Woodcarving can be simple

Woodcarving can be as simple, or as complex as the project requires, or as the carver cares to make it. “There is a lot of work that goes into sculpting. It can take three months to a year to develop a figure but it depends on the title,” Edwards said. “For me, it’s simple but it can also be a challenging process,” he said.

For Edwards sculpting is as easy as taking the medium (wood), match it with an idea and start at a point in the medium to begin carving. Woodcarving demands skills and patience.

Being a master with his carving knife, Edwards work is influenced by observances and ideas.

He can think of any figure and create it, and his unique collections have found a place all over the world, since tourists are his prime customers. “ I have a natural talent and I don’t repeat any of my work, so when I create a piece for a customer it is one of a kind, no one else in the world has it,” he said.

There are hundreds of wood types, and different woods have different hues or ranges of colour in their natural state. However, Edwards prefers to use more solid mediums like mahogany, teak, purple heart and samaan.

“Cedar and samaan are the two most common mediums I work with. Samaan looks beautiful when finished and people are always astonished with the variation in the colours on the wood,” he said.

Edwards has also sold his pieces to Government Ministries and his pieces vary in price. “The cheapest piece will cost between $4,000 and $5,000 and my most expensive piece is $175,000. His masterpiece to date is a tribute to Beryl Mc Burnie, Mother of Dance entitled “Oh Beryl”. “I did a piece in tribute to the Queen of Dance because she asked me to do a portrait of her face. But I didn’t get the chance to do it before she died,” he said. “My sculpture of Beryl Mc Burnie is a brief biography of her life.”

Edwards hopes the masterpiece of Beryl Mc Burnie will be sold to an institute that supports the arts in this country.

He says that the piece can be also used as a monument of Mc Burnie’s contribution to dance.

His pieces will be exhibited at the Horizon Art Gallery from 8pm to 5pm Monday to Saturday and he can be contacted at 756-7425 for enquiries on his work.