ArtBistro

Does anyone else use wood as a medium for expression and what type of art do you make with it?

wood block printing (more personable than linoleum because you must accommodate for the grain and irregularity) & inking the used block and mounting it as itself

Wood carving (relief or 3-D)

Whittling/chip carving/checkering (like on walking sticks/whistles/pan pipes, gun stocks, or go large with totem poles [consider an electric chain saw for this])

Assemblage (using drift wood, grape vines - whatever you find, where you are)

Furniture (I select flawed material and force the flaw to dominate the piece until it becomes the source of its beauty) Risky if you don't stabilize the condition. Study some jointery and practice on different woods.  [See: Tag Frid,  Bruce Hoadley &  early copies of  "Fine Woodworking" magazine.]

Wood turning on a lathe (from pen shafts to columns to domes) I like "spated" (spoiled-rotted) wood, because its "Green" and making something out of a rarewood doesn't make the "art" any better - it just lets an "investor" believe he paid for something he doesnt understand.

Laminatation over molds (using "drawer bottom" material, heat activated glue, rubber blanket and industrial vacuum)

Marquetry (pictoral incisement/inlay of varying veneers)

Boat building

PS  I personally have soaked popsicle sticks (in my mouth) for hours, until the fibers seperate, then pull & spread them apart like an accordion. With the assistence of an X-acto knife, I tweak the tears and adhesions until I get a landscape or abstraction which suits my taste. I then 'sticker "or press them to dry. I glue them to a wood block,then ink and print them which can create amazingly detailed images.

You can do almost anything with wood, if you think about it, play with it and observe the results!

"Play" with your materials alot. You need to know how they behave. They will lead you to where and how far you can push them. Good Luck!

I draw images on pieces of thin plywood. I play with positive and negative then decide which gets cut. I usually plan on cutting out the light parts. After carving out the light parts, I make prints from the plate using paper and enamel paint. Sometimes the prints are on canvas. I reprint and paint until I feel the image complete. I have many partially done. I should continue working on them today.