Beautiful Hand Carved Wooden Animals From South Africa.
I stumbled upon these unique wood carvings outside one of our local craft markets. For me there is nothing more beautiful than wood being used in its natural form and that is exactly what these artists did. These beautiful art pieces can be used to add character and uniqueness to your garden or home.
Selecting the right wood for these carvings is just as important as the art itself. If you use the wrong wood it will shrink and crack especially if placed outside. They often use wood like: Mahogany, Olive wood, Lead Wood, Sandalwood, Ironwood, Rosewood, Ebony, and African Walnut. The artists use hand held tools to sculpt these animals. Polishing the pieces with oil, they enhance the color and bring out the different colored grains.
Rosewood is not plentiful in our country but is has a lovely raid and brown grain mix and it is quite a hard wood.
Ironwood has a dark red/brown color but is dependable on the age of the tree. It is very durable because of the density of the grain.
Ebony is a black hardwood and one of the very expensive woods in the world.
African Walnut is a dark brown wood with bronze lines in it and is very strong.
Your dad is a funny guy.