Traditional Carving
Traditional woodcarving is essentially the same as it has been for millennia. The tools and techniques are the same. The same time and patience are required to master the craft. It can’t be expedited and shouldn't be rushed.
Each piece is unique. Multiple panels with the same pattern carved by the same person are going to be full of small distinctions here and there – a leaf is pointed in a slightly different direction, a flower’s petals are just a bit wider here than there, the curve on the cusped arch is not exactly the same as the next one.
This speaks to the human element - to the carver who is not a machine. From a distance, the panels look the same, but upon close scrutiny, one sees the prudence of the artist and the strokes of his tools, which are not prone to exact replication.
There is something here of the image of the Creator, Whose work is full of diversity without undermining the unity of the whole. This is one of the many reasons that truly hand-carved elements are appropriate in ecclesiastical settings.
I have been privileged to examine hand-carved pieces from the past and I have also examined mass-manufactured carving from the modern age. There is really no comparing the two.
Where the old work is crisp and lively and distinctly beautiful, the mass-manufactured work of today is flat and lifeless. There is nothing in it of the vivacity found in traditional, skilled work.
It is regrettable that so many firms today are offering mass-produced or machine-made "carvings" under the guise of "hand-carved" woodwork. This is not the case in my shop, where each carving is done by hand, using the same tools and techniques that have been used by my forebears in the craft for countless centuries.