Wood Carving - Madurai, Tamil Nadu
There are two qualities of wood, softer and harder woods. Softer wood is chosen when intricate designs have to be carved. Harder wood is used for making furniture and other house hold items. For the temples, the design is mostly of gods and goddesses, simple floral drawings.
The process of the wood carving starts by selection of the wood as per the required size of the products to be made. The wood chosen for carving is rose wood. Artisan draw the design directly on wooden surface using pen without any reference of paper sketch. Then start the carving process. The carving process takes more time and need more concentration.
Firstly the artisan is taking the chisels and hammer and placing it nearby for an easy movement of the process. Chisels are of different sizes and bits, which is used in different intervals of carving process. The shaping of the subject is taken over by the detailing chisels like small flat bit chisel, Slant cutting chisel, small thin bull point chisel, straight chisel.
Woodcarving starts with a larger tool and gradually movement to smaller tools to finish the details. The driving force is applied by using a hammer. Deep cutting is made by using U shaped chisel. V shaped chisel is used to make little narrow grooves. The thin level cuts are made by using flat chisel. Beat the chisel to make smooth clean cuts through the hard wood using Hammer.
The chisels of various sizes and a hammer is used while carving. Detail work on the drawing is carried on. The main drawing after detailing looks very prominent and clear. The carved piece of wood is rubbed with the sand paper to smoothen the surface. With the help of brush the fine dust is removed from the wooden parts. The wood is polished to give a glossy and finished look.
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