• Carvings

This is an artistic technique by which ornaments are created, whether recessed or in relief on wood surfaces; it is distinguished as a sculpture to decorate (and was considered for centuries amongst the “minor” arts) and as it’s function was often secondary compared to the craftsmanship of the piece of furniture it was applied to.  The wood used is a light support, often soft and easy to carve; it also has a considerable resistance to the gluing and can be glued and inserted. There are many different woods, each distinguished by colour and individual natural grains, often very appreciated for their look.  The surfaces of wood is usually recessed and grooved with the use of various types of chisels and drills; the finishing phase is done by rasps, files and sand-paper.  The objects that are recessed can be painted and decorated directly, or after having been covered by a fabric or plaster.  It is also possible to leave the wood in it’s natural state and simply polish it.  Usually classic furniture require the use of able carvers to chisel figures and ornaments, but for each artistic work, at the base of this art, there is the design as well as the manual capabilities, together with good taste.  Useless to remember that the carver distinguishes his artistic work, because they are all manually done, therefore originals, and cannot be reproduced in series.

Types of workmanships:

• All Round: to determine a figure in it’s actual volumes.  
• Relief on surface: the surrounding material is removed in order to create a figure in relief but crushed or packed, low relief, similar as on coins.  
• Low relief: the figures are not very deep.
• High relief: The figures completely emerge from the surface.

Tools:
The classic tools, apart from a carpenters bench (a robust table complete with vices):

• Graving tool: steel graver to chisel the wood.  
• Chisel: steel bars of small dimensions with wooden handle and a sharp point.  
• Gouge: these are similar to chisels but with a curved point.  
• Mallet: wooden hammer.  

Wood choices:

The easiest types of wood to work are soft and from the “coniferous family” (pine, fir, lime-tree, poplar, etc.) and preferably without knots, and these are still used today, when they are covered with plaster and painted with lacquer or gilded.

Hard woods: (European walnut, maple, pear, box-tree, olive, chestnut, ebony, ecc.)are all traditionally transparent polished.

Techniques:

There are no universal techniques, they can be acquired only through experience, but some guide lines to follow can help those who want to pursue this art.  As far as the method to follow after creating an accurate drawing and at times three-dimensional, a model in clay in scale 1:1 is made.  The first operation to carry-out after having chosen the wood, is to do a tracing which means to draw on three faces (in an all round) the whole block of the outline.  At this point, it is shaped either manually or with a band-saw.  A rough hew is done with a large gouge.  When the volumes required emerge, it is necessary to do a second tracing, which consists in defining the details.  The work will be terminated with the use of other tools, as is necessary.  This is also the most delicate phase, because a mistake can compromise the outcome of the work, because once wood is removed, it is not possible to re-apply it without the join being invisible.

• Inlayng

Inlaying is a decorative technique that allows the insertion of elements of a certain material (wood, brass, ivory, tortoise-shell, mother of pearl) in a surface of different material (usually wood): the beauty of the result of an inlay comes from the colour contrast and the aspect between the base and the decorations.  The shape of the decoration is cut in the material chosen and is then carved into the support by means of a sharp instrument.  In the slight gap therefore created, the motive is glued, so that the surface is as smooth as possible.
The inlay has been used to decorate furniture, musical instruments, and small objects in wood, like trays, boxes or to create pictures.  Particularly interesting pieces are the antique caskets from the antique Egypt, Chinese furniture of the Ming dynasty, and Indian products for the western world since the 17^th Century.  In Europe, the technique of inlaying as art spread about during the middle-ages and continued to be applied until the 700’s; at the beginning of the 20^th Century it was re-evaluated by the movement of the Arts and Crafts.

• Why Inlay ?

    

   

In a piece of furniture with large flat surfaces, like for example a table or a credenza of average sizes, the panels with uniform grains or that are repeated symmetrically, often give the furniture a heavy look.  The inlays were essentially born for this reason: to break the monotony and contribute to lighten the piece.  Even though we are well aware that there are examples of inlaying that have reached a complexity that is considered of artistic level and lives a life of it’s own; to the point that it looses completely it’s initial function of “lightening”.