Oman - Iman Youssef
The Jordanian artisan Khidr Shoebat, stressed that the craft of shaping sculptures and shapes of olive wood came from Palestinian origin, especially in the city of Bethlehem, where religious symbols forms are manufactured.
"There is a collection of craft arts carried out by skilled hands to convert wood into beautiful vibrant arts," Shoebat said.
The wood-carving is one of the oldest fine arts in history, which man began to do it since ancient times. Ottomans decorated different buildings with wooden parts , whether carving wood or engraved upon or coloring it, so like mosque pulpits, Korans tripods, clothing boxes, cabinets and chairs, as used in carving wood to form beautiful geometric graphics, artisan Khidr Shoebat added.
Shoebat explained that the profession of punching olive wood is one of the important professions that needs to master in its industry to take out beautiful pieces of art, pointing out that these pieces do not need to mechanisms for its production, but simple primitive tools.
Tourists resort to buy shapes made from olive wood, like statues, crosses, and Quranic verses, pointing out that the item's price varies depending on their size and the time it took to complete it.
The member of the Jordan Society for Traditional Crafts, Khidr Shoebat, participates in different bazaars for the purposes of marketing his products.