WoodRoyal® Wood
Carving Studio is
a collection of meticulous wooden carvings which depicts the
philosophy, religion, and history including the stories extracted
from literature and erotic works. These masterworks are incredible
examples of Lanna Art, both for its concept and content.
Encompassing death and rebirth. Far greater than the sum of any
descriptive words, it seemed to flow from the soil to heaven itself.
Wood Carving: Thai Lanna's artisan way.
Elephant carving is very popular in the art of Lanna. Chiang Mai, the
Lanna Empire, is the most important city of the Northern Thailand where
is the gathering of local artisans and the center of invaluable
handicrafts. "Wooden carvings" is considered one of the finest
traditional handicrafts that reflect the civilized northern people's way
of life. You can find woodcarving items in many districts of Chiang Mai,
Thailand. Many old craftsmen, who worked for genuine fine arts, passed
away. Furthermore, the young ones prefer to operate commercial works to
afford more money for their lives. Woodcarvings of Northern Thailand. This art
form in Thailand originated from the temples where religious objects
such as Buddha images and pulpits were finely carved. Royal regalia for
the court and household objects used by the nobility were also decorated
with carving in temple buildings, the doors, shutters, gables and
triangular brackets supporting the overhanging roofs were often
intricately carved with animal and plant motifs. Some of the best
examples of carvings in Chiang Mai, Thailand are at Wat Duang Di, Wat
Saen Fang and Wat Inthrawat (Wat Ton Khwen). Nowadays craftsmen
specialize in just one type of carving used in the decoration of a
viharn. However the modern woodcarving industry itself is a development
of only the last few decades.
Traditionally only a few artifacts were
commissioned, and the wooden elephant was the most common everyday
carved object. The popularity of temple carvings imported from Burma as
souvenirs encouraged dealers to get local craftsmen to reproduce them.
The reproduction processes, which include aging methods such as burning
and soaking in urine, have become so good that even experts have
difficulty deciding whether an object is genuinely old. Buddhist monk Phra Bun Prasert (1925-1987) was a celebrated woodcarver who produced works in the traditional
Lanna style. He specialized in the designs of door and window panels.
The quality of the execution of the work depended on the hand of the
craftsmen who actually did the carving. Examples of his work may be seen
in the main viharn at Wat Buppharam, the scripture library at Wat
Rampoeng and the chedi of Wat Phra Bat Tak Pho. He also did stucco work,
the best example of which is seen at the ubosot which sits above the
viharn of Wat Phan On. The scarcity of teak has forced modern
carvers to use other woods like that of the rain tree. These woods carve
well and are inexpensive. Staining to hide the light colors of the woods
has become more common. The carving itself is usually done in the rough
in outlying villages near Mae Tha, before the pieces are sent for
detailed work in the woodcarving center of Ban Tawai near Chiang Mai
city, Thailand.
Genuine Burmese Teak is the common
name for “Tectona grandis”, a large deciduous tree of the family
Verbenaceae, or its wood, one of the most valuable timbers. Teak has
been widely used in India for more than 2,000 years. The name teak is
from the Malayan word tekka. The tree has a straight, but often
buttressed, stem (i.e., thickened at the base, a spreading crown, and
four-sided branch lets with large quadrangular pith. The leaves are
opposite or sometimes whorled in young specimens, about 0.5 meter (1.5
feet) long and 23 centimeters (9 inches) wide. In shape they resemble
those of the tobacco plant, but their substance is hard and the surface
rough. The branches terminate in many small white flowers in large,
erect, cross-branched panicles. The fruit is a drupe (fleshy, with a
stony seed), two-thirds of an inch in diameter. The bark of the stem is
about 1.3 cm thick, gray or brownish gray, the sapwood white; the
unseasoned heartwood has a pleasant and strong aromatic fragrance and a
beautiful golden-yellow colour, which on seasoning darkens into brown,
mottled with darker streaks. The timber retains its aromatic fragrance
to a great age. Native to India, Burma, and Thailand, the tree grows as
far north as about the 25th parallel in these areas and to the 32nd
parallel in the Punjab. The tree is not found near the coast; the most
valuable forests are on low hills up to about 3,000 feet. Stands are
also found in the Philippines and in Java and elsewhere in the Malay
Archipelago. Teak is also planted in Africa and Central America. During
the dry season the tree is leafless; in hot localities the leaves fall
in January, but in moist places the tree remains green until March. At
the end of the dry season, when the first monsoon rains fall, the new
foliage emerges. Although the tree flowers freely, few seeds are
produced because many of the flowers are sterile. The forest fires of
the dry season after the seeds have ripened and have partly fallen,
impede the spread of the tree by self-sown seed. Teak trees on good soil
have attained an average height of 18 m in 15 years, with a girth,
breast high, of 0.5 m. In the natural forests teak timber with a girth
of about 2 m (diameter of 0.6 m) is never less than 100 and often more
than 200 years old. Mature trees are usually not more than 150 ft high.
Due to the oil and rubber found naturally in the wood, teak has a
greater ability to withstand the elements than any other wood. For this
reason it has been the preferred choice for boats, and in fact, it has
been used on aircraft carrier decks! This is because of its ability to
resist splintering, warping and rotting. (If left un-oiled, our
furniture will turn a soft dove gray when allowed to remain outdoors.
This process will take approximately one year.)
Teak timber is valued in warm countries principally for its
extraordinary durability. The timber is practically imperishable under
cover. Teakwood is well know since early/ancient times as a valuable
resource due to its long life reliability and weather resistance as well
as its workable qualities. Pieces of teak have been found (in India)
over 200 years old and still intact. Teakwood is used for shipbuilding,
fine furniture, door and window frames, wharves, bridges, cooling-tower
louvers, flooring, paneling, railway cars, and Venetian blinds. An
important property of teak is its extremely good dimensional stability.
It is strong, of medium weight, and of average hardness. Termites eat
the sapwood but rarely attack the heartwood; it is not, however,
completely resistant to marine borers. Teak also refers specifically to
the wood and its characteristic color, which ranges from olive to
yellowish gray or moderate brown. Teak furniture dates back prior to the
19th century used mainly by the Chinese for export to Europe. The
Victorian era also incorporated the use of teakwood during the
mechanical era of the 1840’s with the invention of presses, veneer
cutters etc which enabled them to create decorative elegant high class
furniture. Another factor here is transportation (shipping) was also
becoming more advanced. Burma produces most of the world's supply,
India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) ranking next in
production.
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