My second tour in Thailand was to a "craft village" with resident woodcarvers and furniture makers. The carvers mostly worked on commissions, and would show a photo or drawing of the design, the type of wood (mostly teak), and how long they would work on the project. Most were 6-9 month projects.
The dining table with 12 chairs in the photo below was for sale for $24,000 U.S., but was 10% off the day we were there. Hard to pass up. The wall panel shown below is 105" wide x 40" tall x 6" thick. It took two carvers 9 months to make it.
The carvers used a lot of homemade tools, all edge tools that I could see, and squatted on the ground in an open-air pavillion. I can't imagine working for long as they do, but they must be used to it.
I posted the rest of the photos in my album:
http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.co...ry.php?cat=651. Mike