Starter Kit. Idea 37 of 500. Cluster 2
Wood carving classes
The mechanism, from the book
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
The first step
Offer a woodcarver a fixed fee to host three visitors for one afternoon, each carving a small motif in soft wood. Bring the visitors yourself, through a guesthouse or a travel forum post. Afterwards, ask the carver whether they would run it weekly and ask the guests what they would pay. Two yeses are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Visitors with an afternoon to spare who want to carve their own piece, and the tour drivers who bring them there.
- What leaves today
- Carvings sell to visitors at bargained prices; teaching sells the carver's hours and skill at a fixed and fair rate.
Ask first
- National Crafts Council. Ask which carvers could teach visitors and what support exists for classes.
- Forest Department. Ask which woods can be legally bought for carving, and whether exports need papers.
Check before you spend
That the wood is legally sourced, that a visitor can take a carving abroad without trouble at customs, and that tools are safe for beginners.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a visitor pay for a carving lesson and their piece?
- How long does a beginner need to finish something worth keeping?
- What does a block of legal wood cost?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka. Chapter Five
"Sri Lanka has a dozen crafts of the same order and treats"
The book counts carving among a dozen crafts nobody yet sells as an experience.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.