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The oldest male resident, who was born in 1932 and lives in one of the East Bohemian villages not far from the Iron Mountains, uses his carving art to create various busts, figures and frames for paintings, mainly from linden and birch.
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The atmosphere of the unique place adds a certain charm to the black and white photographs of the old man. The place where sculptures are created from his ideas, the power of thoughts engraves into pieces of wood, which takes on a unique shape. The light passing through the workshop window falls not only on the carver’s face, but also on the surrounding world…
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Carving wood is mainly linden. It does not have a hard and soft, i.e. winter and summer annual cycle, and therefore it does not skip. But you can cut practically everything. However, a completely different angle must be sharpened into hardwood. If a carver were to make both types of wood, he would have to have as many chisels as once. One sharpened for soft wood and the other for hard wood.
Carving is an art-craft field that has been developing since the end of the Middle Ages. If we focus on sculpture as such, materials other than wood were used in previous periods. The most significant period for the development of carving is the 17th and 18th centuries, i.e. the Baroque era. At that time, sculptures and equipment were produced mainly for church interiors.