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Wooden statues: the creative stages

HAPE Sculptures – Our portfolio

For some 35 years, we’ve been dedicating ourselves to our greatest passion: creating stunning wooden statues and all kinds of woodcarvings near St. Ulrich. Creative talent, cutting-edge ideas, and love for wood, our exquisite raw material, are what make our team in Lajen exceptional. The result? Artisan woodcarvings, the epitome of the tradition of woodcarving in Val Gardena. Let us show you what makes our wooden statues unique and the stages involved in creating secular and sacred wooden art here in our guide.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

Getting started

How is a woodcarving created?

The first step in creating custom woodcarvings is to contact us. Once you’ve completed our non-binding enquiry form, we’ll contact you for an initial exchange of ideas with our team of artisans. We believe getting on the same wavelength as our customers is an essential part of being able to create a quality product that perfectly meets your needs.

Your wooden statue

Draft design

Once we have defined the project, the sculptor will sketch an initial draft design. This allows us to determine the type of wooden statue that we will sculpt. We work with you to define the features that will then be carved into your statue.

Preparing for your woodcarving

Clay statues

Once the design has been finalised, if the statue will be a life-sized figure, this will first be reproduced in clay. The purpose of this step is to decide the final position of the wooden statue together with you – essential for giving you a first idea of how your wooden artwork will be created. If necessary, we will also create a computer simulation to allow us to position your statue in the specific environment in which it will be displayed once it is complete.

Wooden statues

Preparing the wood

Once the position of statue has been defined, it’s time to prepare the wood. We usually use linden wood to create our hand-carved statues. This wood is particularly soft, allowing us to create artworks that are rich in intricate details. Of course, the statues can be carved in the wood of your choice: stone pine, ash, chestnut, or walnut. It’s entirely up to you.

Carving the wood

Adding detail to your statue

Once the figure has been roughly carved into the wood, it’s time to add the individual details to your artisan wooden statue. If you wish, we can have your statue certified by the Bolzano chamber of commerce to show that it is an artisan work carved entirely by hand.

Woodcarvings from South Tyrol

Transport

Once work has been completed, we also take care of the transport of your artisan wooden statues. Our artworks can be shipped all over the world. The statues are packaged in wooden cases and delivered by express courier. In the case of large statues, we also take care of transport ourselves to avoid any damage to your wooden artworks.

HAPE Sculptures: series production, painting, and restoration

HAPE Sculptures offers a wide range of services. We excel at creating artisan wooden statues carved entirely by hand according to our customers’ wishes. Every single detail of these woodcarvings is defined together with you.

In addition, once your wooden statue is finished, we offer you the possibility to have your artwork scanned. This allows us to create a 3D file in STL format which can be modified using graphic-design programs (such as ZBrush). Once your 3D model has been created we can print it using a material that will allow series production of your custom woodcarving. Thanks to our pantographs, we can create artisan woodcarvings in various sizes and supply you with various to-scale, series replicas of the original model.

As well as woodcarvings, HAPE Sculptures also offers a painting and restoration service. Our skilled painters will give your wooden statues a touch of class and a new, colourful lease of life. The painting techniques that we use here at HAPE Sculptures range from oil painting to water colours and also include the decoration of any object with gold leaf.

Interested in an artisan woodcarving?

Don’t hesitate to contact us. All you need to do is complete our non-binding enquiry form and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible.