Blog Tag

architectural ornament

Every blog article tagged architectural ornament.

August 3, 2026

Wornum's Analysis of Ornament, read at the bench

The 1856 course that sorts all ornament into nine styles, the women who cut its plates, a reading map by PDF page, and an honest verdict on what still holds up.

August 1, 2026

Greek vs Roman Acanthus Leaf. How to Tell Styles Apart

An 1871 journal mapped every acanthus style a carver meets. I walk through its plates, Greek to Baroque, and show what your gouge should do about each one.

July 29, 2026

Acanthus wood carving: draw the leaf before you touch the gouge

Acanthus carving is a drawing problem first. Here are the four rules for building the leaf, taken from I. Page's 1886 guide, and what they change about the way you carve one.

July 28, 2026

How to Lay Out a Carving With Dividers, Not a Ruler

Proportional layout is sizing a carving by stepping off one module with dividers instead of measuring inches. Seven whole-number ratios, three circle sections, and the tools that do it, from the classical shop tradition.

December 7, 2023

From Russia to America, and What I Carve Now

Alexander Grabovetskiy is a master wood carver, born in 1973 in Dimitrovgrad in the Russian part of the Soviet Union. His great-grandfather built mahogany furniture in the Chippendale style. He ruined his own grandfather's chisel on a brick at six, became the only student of the carver Vladimir Tokarev at sixteen, and reached the United States as a refugee on 15 March 1996 with almost no English. He built the woodworking firm Aalmark in Indiana, hired other refugee woodworkers, then sold every machine to carve full time. In 2012 a panel called Wall Decoration took first place and made him International Woodcarver of the Year.