Product Description

The 40 patterns included in this guide for carving green men and wood spirits out of wood are appropriate for carvers of all skill levels. A recent term for a loose archetype - usually the head of a man within nature or a man as part of nature - the green man can be documented as early as A.D. 30 as a Roman architectural accent. The patterns show the green man in his wide range of emotions - happy, sad, miserable, or mischievous - with descriptions of how the wood spirit is anchored to nature not by the imagery of leaves and foliage but by the media on which he is depicted. The wood spirit walking stick patterns show realistic human faces that appear out of the bark or grain of the wood branches or logs in which they are being carved.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137522 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 104 pages

Customer Reviews

A great introduction
This book has two projects described very clearly in a step by step way (the cover design and a walking stick carving)
I found the quality of the projects very high and the descriptions very clear.

Next is a section with photographs of green man carvings from various churches etc

Finally a large selection of green man line drawings to use as project templates (or to adapt to your own design)

There's just enough text to explain the background and variety of green men - but then the images are allowed to speak for themselves

Wood Spirits and Green Men
This book is great for people that like to copy others, some great designs but to plastic with no feeling.

Not for beginners!
Well illustrated but very sparse on specific use of tools and carving techniques.The instruction for carving the f/cover illustrated design includes a long list of tools needed, but no specific guidance to use which tool where. A bit disappointing really if you expect advice on the execution of the art, but note the title; 'Design Sourcebook for Woodcarvers...'
not 'How to Carve...' Good section on examples of the art in architecture of antiquity, quite inspiring. If you can already carve to an intermediate level, you will like this book.