Lively carvings of dead trees sure to stump you

It is fulfilling to watch dead trees that otherwise would turn up in saw mills or end up as fire wood transforming into innovative art pieces in the deft hands of avid artists. Wood carving has emerged a fulltime profession for some artisans with people welcoming their creations into their homes or establishments to create a sense of awe and wonder in onlookers. Sculpters too are taking a liking to them and turning in visages of human or other manifestations to hang on walls or as centre-pieces. One can feel strokes of abstract realsim, a blend of fact and fantasy, carved out in rough and jagged lines and surfaces.

With the passion of preserving lifeless things for posterity, an artist from the city is working on bringing dead trees to life. He says this new growing art of making home decor is so elegant and adds beauty to the house. There an environment-friendly quotient to it, too.

A city-based techie, Syed Ehtesham Uddin, and his wife Syeda Zahra Begum have managed to take their creativity to next level. Starting from giving a structure to the leftover thing in the home garden to having crafted more than thousand handmade flowerpots, Leafepot is an advancement in home decor. "Working with nature in the presence of the plants and trees makes me feel more alive and gives me a purpose to work towards a healthier tomorrow. Plants are everything to me, I feel nothing can take their place and the plants around it give me a sense of completeness. They are something you can't survive without," says, nature's enthusiast.

Ehtesham started this in the year 2019 and by now has been able to exhibit more than a thousand pieces of his craft in around ten exhibitions. The techie has a team of five people who work on thrown and leftover wood from uprooted trees. He also has a tie-up with the electricity department as they tend to cut trees for the wiring in the city. The aim behind this is to spread awareness about nature and environment as well as to make plants a part of life as this gives them a sense of completeness. "Beauty of nature is very important, and you should understand that looking at things in a different way will make the difference," he feels.

Wood log designing, wood log clay art, wood calligraphy, miniatures art, wood lamps are a few among the crafts being churned out by Ehtesham and his team. He looks forward to making his art more available to the ones interested in learning. He looks at his startup as a social enterprise that uses naturally available materials and transforms them into amazing pieces of art. His carvings from stumps and other wood are sure to leave you stumped.