Matha Wood Carving

If you come down Kulithalai Road in Manapparai, you’ll find us at number 41/9. The smell of sawdust is the first thing people notice when they walk in. We do wood carving here. It’s a slow process. You can’t rush a piece of wood if you want it to look right. We have piles of timber stacked up out back, waiting to be used. Most of the tools we use have been around for years. They aren't new or shiny, but they work. My hands are usually covered in dust by the end of the day. That’s just part of the job. We make all sorts of things, whatever people need for their homes or shops. Sometimes it’s a small decorative piece, other times it’s something bigger like a door. We don’t have a website or anything like that. People usually just hear about us from their neighbors. Manapparai is a good place to work, though the road can get noisy with all the trucks going past. We have a few guys who have been carving wood since they were kids. They know how the grain moves and where it might crack. It’s not something you can learn from a book. You have to feel it. The shop isn’t very big, and it gets cramped when we have a big project going on. We move things around to make space. It’s honest work. We don’t make any big claims, we just keep the chisels sharp and stay busy at the bench.