| Her Majesty the Queen has sought highly-skilled
wood-carvers to teach the young, inexperienced people from the
countryside, giving them an opportunity to learn from their teachers
without having to worry about how to earn their living. All this is
done for the preservation of perfect art works as a national
heritage.
Mostly, teak has been used for carving as,
unlike nowadays, it used to grow in abundance in Thailand. Besides,
it has the right quality for the purposes, being fairly soft and
tough, which makes it easy to carve in various beautiful, deep and
sharp patterns. Its natural wood grain is also attractive. When
painted or decorated with lacquer-gilded design, teakwood can
quickly absorb the solutions. Wood-carving is done in two styles
bas-relief and free-standing both of which require similar steps of
carving. Firstly, the carver sketches what he wants to carve on a
piece of wood. Then he uses iron tools like a chisel and a hammer to
cut and shape it accordingly. The work requires great care and
patience as damage can easily occur. The next step is to carve
smaller, more detailed patterns with accordingly smaller tools. The
completely-carved wood may then be painted, lacquered or gilded as
desired. |
