Wednesday, 11 Jan 2017 11:29 GMT

Ambitious wood-carving project pays off

Joe Valasek, owner of Heartwood Carving, has completed what he describes as “the most ambitious relief-carving project” he has ever done using ArtCAM, the woodworking design software.

The project involved an eight-foot high set of doors made for a public art project at the Oregon Department of Forestry headquarters in Salem.

"Some areas had a fair amount of hand carving but maybe 85% of the panels were carved on the CNC [where the] thickness is one inch,” says Valasek.
Some areas had a fair amount of hand carving but maybe 85% of the panels were carved on the CNC [where the] thickness is one inch

He continues: “I started with a sketch. I've carved several murals and doors in the past, so I sort of knew what might be likely to work. I carve most of my trees by hand, using rotary tools, and then I digitise them with the PICZA scanner. Then I build the hills and lakes or streams in ArtCAM and add the digitized model trees to them in the software. There are a lot of steps, but each one is fairly simple.”


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