http://www.woodreview.com.au 73WOODCARVINGLike Geppetto Did
Wood straight from the tree can have a mind of its own, but
carved into a puppet it will gain a soul. Story by Jeff Donne.‘Once upon a time there was a piece of
wood. It was not an expensive piece of
wood. Far from it. Just a common block
of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs
that are put on the fire in winter to make
cold rooms cosy and warm.’F
or close to 140 years, readers of
a classic Carlo Collodi tale have
witnessed this embryonic beginning
of a wooden puppet we know as
Pinocchio. We’ve delighted at his
impishness, ill-behaviour and eventual
heroism, but what of the puppet, why
should a character made from wood
capture the imaginations of so many?It’s difficult to explain, but there
is something about a puppet; it’s
immediately believable regardless of
how far from reality the puppet really
is. The moment a string is pulled, it’s
as if the puppet gains a soul; it’s alive!And yet I can’t imagine the tale of
Pinocchio imprinting on so many
minds had the story talked of a
puppet made from anything else.
Wood, when cloaked in bark, and
complete with twists and crooked
branches, has life, and as the
impoverished carver, Geppetto finds
out, it’s not afraid to speak its mind.Anyone who has carved a puppet,
or anything else for that matter,
straight from a tree will know how the
wood can speak: wrong way...go with
the grain...too deep...too fast...skirt
around that knot...and so it goes. But
the reward is a carved puppet that is
ready to start its own adventure.1
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