Blog Tag

relief carving

Every blog article tagged relief carving.

August 10, 2026

How to carve an acanthus over a molding

A running acanthus over a molding is a repeating carved leaf that follows a molded profile instead of a flat panel. The order of work, the sweeps, and the undercut that makes the leaf read as applied.

August 1, 2026

Greek vs Roman Acanthus Leaf. How to Tell Styles Apart

An 1871 journal mapped every acanthus style a carver meets. I walk through its plates, Greek to Baroque, and show what your gouge should do about each one.

July 29, 2026

Acanthus wood carving: draw the leaf before you touch the gouge

Acanthus carving is a drawing problem first. Here are the four rules for building the leaf, taken from I. Page's 1886 guide, and what they change about the way you carve one.

July 24, 2026

Who teaches Grinling Gibbons style wood carving?

How I teach Grinling Gibbons style wood carving I teach Grinling Gibbons style wood carving in my own carving school, and I want to be straight with you about what this work asks of a person. Plenty of people can carve a simple flower in an afternoon. This is different. My name is Alexander Grabovetskiy, and when you come to my bench, we work the old way, with hand tools, real wood, and the patience to do it right.

August 15, 2024

Wood carving tips for beginners, and the order the problems arrive

A hundred people a year start carving in front of me, and the mistakes arrive in the same order every time. Bench height, light, a pattern that slipped, an edge that went dull two hours ago. Here is the list I would hand you across the bench.

August 7, 2024

Wood carving pictures, and how to read one before you carve it

A photograph gives you the outline and the proportion honestly, then lies about depth every time. Here is how I read a picture on paid work, the paper and glue transfer that has not changed in twenty years, and why your leaf keeps coming out flat.

August 3, 2024

Wood carving classes for beginners, and how to tell a good one

The question underneath most emails about classes is whether the money will be wasted. Here is what I look for when somebody sends me a course to check, what I built into my own beginner course after students asked for one, and the two questions worth asking before you pay anybody.

July 21, 2024

Beginner wood carving, the first year in the order it really happens

One knife, one basswood board, and a year of short evenings. Here is the whole first year in the order it really happens, from the three angles you practise in week one to the panel that finally reads from across a room.

June 30, 2024

Wood carving tips that matter, and what really makes a master carver

Tips are worth very little on their own. What separates a carver who keeps improving from one who stalls is understanding why each move is made. Here are the reasons behind the moves, the layer trick that makes relief read deep, and the two places practice actually pays.

June 27, 2024

Why wood carving is so popular, and what keeps people at the bench

People watch carving videos for months before they touch a board. Here is what actually pulls them in, what stops about half of them by week three, and the one thing that keeps the rest at the bench for thirty years.

December 7, 2023

From Russia to America, and What I Carve Now

Alexander Grabovetskiy is a master wood carver, born in 1973 in Dimitrovgrad in the Russian part of the Soviet Union. His great-grandfather built mahogany furniture in the Chippendale style. He ruined his own grandfather's chisel on a brick at six, became the only student of the carver Vladimir Tokarev at sixteen, and reached the United States as a refugee on 15 March 1996 with almost no English. He built the woodworking firm Aalmark in Indiana, hired other refugee woodworkers, then sold every machine to carve full time. In 2012 a panel called Wall Decoration took first place and made him International Woodcarver of the Year.

February 22, 2023

Carving wood wall art that reads from across the room

A carved panel is a size and light problem before it is a carving problem. Here is how big to make it, which wall it belongs on, how deep it has to go, and the two places I would never hang one.

January 10, 2023

Wood carving techniques that change the work, and the order to learn them

Six moves decide how a carving reads from across a room, and they are worth wildly different amounts. Depth first, then the surface, then what the steel leaves behind. Here is the order I teach them in.

November 29, 2022

What should I carve as a beginner?

The honest answer is three knife cuts on a scrap of basswood, not an object. Here is the order I put in front of every beginner, with the tools, the wood and the first two projects.

November 16, 2022

Will wood carving lessons online teach how to carve wood, honestly

A camera set six inches from the blade shows a rotation nobody can see from four feet back. What it cannot do is put a hand on your wrist when you press too hard. Here is the honest split, and the five habits that close the gap.

November 15, 2022

The basics of wood carving, and the order they actually bite

Beginners do not fail because the design was hard. They fail in four places: the grain tore, the board slid, the tool was blunt, or the spare hand sat in front of the edge. Here is the short list, in the order it bites.

November 8, 2022

How do I learn to carve wood, and the order that actually works

There is no shortcut, but there is an order, and the order matters more than talent. One knife for a month, sharpening in week two, drawing in month three, and one shape repeated until your hands stop thinking about it.

December 18, 2020

How to carve a lion head onlay like a master carver

My first paid lion head went onto a bar panel in Indiana when I was in my twenties, and I did it in the wrong order. Here is the order I use now on real commissions, from the museum research through the clay model to the seven carving stages.