Wood Art

[ragiarn]

I was at an ethiopian restaurant today and was awe struck by some wood art that seems somewhat similar to intarsia. I thought I would share with readers of this forum.

Apparently the works are made entirely of native wood from Ethiopia.

Enjoy.

Doc

[Chase]

My 2 cents is its closer to wood carving than anything else.

What ever you call it, its very nice and whoever did it is talented, very talented.

Chase

[minowevie]

Doc, those are wonderfull. reminds me of my church's pictures at thursday night mass. love the 3rd one the best. with the reads or brush on the back of the follower. they are all great. and so humbale. your friend
Evie

[Janette]

It's hard to tell in the pictures but it does look like they're carved- maybe a combination of both. Very nice work regardless.

[workin for wood]

Right, those are relief carvings. Sure look great though..beautiful texturing and painting skills.

[ragiarn]

Originally Posted by Janette

It's hard to tell in the pictures but it does look like they're carved- maybe a combination of both. Very nice work regardless.

In fact it the shaping was most likely done using carving techniques however what most resembled intarsia as we know it is the combination of colors of wood to get the effect. I suspect that there is a also a combination of other materials.

With regards to sculpture vs intarsia I was reading JGR's recent catalog and came across the following quote from Judy: "Dimensional intarsia is a form of sculpture, bas-relief to be exact."

In the internet version of the catalog there are a bios of Judy and Jerry. What makes very interesting reading is how Judy started this whole renaissance of an old form of woodworking. ( About Judy Gale Roberts and Jerry Booher ) It is worth reading.

Just to quote Judy: "After working with this technique (we called them wood murals at the time) I realized how much I enjoyed sculpting the wood, working with grains and colors of wood. When you start shaping the wood it comes to life."

It is also very interesting to know how Judy and Jerry decided to call their work Intarsia.

"Jerry sent pictures to the National Woodcarvers Association asking if they knew if there was a name for this technique of woodworking. Ed wrote back and said it was called Intarsia, and the only place he had seen it was in Italy".

If we go back and look at the original work done In Italy in the 1400-1500s:

"Intarsia are mosaics made of pieces of inlaid wood.(see photo below) They are a remarkable art form which reached a peak in northern Italy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Many outstanding examples of this period feature polyhedra. Below are four intarsia panels by Fra Giovanni da Verona, constructed around 1520"

You can see from the photo below that the work is totally flat and the 3D effect is achieved through using different shades of wood and a form of art where more distant objects are proportinally smaller.

What we call Intarsia more closely resembles sculpture than the original intarsia.

I believe it is irrelevant whether you achieve contouring and shaping using a chisel, knife or sandpaper. The end result is the same. Judy calls her work dimensional Intarsia I believe to distinguish it from the Intarsia in the 1400-1500. She does not hesitate to use the word sculpting in describing what she does and compares it to bas-relief sculpting. (perhaps if Jerry is lurking in the background he can clarify this for us).

When I posted photos of what I called Intarsia 360 people remarked that it looked more like sculpting and some said it looked like carving. However what I did was nothing more than two virtually mirror image pieces of intarsia and melded them together. All the contouring and shaping was done using scrollsaw, and various sanding techniques.

In looking closely at the ethiopian works there is no evidence that the wood was in any way painted or stained. I have to believe that the work is a combination of multiple pieces of wood cut shaped and put together since is its virtually impossible to get a single flat piece of wood (not plywood) in those dimensions from which to carve. The different texture and colors of the woods most resembles the dimensional Intarsia.

If you examine the robes and as well as the face and arms they appear to be made of two different types of wood and yet even close up I was unable to see the seams where the pieces were joined.

In my opinion what we call dimensional intarsia more closely resembles the Ethiopian art form in the photos than it does the Polyhedra Intarsia of Fra Giovanni.

Just my opinion.


Doc

[f250]

I love being here and reading this board! You guys will make me so smart one day.

I really don't care what it is called, the techniques here and in so many different things posted on this board are both beautiful and incredible. I am proud to be a part of this, when they look back 500 or 1000 years from now and see what we've done, they will love our work.

Tom

[FreidaK]

So many of my clients are confused by the process - I've begun to refer to it as "bas-relief marquetry"... don't know if it's right or wrong, but they seem to be able to grasp that easier?
I agree that it's not totally like the "Intarsia" of Italy. I am trying to work a carving 'style' more into my pieces - if you think about it, anything we make using the Intarsia method can be carved; it's a lot easier, imo, to cut if from the wood and shape than to try to "pull" it out of the wood!lol Believe me, I've tried carving, and there ain't nuthin' easy about it! =D I really respect those that can, but I think we still need to remain apart from the actual genre, because even if we do 'carve' the individual pieces, it's still not 'carving' in the true sense. It will always be different, until we can make multi-colored trees grow! lol
I don't know if I put that right, but I hope you know what I mean...
just my 2,
Freida

[f250]

Ok, whoever it was that called it painting with wood is close to a winner! How about 3D painting with wood?

Tom

[JohnB]

G'day Doc,
They are clever pieces. What I found more interesting was the frames. I really like those.

I don't know what that makes me