With the exception of the Varndean School Bench carving project, I have used plywood as the material with which to introduce woodcarving to children. This is because plywood allows for complex shapes to be cut out without the risk of bits splitting off; allows for efficient cutting out with jigsaw and bandsaw, and, with care, allows simple incised carving to be done with V tool and mallet. Then they can be painted to create weather resistant artworks to be diplayed outside. The other common factor is the making of the vehicle to display the children' artworks: as you can see, many of these are 'trees'.
