Hi All,I've been posting some carved wood animals on our new web site. They arrived from Colombia a couple of weeks ago. The animals are carved of the native palo de sangre wood (meaning bloodwood), and come in varying shades of gorgeous red. The wood is so hard that when it's polished it looks like it has a varnish or finish on it, but actually, the shine is simply the natural wood surface finished and polished to a sheen by the artisans. They are just beautiful, and their purchase not only helps tapir conservation, but it helps the artisans who make the carvings.
The two critters shown here are jaguars. The top photo is a fairly typical carving, although each one is a little different. The one on the bottom is totally unique and actually a little freaky. Sergio thought it looked like a jaguar-mouse. I was thinking more like a were-jaguar or a were-rat. Let us know what you think. In any case, it is striking, primitive-looking, visceral, and the only one we've seen that looks like this. It has "content," as my art teacher would have said. You can read about the palo de sangre wood on the site and see the jaguars and other carved wood animals. I still have some fish and armadillos to put online.