What can I start carving as a beginner?

Which carving project would be easy for me as a first-timer?-Simple Woodcraft Projects

Join School of Wood Carving


 

What carving is best for a beginner?

Getting started in wood carving is not that difficult. 

Each summer, I visited my grandparents in a tiny Russian village near the Volga river. I remember when I was six years old. I snuck inside my grandfather's workshop, and I found one woodworking chisel. I didn't know what the tool was, but I knew it had a cutting edge and thought I could cut something with it. To make a long story short, it was the start of my journey in carving. I didn't carve wood that day, though. I found a white brick and began to chisel away. I had no clue what I was carving. I simply enjoyed doing it. At the end of the day, I could see a human face in that brick. I don't remember if I felt joy or frustration, but I know now it was the beginning of my lifelong journey as a carver.

After that, I tried to work with a piece of wood and liked it a lot more than brick. I made the decision. I will carve wood and no longer the brick!

I didn't understand anything about wood types or carving styles. What's the difference between chip carving and relief carving? I found all those fancy terms very confusing. I didn't know any basics of wood carving.

I was very blessed with both sides of my family. My grandfather had a small shop and a couple of workbenches, and I could spend time with him and watch how he worked. For him, his shop was a “hiding place” from his wife, my grandmother. But obviously, she knew where to find him.My father's side of the family has a history of skilled woodworkers and furniture makers. One of my great-grandfathers crafted furniture for a royal house in Saint Petersburg, Russia.My Grandma talked about her childhood in her father's woodworking shop.

She recalled the songs her father used to sing. He sang while he worked with the wood.I got my first chisel from my grandfather and my first whittling knife from my grandmother. It wasn't actually a whittling knife; it was a pocket knife from the USSR. Pocket knives are good for basic carving. Those two tools were my carving tools. I didn't have a gouge or any power tools. Not even a proper chip carving knife. A simple pocket knife can create something beautiful.

I didn't realize back then that woodcarving would become so important to me. Today, I carve for collectors worldwide and private residences. I had no clue woodcarving could be this rewarding.

Which carving project would be easy for me as a first-timer?

What should I carve if I'm just starting out?

Ponder on what attracts you more: a spoon or relief carvings. A lot of beginners don't grasp the big difference between carving a wooden spoon and carving a 3-dimensional sculpture with a gouge and a mallet. This is also called carving in the round.

Nature itself runs on the continuous interaction of opposites—earth and fire, sun and moon, male and female, dark and light. 

(Based on Robert Greene, Mastery)

 

Join School of Wood Carving

My first carving project: what should I do?

Ask another important question. What style of carving do I like? Yet, this isn't the only question to consider. Another question to consider is: what tools do you possess? Do you have basic wood carving tools or just a knife? Some of you might only have a chainsaw :). You can do a chainsaw carving but with a chainsaw, you can't carve a spoon.

I recommend trying different styles. Once more, what hand tools do you own? If you only have a chip carving knife, spoon carving is out, but you can still carve other things.

 

Dopamine acts like transmission fluid: without enough of it, as seen in folks with ADHD, switching attention is hard or it jumps straight to high gear.

(John J. Ratey and Eric Hagerman, Spark)

Dopamine in woodcarving is like oil for your carving tools: without enough, similar to people with ADHD, your focus can either freeze or suddenly become intensely focused.

WOODCARVING – Which carving project would be easy for me as a first-timer?-Simple Woodcraft Projects

Here is a List of some ideas:

• Making wooden spoons
• Old European Knife Carving
• Relief Carving
• Carving in the round
• Bird and Fish Carving

Join School of Wood Carving