Carved Acanthusswirl Appliqué

Projects, Woodcarving

Steve Bisco carves and guilds a classical acanthus swirl in sapele mahogany

Table of Contents

Carving with sapele mahogany
You will need
Preparations
Roughing out
Carving the detail
Finishing
Further reading

The classical acanthus swirl is one of the mainstays of decorative carving. It forms the swirling foliage of just about every type of classical decoration, including ancient Greek and Roman, 17th-century Baroque, 18th-century Rococo and 19th-century Neo-Classical. It appears in crestings, furniture, picture frames, mirror frames, chimney pieces, friezes, staircases, capitals, corbels and just about anything that can be carved in wood and stone. Sometimes the leaves are densely entwined together, and in other examples they are thinly strung out along slender vines. They generally bear only a slight resemblance to a real acanthus – a plant with indented green leaves and unfurling fronds that grows as a weed in the Mediterranean, and also quite well in my East Anglian garden.

It takes practice to master the subtleties that put the life into an acanthus carving. Tiny little touches at the leaf ends, such as the little half-moon incisions and the downward twist of the gouge at a leaf tip, can make a big difference to the appearance. Also the shallow concave surfaces of the broader leaves, the deeper channels of the narrower stems, and the half-unfurled fronds that roll over on themselves. You must capture the fluidity of the swirl, twisting and turning upwards, downwards and sideways, continually on the move like a living organism.

All the 88-92 Carved acanthus swirl curves must be smooth – an awkward angle or a straight line will spoil the carving. And you must accentuate the curves with grooves and vein lines that flow all the way along a leaf or stem, never losing that continuous smooth line.

This project gives us an exercise with which to practise acanthus carving, and also an attractive ornament at the end of it. I have made it in sapele – one of the mahogany substitutes that is much easier to obtain than the real thing. I’ve finished it with French polish and given it ‘highlights’ of real 233⁄4-carat gold leaf (known as parcel gilding), which on this scale is much easier than it sounds. If you just want some acanthus practice without a fancy finish and the challenge of a hardwood such as sapele, you can, of course, just carve it in lime with any finish (or none) to suit your taste.

Carving with sapele mahogany

Mahogany hardwoods are much favoured for their rich-red lustrous surfaces, but the genuine mahogany traditionally used for carving and cabinetmaking, Swietenia macrophylla, can be difficult to obtain today. Substitutes like sapele are the next best thing and are quite easy to obtain from hardwood suppliers and many general timber merchants. Sapele gives a highly decorative finish, but it can be hard work to carve. It is quite hard and brittle with an unpredictable grain, so care is needed to prevent splinters breaking off. In awkward sections it is often safest to carve across the grain or by using skew gouges. Sapele has a moderate blunting effect on tools, so frequent honing is needed. All mahoganies produce a beautifully rich period effect when finished with French polish and decorated with gilding.