the result of which looks voluminous, requires the use of a saw, jigsaw or chisel. Such openwork carving is widely used in decorating houses - a relief form gives additional volume.
In the technique of flat-relief carving, a selected and pillow background is assumed.
Nowadays, it has become fashionable to create wooden sculptures with a chainsaw. Sculptural carving is one of the most sophisticated techniques for artistic woodworking. At the same time, it is very interesting. Having processed the initial piece of wood in the correct proportions, you can realize your plan to turn it into an animal or human figure. Volumetric details make the sculpture unusually lively.
Another type of artistic wood processing is wood burning. It is also a whole layer of interesting skills and artistic techniques, requiring a separate story. By burning it is possible to get a rich variety of patterns of various topics.
Newbie Tips
Before the start of complex work for educational purposes, you should work on any of the simple sketches for carving, familiarize yourself with special literature, view classical schemes and sketches with their detailed descriptions. It does not hurt to look into GOSTs for artistic wood processing.
Novice carvers should cut small figures with minimal detail. To move to products of complex shape and mastery of a literacy of artistic woodcarving, constant persistent training will be required.
Types of flat-shaped processing
It can be geometric, contour, nail-shaped or black-lacquered. Each of these techniques will require its own sketches and a set of tools in the form of a knife and a chisel.
The process of creating a carved geometric pattern consists in cutting out squares, rhombuses, hexagons, etc., by defined angles. If the pattern is created using circular or triangular grooves, we are talking about the contour carving technique. In the case of coating the surface before starting work with black paint or varnish, the finished drawing will look unusually impressive.
Workplace of the master
If you decide to work in the technique of "Tatyanka" or in any other of the above, you will need a wooden plane with a flat surface. It can be a workbench, table, window sill or even a stool. Most preferred is a table or workbench, as they are heavy and have a wooden worktop.
If the table is polished, it can be covered with a piece of plywood or a drawing board. This protects the tool from breaking in case of accidental breakdown. Linden billets are quite soft on their own, it is customary to push them into something solid.
The workplace of a woodcarver requires good natural lighting or artificial with a wide range. This is due to the painstaking nature of work and increased requirements for accuracy and accuracy. Ideally, a table with a lamp should be located next to the window.
The blackboard for the workflow needs constant hydration. The required humidity is about 12-15%. You can moisten the board in advance by washing its ends.
Thread material
The wood used for the carving process must have a smooth, even surface without knots or other flaws. If you intentionally take a tree with knots, then in the process of work you can beat them in the artistic plan and make up a decorative composition on their basis.
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. On it you can choose a sample of dense, homogeneous and not loose wood.
It is best to choose a board cut from the edge of the log, close to the bark. In this case, the layers are hollow with respect to its surface. Such a board is easy to cut. If there is a need for a break between the stages of work, it is not worthwhile to moisten the training board by wrapping it in a wet cloth or placing it in a moist package, since various bacteria can appear and multiply, followed by darkening of the board and the formation of mold.
It is best to store such boards in rooms where there is no heating, for example, in sheds, canopies, saunas, on balconies and loggias. It is not recommended to store training material in the bathroom, basement, in the 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 not be suitable because of a mismatch in size and other parameters.
Working with inappropriate types of cutters greatly complicates the process of learning thread and reduces 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 jamb knife. A semicircular chisel blade in cross section looks like part of a circle. If such an instrument is placed with an end face on a board and then rotated around an axis, the blade closes the circle, cutting through the wood.
An important quality of the chisel, allowing you to make deep cuts, is maneuverability. A jamb knife is one of the main tools. The name comes from the shape of the blade with an oblique cut. Its size, as a rule, is suitable for a medium-sized hand.