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Relief
wood carvings frequently adorn the doors, walls and windows of
traditional Malay houses. Popular motifs of such relief carvings are
the various kinds of Malaysian flowers and plants. Relief carvings
requires a high degree of skill, patience and determination. In the
cities, relief carvings is still practiced on blocks of wood to be
hung for wall decoration, on wall dividers, or on furniture.
The
best Malay woodcarving is from Terengganu and
Kelantan. Passed down from one generation to
another, the craft is divided into ukiran halus (fine
carving) and ukiran kasar (literally meaning �rough
carving�). Ukiran
Halus involves the carving of relief patterns, hilts of
keris
(short Malay dagger), bed heads and cupboard tops. Ukiran Kasar,
refers to the carvings on larger objects like furniture, pillars,
windows, room portions and eaves of
roofs.
The
Design
The
basic design behind Malay woodcarving is the awan larat
(�extending clouds�). Its usage in a composition is governed
by four principles. Firstly, the design element must be evenly
distributed in the composition. Secondly, the empty spaces or
uncarved areas should be the same as carved areas.
Thirdly, animals or humans should never be depicted and
fourthly, when there is a central motif, the other secondary
design elements are to be repeated around it. Apart from the awan
larat, other common inspirational elements include holy verses
from the Qu�ran and
plants such as bean tendrils, groung leaves, and leaves of the
water lettuce.
 The
Wood
Cengal
is the preferred wood for building houses and boats. Being
expensive, other woods such as balau or perah (which
is slightly softer than cengal) might be used for the rafters, or
floorboards of a house or for the prow of a boat. Some types of
wood such as Merbau and Rengas are avoided as the
Merbau tree is believed to be the home of evil spirits while the Rengas
contains a poisonous sap.
The
Carving
The
carving process involves four stages. First, the design is traced
and transferred to the object such as a panel. Then the outline of
the design is chiselled. Thirdly, the unwanted parts are then cut
out. The final and most intricate stage is the actual carving
itself. This being accomplished using a myriad of carving tools to
pare, chisel, shave, drill and dig to bring the design to life.
The final carving is polished using emery paper now whereas
the dried skin of the stingray or the leaf of a wild plant called mempelas was
used before.
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