If you’ve ever met Mary May, author of “Carving the Acanthus Leaf,” then you probably know this already: Mary does not do anything halfway.
Her book is an exhaustive look at carving this iconic motif with hundreds and hundreds of detailed drawings and photographs that illustrate the process. But if you still need some more assistance, Mary has you covered.
Having a 3D representation of what you are carving is a great advantage. So Mary offers resin castings for sale of all of the carving projects in her book. These castings were made from the actual carvings in the book, so they are a perfect match for the instructions and step photos.
You can purchase the castings individually or the entire set. Details are here.
Another option is to purchase an instructional video about each leaf where Mary walks you through the process step by step. Her videos are excellent (you can sample them on her site). They are offered in full HD and can be downloaded or streamed from her site. Details on the videos are here.
— Christopher Schwarz
If money were no object ….
the Decorators’ Supply Company in Chicago has thousands of fancy and plain castings of carved onlays and moldings