by Caterina Franci
With his hands he creates true works of art, the material he carves with care and passion is wood. We met Ballabiese sculptor Lorenzo Crimella, 35, who took us with him to discover this fascinating art. “I started when I was 14-15 years old,” he tells us. “My father used to make bas-reliefs in wood to pass the time, that's how I learnt, by watching him work and trying it out myself. My very first work was a replica of a crib figurine. Carving wood is not my job, I am a mechanical draughtsman, but it is a great passion and I hope it will become my full-time occupation sooner or later. For now, I work on commission, mainly at night”. Lorenzo's collection of works is really extensive, one of the last ones was particularly challenging: "A gentleman from Gressoney commissioned me two statues to put in his garden, it was a particularly interesting challenge. I worked two two-and-a-half metre high cedar trunks with a diameter of one, it took me almost six months, dedicating a couple of hours in the evening after work. One statue was dedicated to the client's father, he gave me a photograph of him and I started from there to carve the wood".
The tools of the trade are not many, he explains: “Chisels and gouges, then from 2017 I started working with a chainsaw. Four or five times a year I participate in chainsaw sculpture events that are organised in the squares of northern Italy”. But how does a wood sculpture come into being? “Mainly I work the wood right away, then it also depends on what is asked of me,‘ Lorenzo explains. ’If I have to create a sign, maybe I do a graphic beforehand, but basically I work ”by eye“, starting from the subject I have to recreate and going straight to sculpting. I use different woods, always depending on what I have to carve: for large sculptures I usually use cedar, the ideal wood to work with, softer and less fibrous is stone pine, I also particularly like its scent, olive is not bad either. For outdoor signs I preferably use cypress, I have also made something with larch”. The latest sculpture created by Lorenzo is a splendid bas-relief of the Grignetta: "I am satisfied even though it caused me a nice bursitis in my elbow," he confessed, "the bas-relief is a precision job, I used the gouges a lot and my elbow probably suffered. But it's OK, I once broke my sternum by pushing too hard with my shoulder on the chisel...'. The hazards of the job, in short!
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