Carving the Acanthus Leaf, Mary May

Carving the Acanthus Leaf by Mary May. Learning to carve the acanthus leaf is, for carvers, like a pianist learning a Chopin étude or an aspiring furniture maker learning to cut dovetails by hand. Carvers who focus on Classical Western ornament will inevitably encounter the acanthus leaf, learn it, master it and finally incorporate it into their own designs.

The book is a deep exploration of this iconic leaf, which has been a cornerstone of Western ornamentation for thousands of years. May, a professional carver and instructor, starts at the beginning, covering carving tools and sharpening with the efficiency of someone who has taught for years. It begins with a simple leaf that requires just a few tools, then progresses through 13 variations up to the highly ornate Renaissance and Rococo forms. Each lesson builds on the earlier ones as the complexity slowly increases.

Each chapter begins with a short discussion of how the leaf appears in architecture or the decorative arts, with photos May has taken on her travels around the world. Then you learn how to draw the leaf from scratch, each step illustrated in detail, as drawing the leaf makes it easier to carve. Full-size or scaled drawings are provided. Each carving step is shown with multiple photos and illustrations of where and how each tool should move, as many as 100 per leaf.

Between chapters, short essays tell of May's journey from a young pumpkin carver to the world-renowned carver she is today. The overall effect is like apprenticing with a master carver. Published by Lost Art Press.