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Art and craft

Art and craft convey the inner feeling of the artist. Art is a talent which each person has to discover and it is the indication of the changing time, ideas, thoughts, science, technology and overall culture of the land concern. Craft, on the other hand, has much more to do with working with hands and involves skill, technique, and practice.

Wood carving could be defined as cutting and carving the wood in a desired way. Carving means design or cutting by chipping away at a surface. It is necessary to first identify the texture of wood before the process of carving is initiated. Wood used for carving can be classified into two kinds, namely, hardwood and softwood.

Hardwood -refers to wood that is obtained from deciduous broadleaved trees, which shed their leaves annually. Examples of hardwood trees are teak, oak, rosewood, sandalwood, walnut etc.

Softwood- it comes from trees bearing cones, most of which are evergreen. It is ideal for carving, since it is easy to cut, doesn't splinter, glues well and is good for laminating. Softwood includes pine, cedar, and fir trees.

Wood carving Techniques

There are various techniques to carve wood. Wood carving may be broadly classified into four types:

• Relief Carving: it is a type of wood carving that is basically a two dimensional carving, used for things like wall plaques and household decorations. 
• Chip Carving: it is one of the oldest and simplest types of wood carving. This is a method of literally removing chips from the wood to form a design or geometric pattern.  Chip carving is used to decorate many household items such as music boxes, spoons, hope chests, beams, borders and ceilings.  

• Carving in the Round: It is a three dimensional type of wood carving.  This type of wood carving opens the door to every tool you can imagine and any kind of wood.   Some of the more popular figures to carve are birds, people and fish. 
• Whittling: Whittling is the art of taking a piece of raw wood and carving it into shapes by using a knife.  It is reminiscent of a “simpler” time. 

Carving Tools

A set of tools is extremely essential to carve wood into desired shapes and designs. The most common tools used by craftsmen to carve Wood:

• Carving knives are basic carving tools. They are available in various shapes and sizes.
• Chisels have a cutting edge, and are forced into the Wood to produce carved patterns.  Square and skew are the two kinds of chisels.
• Gouges are chisels with a partly cylindrical blade. They have curved cutting edges.
• Rasps and files are used for detailed carving. They have separate conical teeth, and are excellent for shaping decoys.
• Grinding Tools are also called Rotary tools, these are one of the most commonly used and preferred tools. Grinding tools should be used in ventilated areas as they generate a lot of dust.
• V-tools are known as parting tools, have cutting edges in the shape of a 'V'. V-tools are used to make sharp incisions and fine carving.

The wood carving helps to develop creativity and imagination by seeing the world around us and its tradition. The creative process itself gives us many aesthetic experiences and the final effect gives us a huge satisfaction.