Materials needed
A metal sheet- 3mm
Carving tools- 2
Black paint (matt)
Paint brush
masking tape
Picture you need to carve
Keep ready a picture that you want to carve. Cut the plywood to the size of the picture giving 5-10 inches on all sides to centre it. Cut the metal sheet 2-3 inches larger than the plywood so that it can be wrapped around the plywood when done.
Tape the picture to the metal sheet and applying force, draw with a ball point pen over the trace so that the impression of the design comes out on the metal sheet prominently. Remove the picture when done.
You need 2 carving designer tools (Note picture attached). If you don?t have the tools you could use a small screwdriver set which has points similar to those shown in the picture.
The tool is to be held in the palm, the thumb and the index finger is to be kept on the carving stick as though you are holding a pencil, and press over the traced line, turning the wrist to the right and left during each press, so that a designed zig zag kind of a border is drawn. This needs a little practice, so you could practice on a small piece of metal before proceeding with the final carving. You can use your judgement to decide which type of carving (i.e the small or big tool) is needed for each line of the picture. Once you get the hang of it, you will notice that you can move faster on each line and the carved line gets a more uniformed look.
When all the outlines have been carved, cover the carved area with masking tape and paint the background black with a paint brush. Use at least 2 coats. When the paint is dry remove the masking tape.
Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam, the Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet, is famous not only for his scientific accomplishments, but for his literary works as well. He was famous during his lifetime as a mathematician, well known for inventing the method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a collection of his four-line verses translated into English by Edward FitzGerald. It reveals a man of deep thought, troubled by the questions of the nature of reality and the eternal, the impermanence and uncertainty of life, and man’s relationship to God. The writer doubts the existence of divine providence and the afterlife, derides religious certainty, and feels keenly man’s frailty and ignorance. Finding no acceptable answers to his perplexities, he chooses to put his faith instead in a joyful appreciation of the fleeting and sensuous beauties of the material world. The idyllic nature of the modest pleasures he celebrates, however, cannot dispel his honest and straightforward brooding over fundamental metaphysical questions.
The carved picture shows Omar Khayyam relaxing in his garden with wine and woman.
Some of his verses are quoted below for the readers pleasure.
Lo! some we loved, the loveliest and best
That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to Rest.
And we, that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new Bloom,
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend, ourselves to make a Couch — for whom?
Ah, make the most of what we may yet spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie;
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and — sans End!
Alike for those who for To-day prepare,
And those that after some To-morrow stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
“Fools! Your Reward is neither Here nor There!”
Author: Judith Serrao- UAE