What is the best kind of wood to use for a wall hangings or wall sculptures?
I want to create a series of wall carvings of the concepts: faith, love, hope, freedom and vision in Hebrew, Chinese and Hindi. I am looking for a semi-hard wood that will last a long time. I am not a woodworker and don’t really know where to start. I would probably need a piece of wood that is 12″x12″ and at least 1″ thick. I would also like to varnish them to preserve it. I was thinking about pine or birch, but I’m not well versed in wood working so I’m looking for resources and advice. Does anyone here have any experience creating wall wood carvings?
Alder is soft enough to carve and cut, but hard and beautiful too, I have used Alder many times with wonderful results. I am lucky enough to have access to a wood called Brazilian Cherry, It is gorgeous, I carved my name “Kim” in Chinese in a block of it and sanded it until I got to extra fine grit, the sand paper brought out the natural oils in it and it looks varnished, but it’s not. The Brazilian Cherry is very hard, but worth the out come.
Kinetic Wall Sculptures – Dizzy
