Aboutmaura macaluso Expertise I can answer any and all questions, regarding, wood sculpture, wood carving, carving tools and accessories and different types of woods.I am not an appraiser of carvings nor an antique dealer.
Experience I do full design work, custom carving, restoration, fabrication, repair and refinishing. I can take a piece of raw wood and turn it into a work of art and I can help you do the same. I am "the" carving instructor for the new york city parks dept. I am heavily involved in carving on the internet and belong to many, many mail lists which are quite active. I am also an international promoter of woodcarving and am affiliated with many master carvers, notably nora hall, originally from holland, now in the U.S. and kalina pavlova, a bulgarian master carver. I routinely communicate with the top names in professional woodcarving nationally and internationally.
Organizations the national association of woodcarvers. the woodcarvers of queens NY, the staten island woodcarvers. the northeast woodcarving association. the world wide carving internet list
Publications chip chats-the national magazine of woodcarving. also at www.carvinginnyc.com
Education/Credentials Self taught artist and sculptor, 40 years of drawing and painting as a hobby, 5 years of serious woodsculpting. I have my own website and have written a 300 pg book on carving. I have published online tutorials and pictorial projects
Question I have Ikea cabinets, they are birch. They are eight years old.
Don't know if they are real birch--you might know about what Ikea sells. I need to replace one of the fronts of the cabinets (the front of one of the drawers). I went to Ikea and the same cabinets looked a lot lighter. The salesman told me that's because my cabinets have darkened/yellowed a little bit due to age and exposure to light. Is this true? Since I need to replace on the the fronts on one of my drawers, how can I get it to look darker? Just install in and wait a few years til it matches the others? Put some sort of stain on it? Sit it in the sun for a few months? HELP!
Answer Hi Mary, sorry for the delay in responding, I was away on vacation with no access to email. I was not supposed to receive questions in my absence but for some reason, your question slipped through to me.
First you will have to determine if what you have is solid wood or a wood veneer. Hopefully it is solid wood. If you buy a new draw front, it will take a long while for the colors to match if you just let it all age naturally. Stain will work, you just have to take one of the old drawer fronts with you when you pick out the stain. If the new front is solid wood and has any type of protective finish on it, you will have to sand it down and then apply a stain.
Wood veneer is very thin, you will need to be very careful if you need to sand it down and restain. Only hand sand the veneer.
Thanks for the question and good luck with your project.
