Obscure Craft Book Thursday: German wood carving books
KatieWe missed a couple Obscure Craft Book Thursdays with the holiday rush, but now we're back on track. I want to do more simple wood carving with Julian this winter. With my baby axe and the new knife he received (a Bruseletto Balder, see the link for an article on choosing a knife for a child), we are ready to go. I bought a couple new carving books before the holidays. I had a hard time finding wood carving books that had the aesthetic I was looking for and had projects that were simple enough for both of us. I managed to find a few good ones but the only trouble is they are in German. I am working on getting some translations of a few projects and Google translate certainly helps, but the photos alone are plenty helpful and inspiring.
They are both written by Danish author Frank Egholm and believe it or not, he has a blog with some great projects as well. Here's the first book-
Schnitzen mit Kindern, or Carving with Children has super simple but sweet projects for children working with green wood and twigs. Here are a couple pages-
The second book is Bewegliche Holzspielzeugselbst, or Moveable Wooden Toys.
It has more complicated and colorful projects. Including some simple automata:
I want to take on the challenge of making automata soon, and I really like the way he incorporates hand-carved figures.
Look at this beautiful door knocker. There are no real directions for this one, but I think it won't be too hard to figure out.
It's so fun to have such rich inspiration! I have relaxed my already relaxed house cleaning standards and the boys and I carve at the dining room table when it's cold outside. I look forward to sharing projects we carve. I have two more carving books to share soon, one's even in English!
Reader Comments (7)
oh this is cool! i can't wait to do these one day with my son.
I just got a kit at Lowe's for less than thre dollars on clearance, for making a crank music box... it might be something you could add hand carved things to! :) It was in the kids tools/project area!
Hallie- I just bought the same one on Christmas Eve- it was $2.98! So cool. I tucked it away for next year.
What a treasure! And timing! In making my list of goals for 2011 I wrote "learn to carve"! For some reason the desire has surfaced recently. But in my mind, I am seeing simple carvings like these.
Thanks for sharing this book - I will keep a look out.
AND again, thank you for the flying snake pattern and the extra bit of help by e-mail. Antonio loves them!
Happy 2011
Thanks Pam! It has been hard for me to find instructions and inspiration for the type of carving I want to do, which, like you said, is simple.
I am so glad you and Antonio were pleased with the snake, it's so satisfying to learn new knitting skills!
THankyou Thankyou! I just love these images! My husband and son would just love to make these thinsg. How beautiful and inspiring!
Thanks a lot for this article, my son wants to learn carving, but the one book he already has is far to complicated... I am sure he will love "Schnitzen mit Kindern".
Being German myself, maybe I can help with translating some articles for you?