Each nation has its own culture, way of life, traditions. But everyone has one thing in common - the desire for beauty. And if the ancient man, when arranging his home, had the only goal - to hide from bad weather and wild animals, then with the transition to settled life, priorities change: the development of science and culture leads to the arrangement of life, the home is decorated. The development of crafts in a particular area depends on the availability of materials and minerals. Thus, in the area of ​​the northern seas, where the main industries are fishing and hunting, walrus ivory carving originated. In mountainous regions with large reserves of ore, blacksmithing develops. Forested regions are rich in timber. It has long been used for housing construction and home improvement. After completing field work, peasants engage in wood carving to while away the long winter evenings. Over time, an exciting hobby turns into a main craft.

Many achieve unprecedented mastery in this. The products of masters have the right to compete with the works of famous artists. And why compare? With the help of simple tools and imagination, the hands of a craftsman create extraordinary and rare masterpieces from the most ordinary wood. Artistic wood carving is a truly unique phenomenon.

Wood carving: main types

Over time, this type of applied art not only did not lose its popularity, but on the contrary, it developed. Depending on the type of materials used and the method of processing, new types of wood carving are distinguished: relief, flat-relief, sculpture, flat-notched and sawn. The main difference is the location of the pattern in relation to the surface or background of the work. Each of these types has its own methods of implementation, tasks and final result. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Saw thread

This is one of the carving methods when the background is completely removed from the canvas. It also has other names: slotted or through wood carving.

This term accurately describes the process of wood processing. Geometric carving and relief are perfectly combined here. This is one of the oldest techniques; it requires a certain skill and dexterity, such as openwork through carving. The technique here is as follows: the workpiece is secured, outlined, the main design is applied and holes for the saw are drilled. The contour is followed by filing and subsequent preparation of the material for work: chamfering with a chisel and sanding the workpiece with sandpaper. The effect of airiness, lightness, weightlessness is created. The work is so delicate and elegant that it is sometimes difficult to believe that wood was used.

Flat relief carving

All types of wood carvings differ in their relationship to the background: it is either absent, or located in the same plane with the design, or recessed a few millimeters inward. The background is the surface of the products, which is decorated with geometric shapes or floral patterns. In this case, it is removed around the surface of the design and cut 5-7 millimeters deep into the canvas. The work is carried out in such a way that the background and the drawing are both in the same plane, but at the same time they look three-dimensional, and in different ones: the drawing is raised above the background due to the indentations along its contour, but at the same time all the details are at the same height. This style usually depicts figures of people, animals and birds, and elements of the plant world. It all depends on the master’s idea and execution technique. Most often, flat-relief carving is used in architecture and applied arts.

Relief carving

All types of wood carving require a certain skill and skill. You need to start with the simplest patterns. In order to correctly understand the essence of each element, it is better for a beginner to reproduce new and more complex details from plasticine, and then start processing wood. This also applies to relief carvings.

It is rightfully considered the most picturesque. This is a design carved into wood, processed over the entire surface and convex relative to the background. Images of flora and fauna, monograms, various symbols, and geometric shapes can be used as an idea. The quality of the finished product directly depends on the choice of wood. In this case, birch, oak, and beech are good to use. Their wood makes it possible to clearly work out each element down to the smallest detail and clearly highlight the contours. In this case, the background is cut off in order to reduce all the details of the ornament in relation to the main design at all identical points of its parts. Then, in lower areas, the ornament is restored. Then the background is selected and polished. This is a fairly labor-intensive technique. Therefore, it requires patience and some experience.

Sculptural carving

When considering the main types of wood carving, one cannot ignore sculptural carving.

This method of wood processing allows you to create three-dimensional images without a background - sculptures that can be viewed from all sides. The technique is used mainly in the process of making souvenirs, toys, household items, and for interior decoration.

Flat thread

A distinctive feature of this type of wood processing is the application of ornaments to a flat surface. Depending on the nature of the pattern, it can be flat-relief carving, that is, the pattern is displayed in the form of recesses, recesses, and flat-relief, when the ornament protrudes above the surface.

Each of these types is divided into several subtypes, among which there is flat-notched geometric carving. This type is one of the simplest. It has long been used in the decoration of various household utensils with a flat surface: cutting boards, wooden dishes, furniture. The only tool used is a knife-jamb, and geometric shapes are used as a design: square, rhombus, triangle, circle, oval and their combinations. Interestingly, in ancient times geometric carving was not used as a simple decoration. Each element was symbolic and served as a talisman.

So, we looked at the main types of wood carving. Of course, this is the material of more than one article. And not even one book. The experience of masters has been passed on from generation to generation for many centuries. Something, unfortunately, has been lost, but something has been preserved, modified and developed into a new industry. And this is already a good sign. It once again proves that this species continues to develop. And today it is no less popular than several centuries ago.

Wood carving is a broad concept that covers any type of work involving the transformation of a piece of wood into an aesthetic object using a special tool. Wood carving is almost always a matter of aesthetics, and rarely has any functional meaning, although in some cases it can be functional, such as in cases of handcrafted furniture, special fixtures or cladding panels. Wood carving has a history of thousands of years, and traces of this art can be found in almost every corner of our planet.

Compared to other types of art, such as stone sculptures, ancient examples of wood carving are not as widely represented because Over time, wood deteriorates and breaks down much faster. Some interesting specimens appeared in ancient Egypt. These are, for example, beautiful decorative wooden panels with carved designs and inscriptions on them, or the famous mummy sarcophagi found in various tombs. A particularly interesting example of carpentry, about 6,000 years old, was found in Egypt. This is a sarcophagus that was made from sycamore wood and decorated with bronze, ebony, rock crystal and quartz.

Christianity contributed to a new round in the development of wood carving, and examples of this time are well preserved to this day, and their bulk falls on the period 500 - 1500 BC. Examples of carvings from this era often illustrate Christ and images of other saints. In those days, wooden decorative panels with beautiful carvings telling about the life and death of Christ were made for churches. Around the same time, Buddhism was on the rise in Japan and gave rise to wood carving. Special cutting styles were developed, resulting in the creation of a wide variety of wooden Buddha sculptures.

One of the simplest forms of wood carving is planing, which involves removing excess parts of a wooden object with a simple knife. Most often, soft wood species are used for planing, because... A regular knife may not be able to cut hardwood. Typically, planing is a hobby, but it can take more serious forms and produce beautiful objects of art. Some master planers produce very beautiful objects from wood. Canes and various wooden toys and trinkets work especially well. The main difference between planing and other forms of wood carving is that it uses a regular knife rather than a chisel or any other professional tool.

Wood carving can use many different tools, and craftsmen take great care with their chisels and chisels. Each type of tool has a different size and shape, allowing the woodworker to do his job with great precision. A mallet is used to increase the impact force of the cutting tool on hard wood, and for rigid fixation of the workpiece, a special vice is installed on the workbench. The basic set of tools includes: a chisel, which is a powerful blade with a straight edge, and is used for marking and leveling flat areas on a wooden workpiece; a semicircular chisel, shaped like a curved blade, and used for making roundings and cutting recesses; a triangular chisel, which is essentially a chisel for deeper cutting; V-shaped blade for contouring; and a knife for cutting wood, used in small jobs of various types.

Carving in general, and wood carving in particular, is a history with quite ancient roots. Since time immemorial, trees and forests have been the first and main refuge of man, his home. Our primitive ancestor made his first tools from wood, warmed himself by the fire of a fire, and received fruits from trees.

Throughout human evolution, the tree has always been close to him. Man has always appreciated not only the availability of wood as a material itself, but also from an early age learned to distinguish and appreciate the softness and plasticity of wood, the possibility of relatively easily obtaining expressive sculptural forms.

For example, wood carving - the history of the craft of a geometric direction, the art of which consists in making a pattern by combining simple shapes - triangles, ovals, circles, stripes, etc. - is considered the oldest.

During pagan times, geometric patterns and their various combinations had their own symbolism and magical meaning. Over time, the semantic meanings of geometric symbols were forgotten, but their decorativeness and aesthetic expressiveness continued to feed the fantasy and imagination of man.

Of the household items made of wood, the most frequently decorated was the spinning wheel - a sought-after item in the household of yesteryear; almost all types of carving can be traced from it. A linen roller, a rubel (for rolling and ironing clothes) - everything was decorated with geometric or relief carvings, and often with three-dimensional sculpture.

It should be noted that until the 18th century, the production of patterned fabric for peasant clothing depended entirely on the skill and imagination of the master carver, who performed the “manner” - this is the board with which the design was printed on the canvas.

The manners that have come down to us from the 17th-18th centuries are simply masterpieces of ornamental carved art. Gingerbread boards of the same period, on which all kinds of designs were carved: animals, birds, flowers, etc., in the hands of talented folk craftsmen became a real patterned ornamental fairy tale.

Three-dimensional (sculptural) carving became widespread in the creation of peasant household items.

Spoons with figured handles, ladles and bowls of all sizes and configurations were cut. Their edges were often decorated with carved three-dimensional sculptures of birds, horses, carved belts, etc. Saltboxes, brothers, and ladles are plastic and expressive. Russian wood craftsmen were engaged in interior decoration of manorial estates, churches, and palaces.

Carved iconostases have survived to this day, giving the impression of gold, but in fact they are made of wood and luxuriously decorated with relief carvings, covered with gesso and gilded. Russian craftsmen were well aware of and mastered the styles that were fashionable in the 17th-18th centuries. mosaic and inlay techniques.

Traditional wood carving is a living art, developing, connected with its time and its needs.
Each century created its own characteristic art of carving. That is why the history of wood carving and the history of development is of particular interest, because this art reflects the culture of entire peoples.

Below are the sections of artistic wood carving in the Guide to Russian Crafts.

Wood

Wood is one of the materials that is most widely used for the manufacture of many items that a person needs in his daily life.

Possessing universal qualities, this material allows you to make large structures, such as a peasant house or a multi-domed temple in Kizhi, and use its smallest pieces, roots and birch bark to create various household utensils, dishes, and toys.

Carving as an early type of wood processing

Carving became an earlier type of wood processing, because it is closely related to the process of forming the structure of any thing, be it a chest, a bench, a cradle for a child or a casket.

Such and similar objects are not always decorated with carved ornaments, but in the very form of the product, its proportions, silhouette, the aesthetic properties of the thing appeared. for example, a hollowed out bowl or a ladle carved from a monolithic piece of wood in soya plastic already represented an example of a sculptural solution made by means of carving. However, in most cases, an artistic object made of wood is decorated with carvings. Its types and techniques provide the master with a wide choice of means for decorating a utilitarian object.

Types of thread

It does not have a strict classification, since different types of thread can be combined in the same product.

Conventionally, we can distinguish types of threads:

1. through thread(this includes sawed and slotted threads)
2. blind thread(all subtypes of relief and flat carving)
3. sculptural carving
4. house carving(is a separate direction, since it can combine all three of the above types)
5. chainsaw carving(performing mainly sculptural carvings using only a chainsaw)

The conditional classification of thread types is as follows:

Through thread

Through threads are divided into through threads and invoice, has two subtypes:

• Slotted thread- (through sections are cut with chisels and cutters)
• Saw thread(actually the same thing, but such areas are cut out with a saw or jigsaw).

A slotted or saw-cut carving with a relief ornament is called openwork.

Flat grooved thread

Flat grooved carving is characterized by the fact that its basis is a flat background, and the carving elements go deep into it, that is, the lower level of the carved elements lies below the background level. There are several subtypes of such carvings:

• contour thread- the simplest, its only element is a groove. Such grooves create a pattern on a flat background. Depending on the chisel you choose, the groove may be semicircular or triangular. The semicircular one is cut with a semicircular chisel, and the triangular one is cut with a corner cutter, an angular chisel or a knife in two steps.
• stapled (nail) thread- the main element is a bracket (outwardly similar to the mark left by a fingernail when pressing on any soft material, hence the name nail-shaped) - a semicircular notch on a flat background. This notch is made with a semicircular chisel in two steps: first, the chisel is deepened into the wood perpendicular to the surface, and then at an angle at some distance from the first cut. The result is a so-called bracket. Many such brackets of different sizes and directions create a picture or its individual elements.
• geometric carving:
  • triangular pitted thread
  • double tapping thread
  • square recess thread
• black glaze carving- the background is a flat surface covered with black varnish or paint. As in contour carving, grooves are cut into the background, from which the design is built. The different depths of the grooves and their different profiles give an interesting play of light and shadow and the contrast of the black background and light cut grooves.

Relief carving

Relief carving characterized by the fact that the carving elements are located above the background or at the same level with it. As a rule, all carved panels are made using this technique. There are several subtypes of such carvings:

• flat-relief carving with a cushion background - can be compared with contour carving, but all the edges of the grooves become rolled, and sometimes with varying degrees of steepness (more sharply on the side of the design, gradually, gently, on the background side). Due to such littered contours, the background seems to be made of pillows, hence the name. The background is flush with the design. Flat-relief carving with a selected background - the same carving, but only the background is selected with chisels at a lower level. The contours of the drawing also become shaved.
• Abramtsevo-Kudrinskaya carving (Kudrinskaya)- originated in the Abramtsevo estate near Moscow, in the village of Kudrino. The author is considered to be Vasily Vornoskov. The carving is distinguished by a characteristic “curly” ornament - curling garlands of petals and flowers. The same characteristic images of birds and animals are often used. Like flat-relief, it comes with a cushion and a selected background.

Sculptural carving

A distinctive feature is the presence of sculpture - images of individual figures (or groups of figures) of people, animals, birds or other objects. In fact, it is the most difficult type of carving, since it requires the carver to have a three-dimensional vision of the figure, a sense of perspective, and maintain proportions. It is considered a separate subspecies Bogorodskaya carving.

Chainsaw carving

Also, a type of sculptural carving can be considered the art of chainsaw carving, which is becoming increasingly popular both among carvers and among connoisseurs of beauty. Popularity is easy to explain.

Chainsaw carving is, first of all, an action, a performance, a show. Increasingly, festivals, competitions, and demonstration performances by chainsaw carving masters at public events, presentations, and exhibitions began to be held. Unlike other genres of wood carving, the viewer not only sees the final result of the master’s painstaking and long work, but also visually participates in the process of creating the sculpture.

Milling machines

Recently, the creation of sculptures on various copy-milling machines has also become increasingly popular, the most accessible of which is the Duplicarver.

Range of funds

Thus, the master has a wide range of means at his disposal: from the simplest lines and forms of geometric patterns to complex, subtle miniatures depicting human figures, architecture and landscape elements.

Certain carving techniques and motifs of images, the type and nature of the ornament over time became a distinctive feature of the art of individual centers and even entire regions. For example, in the Russian villages of the European North, it was typical to complete the roof of a house with an okhlupny - an image of a horse's head, carved with an ax. In the rural dwellings of the peoples of the Caucasus, the top of the pillar-column holding the ceiling was decorated with thin flat-relief carvings.

The windows of rural and urban houses in many regions of Russia are still decorated with patterned frames with sawn, overlay, and volumetric threads. The unique architectural monuments of antiquity preserve amazing carvings of iconostasis, palace furniture, ritual and secular sculpture.

If we consider that all these works were and are being carried out now with simple tools (an axe, a saw, chisels and knives of various types), then it becomes clear that the craft here manifests itself at the level of truly artistic creativity.

History of carving in Russia

Name

In Russia, wood carving was called carving. Drawing is a sign; words were also used: vyzoroche, patterned.

Early carving

Carving on a flat surface in the form of braids and straight lines, cloves, gorodtsev and icon cases, grooves, stars, poppies, fungi, gags, etc. An example of this ancient carving is the royal place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

At the end of the 15th century. The monk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Ambrose, combined eastern, western and traditional Russian ornaments in his works and had a huge influence on the development of carving in the 15th–16th centuries.

Byzantine style

Ancient images of grass patterns - in the Byzantine style. Not earlier than the 16th century. fryashchina (Fryazhsky herbs) appears - herbal decorations borrowed from Italy.

German carving

In the second half of the 17th century. German carvings appeared in Russia, figured, with Gothic motifs. In 1660, the royal dining room, built according to the design of the German architect Dekenpin, was decorated with this carving.

New tools and German names and terms appeared: gzymzumbi, sherhebel, sharheben, nalikhtebl, etc. Cornices, gzymzy, splenger, krakshtyn (bracket), transoms, captels, tsirotnye herbs, frufts, etc. appeared in carvings and furniture.

The craftsmen began to make carvings according to German workshop face books - that is, according to samples and drawings.

Rezi were painted with bright colors, sometimes covered with gold leaf.

Wood carving

Modern carving

It does not have a strict classification, since different types of thread can be combined in the same product.

Conventionally, we can distinguish types of threads:

1. through thread (this includes cutting and slotted threads)
2. blind thread (all subtypes of relief and flat carving)
3. sculptural carving
4. house carving (is a separate direction, since it can combine all three of the above types).
5. Chainsaw Carving (Performing primarily sculptural carvings using only a chainsaw.)

The conditional classification of thread types is as follows:

Through thread

Walnut

Through thread is divided into actually end-to-end And invoice, has two subtypes:

• Proriznaya thread - (through sections are cut with chisels and cutters)
• Propilnaya thread (actually the same thing, but such areas are cut out with a saw or jigsaw).

A slotted or saw-cut carving with a relief ornament is called openwork.

Flat grooved thread

Flat grooved carving is characterized by the fact that its basis is a flat background, and the carving elements go deep into it, that is, the lower level of the carved elements lies below the background level. There are several subtypes of such carvings:

• contour thread- the simplest, its only element is a groove. Such grooves create a pattern on a flat background. Depending on the chisel you choose, the groove may be semicircular or triangular. The semicircular one is cut with a semicircular chisel, and the triangular one is cut with a corner cutter, a corner chisel or an ordinary knife in two steps.
• staple (nail) thread- the main element is a bracket (outwardly similar to the mark left by a fingernail when pressing on any soft material, hence the name nail-shaped) - a semicircular notch on a flat background. This notch is made with a semicircular chisel in two steps: first, the chisel is deepened into the wood perpendicular to the surface, and then at an angle at some distance from the first cut. The result is a so-called bracket. Many such brackets of different sizes and directions create a picture or its individual elements.
• geometric (triangular, trihedral notched) thread- has two main elements: a peg and a pyramid (a triangular pyramid buried inside). Carving is performed in two stages: pricking and trimming. First, the sectors that need to be cut are pricked (outlined) with a cutter, and then they are trimmed. All elements are performed with a knife-jamb. Repeated use of pyramids and peg at different distances and at different angles gives a great variety of geometric shapes, among which are distinguished: rhombuses, swirls, honeycombs, chains, radiances, etc.
• black glaze carving- the background is a flat surface covered with black varnish or paint. As in a contour carving, grooves are cut into the background, from which the design is built. The different depths of the grooves and their different profiles give an interesting play of light and shadow and the contrast of the black background and light cut grooves.

Relief carving

Relief carving is characterized by the fact that the carving elements are located above the background or at the same level with it. As a rule, all carved panels are made using this technique. There are several subtypes of such carvings:

• flat-relief carving with a cushion background - can be compared with contour carving, but all the edges of the grooves become rolled, and sometimes with varying degrees of steepness (more sharply on the side of the design, gradually, gently, on the background side). Due to such oval contours, the background seems to be made of pillows, hence the name. The background is flush with the design.
• flat-relief carving with a selected background - the same carving, but only the background is selected with chisels one level lower. The contours of the drawing also become shaved.
• Abramtsevo-Kudrinskaya carving (Kudrinskaya)- originated in the Abramtsevo estate near Moscow, in the village of Kudrino. The author is considered to be Vasily Vornoskov. The carving is distinguished by a characteristic “curly” ornament - curling garlands of petals and flowers. The same characteristic images of birds and animals are often used. Like flat-relief, it comes with a cushion and a selected background.
• carving "Tatyanka"- this type of carving appeared in the 90s of the XX century. The author (Shamil Sasykov) named this formed style in honor of his wife and patented it. As a rule, such carvings contain floral ornaments. A characteristic feature is the absence of a background as such - one carved element gradually merges into another or is superimposed on it, thus filling the entire space.

Sculptural carving

USSR stamp, 1979, Bogorodskaya carving

A distinctive feature is the presence of sculpture - images of individual figures (or groups of figures) of people, animals, birds or other objects. In fact, it is the most difficult type of carving, since it requires the carver to have a three-dimensional vision of the figure, a sense of perspective, and maintain proportions.

It is considered a separate subspecies Bogorodskaya carving. The art of chainsaw carving, which is becoming increasingly popular both among carvers and connoisseurs of beauty, can also be considered a type of sculptural carving. Popularity is easy to explain. Chainsaw carving is, first of all, an action, a performance, a show. Increasingly, festivals, competitions, and demonstration performances by chainsaw carving masters at public events, presentations, and exhibitions began to be held. Unlike other genres of wood carving, the viewer not only sees the final result of the master’s painstaking and long work, but also visually participates in the process of creating the sculpture.

see also

Notes

Literature

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