I’m just into creating a physical product, I enjoyed my 3D class in university, I chose product design as my major, I make stuff, origami, playing with clay, sewing, and so on. And my long time romance with creating something physical is whittling or woodcarving. I made my first carved wood probably 9 years ago, I made 2 faces as a couple from the old bed frame’s wood that was available. Yes, the wood was hard and difficult to carve, but I knew nothing about the type of wood suitable for carving so I just worked my hands that hard, and yeah I did make something. After that I never touch wood stuff again, mainly because I don’t know where to get a good wood (and what type) to continue that hobby. So I just forget it all these years.
But the love for wood stuff is in my heart, always. I always look into the wood section in the souvenir shop and so on (lol). Until last year, I found a youtube channel ‘Doug Linker’. He focused on whittling and woodcarving and his creations are just uber super my style. So I spent days, if not weeks, watching all his videos whittling the small little creature, tried to learn how to do it just by watching his videos (lol). I will practiced and followed his hand’s movement to learn how to do it safely and effectively.
Then I couldn’t contained my burning passion for wood whittling, so I tried to find what is the type of wood available in Indonesia that is suitable for whittling. In the US, they usually use basswood, and Mr. Doug also use them often, though he also use just any fresh branch available around, or pencil, or anything. And it is just soooo hard to find the information. Basswood is used for whittling a lot mainly because it has almost no grain and is soft, so it is very ideal to whittling, especially for beginners. I need to compare the name of the woods in Indonesia, find it’s similar wood’s information, because the information for whittling mainly come from the US...and none from Indonesia. It is so weird cause we do have a lot of wood products here, but no information available on how to do it as a hobby.
I spent weeks on researching the wood, and now it’s time to find where to buy the wood. I almost fall into the amazon trap, you know, buying the ready made basswood for whittling hobby package thing, but as I was doing my low buy challenge, I knew that doing that is just against my rule. So I go to the e-commerce platforms and find the wood seller. And then, comparing the wood they have (the density of the wood, bla bla bla) with basswood, tried to find something similar. And I tried to order different types of wood to try it by myself.
I also bought the whittling knife set, I saw some Indonesian youtube channel do whittling (with fresh wood around his house) with just an office cutter. But I’m not into the risk of the thin blade broke and flying into my eyes or something, so I just had to buy the proper knife, at least just to assure my weak heart.
And so I made..
The first one is a man with santa hat. I just kinda followed Mr. Doug’s style but with no proper tutorial, I just tried to remember how he made his. So mine is kinda off in proportion, but it was fine. I used pine wood.
Then I made a giraffe, using Jabon wood. I chose this wood as it is often used for pencil, so I thought this wood must be relatively easy to carve. It is, but still not to the point where I’m completely comfortable, I think it must be because of my knife too, I need to learn how to sharpen it huha.
Then I tried to follow Mr. Doug’s style again, the old man and an indigenous woman. This time more properly prepared. I really like carving these small people, not really deep carve but also have enough detail and shape.
This is how they look after being painted. I also put the antique finish on top of the paint to complete the style. I have some sketches left of other small people I want to carve.
Oh I use pine wood for them, the strength needed to carve them is just similar with jabon wood actually, but the fiber of it is better than jabon, jabon wood’s fiber is small and a lot so I needed to sandpaper them more and it produces more small dust.
After that, my hand hurts so much from putting too much strength while working on them. So I really need to either learn how to properly sharpen my knife, or find a way to make the wood softer. So I searched on youtube (again) on how to make the wood softer for carving. And I found a technique to soak the wood in a mixture of alcohol and water, at least one day before carving it. So I soaked some jabon and pine wood inside a closed container. After 2 days, I tried to work on the wood, it is easier to carved just on the surface, the more I carved the deeper the wood, I found the inside is not absorbing the water yet, so yea I left the other woods inside again and was trying to pick them up after like a week. And the I forgot about them...like 2-3 months I guess??! Hahaha..
When I clean up my room, I found the water inside has been gone, like it was totally absorbed by the woods lol. So I picked up the woods and luckily they still feel moist as they are inside a closed container. So I thought this must be the right time to carve (o yea).
I gave the giraffe to my nephew and he wanted a tiger as well, I always said ‘it is still in my brain’ and he would say ‘let’s take it from the brain’. So this time I think I need to make a tiger. And then I like doodling snakes, so yea snake is also in the plan (actually the wood is thin and long, so snake is just an easy vision lol)
So I made the snake first, and it is really enjoyable as expected.
Then I made the tiger, as you can see the tiger is kinda sitting down, it is because the wood doesn’t have enough height for standing feet, so I make it sitting down. And the wood have some left at the back, so I made a capybara. Well, a big tailed capybara.
Then I painted them, this time it is more colorful style with no antique finish.
And here they are
The woods were soft and easy to carve! Just like a butter (I’m exaggerating), but anyway it is much easier to carve so I think the technique to soak them works like magic. Maybe not 2-3 months haha...I think 1-2 weeks ? Is okay, I’m going to try next.
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