Wood carving is one of the oldest techniques of decorative art. Over the history of the existence of the craft, several varieties of it appeared. The most diverse is considered flat-relief carving, classified into geometric, embossed, weathered with matched and cushioned background and contour.
What is a contour thread?
Wood carving in contouring technique is often found on wooden products of different peoples of the country. The ornament in it is applied to the surface with recessed lines. Throughout the whole picture, the depth and width of the slots remain unchanged, but they can also vary depending on the design of the master and the pattern for contour woodcarving. The difference in the depth and width of the grooved contours gives the pattern plasticity and sophistication. The carving in the contour technique seems simple and easy at first glance, but to achieve a high-quality and aesthetic pattern is possible only after obtaining the necessary skills and learning the techniques of the Kudrino and geometric techniques.
History
How did contour thread appear ? Wood carving in contouring technology is practically not tracked in time as an independent craft. She entered into other forms of art. Masters of Kudrino carving, for example, trying to achieve a contrast with rounded plant elements, introduced in-depth contour strokes, cross veins on leaves, parts of flowers and fruits, cut small details of animals, birds and fish. As a clean wood carving, contour carving is extremely difficult to meet. It is often combined with other techniques.
At the same time, there are a large number of works of folk art with skillfully executed floral and geometric patterns for contour wood carvings. Masters of carpentry, who made Yaroslavl spinning wheels in the 19th century, combined decorative nail cuts on wood and domestic, genre scenes in contouring technique. To increase the expressiveness of such carvings, wooden products have recently begun to tint in dark and black tones, on which the recesses look more bright and contrast.
Compositions on a black background
Art exhibitions rarely do without contrasting contour carvings, or wood carvings on a black background. In such products, the visibility of the final result is primarily attractive: white lines are cut out on a black surface.
Masters in this technique most often perform plots that do not correspond to the style of outline woodcarving sketches. Often there are graphic landscapes made on a dark background, which is associated with the frequent adoption of this method of carving for linocut.
In reality, contour carving on a light or black background is an independent technique for the artistic processing of wood with decorative means of expression that are characteristic only for it. To avoid imitation of linocut, special illustrated editions offer sketches of contour woodcarving for beginners with detailed descriptions.
Work order
The contour thread is based on recessed lines cut by a shtikhel, chisels, oblique knife or profile cutters. The technique, made by semicircular chisels and a slanting knife, is the most simple and expressive.
Unlike Kudrinsky or geometric, for decorative contouring, specific decorative figures are uncharacteristic. For this reason, beginners in carpentry are taught basic cuts.
Wood carving consists of several stages: preparing the foundation, choosing an ornament, translating the sketch into wood, cutting out the pattern, and finishing processes.
Foundation preparation
Deciduous wood species - alder, linden, birch, aspen - are best suited for contour carving. Softwoods are practically not used due to different hardness of layers and pronounced texture.
A homogeneous wood blank is prepared for carving. If a light background is required, then the tree is processed with a planer. A dark background is achieved by tinting the workpiece. To obtain a shiny surface, the wood is coated with black varnish and polished. When using simple and widespread dyes - gouache, carcass, watercolors, tempera, aniline paints, mordants and stains - the wood is either left matte, or covered with light varnish and polished.
The masters of carpentry in the Carpathian region, when creating a traditional Yavoriv carving, tint the wooden base in different colors - not only in classic black, but also in green, red, brown and blue. This method can also be seen in the photo of contour woodcarving.
For further work, the wood blank is fastened in the holders or clamps of the workbench. Holders - planed boards mounted on a workbench and holding the workpiece.
Song selection
The composition is based on drawings and sketches of contour wood carvings, the characteristics of the particular technique and material on which it will be applied. The contours of the picture should be extremely clear and precise. Perform them in one continuous line, while the knife moves on the right and left sides. The drawing is made including a double line, marking the trace of the knife.
Stencils for contour woodcarving for the first experiments in the carpentry are presented in the article. As a set of skills, masters can create their own compositions.
The pattern for a light background is transferred by dark lines to white paper. If the wood is tinted, then the sketch is done with gouache white on colored paper.
Drawing translation
The image on the wooden blank is transferred in two ways. This can be done with carbon paper - black or colored depending on the background of the tree - or a ballpoint pen without paste by extruding the contours on the surface of the wood.
Thread technique
The wood carving process is carried out in two stages - notching and trimming. Contour woodcarving for beginners begins with leading the knife along the lines of the drawing with the applied effort. In relation to the surface of the wood, the knife should not be located vertically, but at a small angle, which is called notching. After that, they begin to trim, changing the position of the knife in the palm of the hand: the arm is tilted in the opposite direction and with effort they trim the already cut outline of the pattern. As a result, a wooden trihedral strip comes out from under the knife.
The chips should be separated from the wood after the knife - in this case, the thread will be clean, with thin and accurate outlines. The remaining straws in the groove are removed with a knife by means of repeated, deeper cutting.
Incision
When cutting a contour groove, the tool is held with two hands: the knife is clamped by the palm of one hand, and its blade is guided by the fingers of the other with adjustment of the direction of movement and the stop force. Contour carving in most cases is done with an oblique knife, but for a better and more refined drawing, the masters advise using semicircular chisels.
If animals or any other ornament made using the contour woodcarving technique have a large number of small details with rounded edges, then a semicircular chisel is used to cut them. The tool is clamped in a fist at a slight angle to the center. The sharp edge is placed at a distance of 1-1.5 mm from the center of the line. The blade goes deeper into the wood by a few millimeters and smoothly rotates the brush around the axis. The movement continues until the line closes. In this way, an incision is made.
Pruning
Cutting is performed with the same tool or a more sloping chisel, retreating from the center of the line of the ornament by one and a half millimeters to the outside and deepening the chisel into the wood, cutting the chips with a few movements. With a small rounding radius, the notch is not made by the entire blade of the chisel, but only by one angle, and the second corner should go out. This technique allows you to perform rounding of different radius in the presence of a minimum number of chisels. Reception is indispensable when working in the technique of not only contour, but also a much more complex relief thread.
In the absence of semicircular chisels, the rounded elements in the contour thread are made with an ordinary oblique knife. However, with such work, it should be borne in mind that the sharpness of the angle of sharpening of the blade depends on the diameter of the circle: the smaller it is, the sharper the blade should be. A slanting knife can move in different directions to decorate the planned ornament.
To simplify and convenience the process of contour woodcarving, the master can turn the workpiece in different directions. To do this, the wood is removed from the holders or the machine, rearranged and clamped again. Over time, the carpenter learns to cut in different directions, without touching the workpiece during operation and without rearranging it. For this reason, contour carving is performed standing up - this position gives greater freedom of action to the joiner and makes all lines more continuous and smooth, which is considered a guarantee of high-quality performance of an artistic pattern in a similar technique.
Finishing the finished product
The composition in the technique of contour carving can be performed both on plain and tinted and polished wood surfaces. In the second case, further processing of the material is not required. If the ornament was carved on light wood, then it is covered with transparent varnish, previously grinding the surface with fine sandpaper. Grinding is necessarily carried out along wood fibers. It is better to grind turned products and cover them with transparent varnish in the clamped state when rotating in the machine. Accordingly, the turned product is not cut from the wooden workpiece, but is removed, threaded and re-clamped in the machine, after which it is finished, dried and only then cut.
The type of finish is selected depending on the purpose of the wood product. The surface can be varnished to a shine or remain dull with a hard brush applied to the thread of diluted varnish. The polished surface of the contour thread before varnishing with transparent compositions can be tinted in different colors by painting only the background or the background with separate, most recessed lines. Varnish is applied only to carefully dried wood surfaces.
Beginning wood craftsmen perform work in the technique of contour carving on flat boards. As you gain experience and improve skills, you can begin to work with more complex products: furniture, household items and household items. On such elements, contour carving can act both as a separate independent technique, and as an additional artistic decor, paired with other carpentry art techniques. Contour carving allows you to perform delicate and aesthetic ornaments in various styles.