Wood Carving - Crafts

Wood carving is a form of sculpture, but don't let that keep you from trying your hand at it. After all, it is just a refined form of whittling, which all boys and most girls do just as soon as they are old enough to talk their parents into letting them have knives.

The best way to begin wood carving is to try to cut a silhouette out of a thin piece of soft wood. Draw or trace in outline a full profile of a person or animal on the wood. Then, just as you did when you used to cut the handle of a bean-shooter, cut away all the wood outside the outline. Because the thin parts, like the tail of a dog, are so fragile, they must be whittled with extreme care. The finished silhouette can be colored with paint or waxed.

After you have had some success with silhouettes, you should have enough confidence to try three-dimensional figures. This, of course, requires more skill, but practice will bring good results. It is better if you can take some instruction. There are some craft schools and adult education centers that teach wood carving, but they are not numerous.

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