Matching Wood

[bluebird21]

Hi,
I'm a beginner woodcarver (this will actually be my first time ever besides carving with soap as a girlscout!). My main artistic mediums are photography and acrylic painting. But we were given an old nativity scene made out of olive wood (I was told, perhaps you might tell me otherwise if you can view the photo). The figures are up to 4 inches tall. They are very, very simplistic. However, the nativity set came without an angel and my son really wants one. So....I thought I'd try my hand at carving one since they seem to be very simplistic figures. I've always wanted to get into woodcarving - so I figured this was my sign!

My question is this: since this is my first piece I hate to spend money on something like olive wood - if this is, in fact, olive wood. Is there another wood that would come close to matching the set? Even amongst the set, the lightness/darkness of the wood and grains are quite varied. I don't have any tools yet either, but due to finances I'll have to start very, very basic. So any advice concerning that is welcome too.

I've uploaded a photo of the nativity set - not sure if I did it right though!

bluebird21 Gallery - Wood Carving Illustrated Photo Gallery

Thanks for any and all advice. I appreciate it greatly!

[TreeWizard]

Since the color is so different between pieces I wouldn't worry about matching the wood. Since you think of white when you think of Angels, I'd look at Lime wood (basswood in the USA).

To carve in the style of your set all you will need is a good bench knife. Just make sure it is sharp when you buy it and get a leather strope to keep it sharp.

[papasar]

The sheep on the left and the Christ child appear to be other than olive wood.IMHO. The other figures could be olive. Olive is very beautiful but very hard. For a beginner, I suggest basswood and stain it to match the other figures.
Bill K.

[kev.b]

Firstly welcome to the forum, secondly the photo uploaded fine and thirdly thats good advice from Treewizard basswood will be fine.
dont forget to post a photo of the angel when you finished it.

[bluebird21]

Thank you all for that information. It really helps!

[davidinsarasota]

Nice wood. I don't think I've seen anything similar before. Carvers, and perhaps even most woodworkers are odd like that. You would think that we would have a broad knowledge of all of the wood types that are available, but often even experienced carvers are only really familiar with three, or at most five types of wood.

I think this is because we are more interested in exploring variety in carving technique rather than wood variety.

Probably wood vendors, like specialty lumber yards, are more knowledgeable about various types, but they rarely know the carving characteristics of the woods they sell.

That's my experience so far anyway. I could be wrong.