Carved to outlive us all.
Wood artisan in Michigan
Wood artisan Alexander Grabovetskiy
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Welcome to the website of MasterWood Carver Alexander Grabovetskiy, an internationally acclaimed artist and master of decorative and architectural wood carving.
Alexander has won the prestigious title of International Woodcarver of the Year, awarded by the Wood Worker’s Institute. He is widely recognized as one of the finest and most talented master wood carvers in the world today.
Hand carving is an old craft learned from skilled people over many years. The methods used to make true art, like hand-carved furniture and intricate wood sculptures, have not changed for centuries. No power tools are used, and the chisel marks—akin to an artist’s brush strokes on canvas—are preserved.
From Ancient Greece to the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Victorian times, and today, skilled wood carvers have made beautiful pieces for royal palaces and different building styles like Baroque, Rococo, Period, and Modern.
Woodcarver
Wood artisan Michigan
In the studio
From first sketch to installed carving.
Every commission for Michigan, and for clients worldwide, follows the same path: from the first conversation to the finished piece, set in place.
- 01
We talk it through
Every commission begins with a conversation: your drawings, photographs, or a rough idea, and the room the piece will live in.
- 02
Drawing & estimate
I draw the ornament to scale and send a clear estimate and timeline. No wood is cut until the design and the price are agreed.
- 03
The carving
At the bench, in the living tradition of the old masters.
- 04
Crated & delivered
The finished carving is sealed, crated, and shipped ready to install, matched seamlessly to existing millwork when it must join older work.
A standard machines cannot reach.
Serving Michigan architects, designers, and churches, with carved work in private estates and museums worldwide.
Forty years at the bench
Four decades of architectural and ornamental commissions for clients worldwide.
Woodcarver of the Year
Named International Woodcarver of the Year in 2012 by the Woodworkers Institute.
One of the best wood carvers in the world.NewsCenter Maine (NBC), 2021
Wood artisan in Michigan
Do you take wood artisan commissions in Michigan?+
Yes. I create architectural and ornamental carving for clients in Michigan and around the world, crated and shipped ready to install. Most commissions begin with a short conversation about your project, drawings, or reference images.
What kinds of wood carving do you make?+
Baroque and Rococo ornament, architectural carving (capitals, corbels, friezes, mantels, panels and doors), pipe-organ cases and shades, Grinling-Gibbons-style foliage, figural reliefs, mirror and picture frames, and bespoke furniture carving.
How long does a commissioned carving take?+
It depends on size and detail. A single ornament can take a couple of weeks, while a full architectural scheme runs several months. You get a clear timeline with the estimate, before any work begins.
Can you match an existing carving or a historical style?+
Yes. I regularly reproduce or extend historical work and match existing millwork, so a new piece sits seamlessly beside the old, period-correct in tool, profile, and finish.
Do you work with architects and interior designers?+
Constantly. I collaborate from drawings and CAD, provide samples, and carve to spec for residential, ecclesiastical, and commercial projects in Michigan and beyond.
Foliage and lace, cut from a single block.
The same hand that carves for Michigan carves for private estates and museums worldwide.
The work as historical study
Every commission starts as a research project, not just an order. Before a single cut, the work is to study the piece: to trace a motif back to its period and its masters, to understand how the hand that first carved it thought and moved, and to carry a vanishing skill forward into a new piece, the way carvers have worked for centuries.
A carving from this studio is, for that reason, one of a kind: an interpretation of a historical style, never a copy stamped from a pattern. The grain of the wood, the line of the leaf, the depth of the undercut all record a study and a hand, and no two are ever the same. The studio doesn’t sell a mass-produced object. It delivers a finished carving with the scholarship, the design, and a lifetime of skill behind it. Every piece also keeps a little of a centuries-old art from being lost.
Commission carved work.
Tell me about your project: a single ornament or a full architectural scheme.
Discuss Your Vision