Visiting Maramures: A Wood Carver

As part of our tour with Florin, we went and saw a wood carver named Teodor. His house was beautiful, as were his gates and so much more!

His dad did a wood-carved arch for the Smithsonian World Festival in Washington, and he’s pretty famous in the USA, apparently. Oh and he said that last week they sent off something to New Jersey! He showed us some of his work – incredible. All the wooden chains we’ve been seeing – they’re all just out of one piece of wood! We saw one in action! You can see some of the wooden chains in the first picture above.
Then he showed us what his current project is – a huge cross. I’m holding the picture of what it will look like. On the left of me, you can see the centerpiece, and on the right of me you can see another piece of it. 

Here is a better view of a part of the centerpiece…

It is being pieced together, and he showed us the one in his workspace that he is currently doing.

AND HE LET US HELP! Except, Carley didn’t want to. It was so fun!

He also showed us the wooden walker he learned to walk in, and the wooden cradle that he slept in when he was a baby. Here is the walker:

Here are all of his tools he uses…he laid them out for us to see.

This is what the wooden shingles look like before they are put onto a roof. You can see wooden shingles all over Maramures, especially at the Wooden Chruches. 

His whole yard is just COVERED with wood. 

These are some crosses that he recently finished.

And, here is a bear that he carved…with a stick in it’s mouth, apparently. The other animals all also had sticks in their mouth, as if a child had come through and played a joke on all the animals. 

It was all so incredible.

He said we should come back and work in the summer and he would teach us everything about wood carving. Boy, I would seriously love to do that. Take a summer off to come and work as a wood carver and learn the ways.