I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.
In my chairs I just sculpt the back out of eight quarter with an angle grinder. More production focused wood workers are using multi-axis routers/cncs.
The english term for what you are referring to in bent lamination which is done by taking a piece of wood, slicing it to sections with a thin kerf blade, soaking in water, and then clamping to a form and gluing back together. This is how Russ Filbeck creates his classic presidential rocker.
And you can bend surprisingly thick wood with steam. I attended a demonstration where someone bent a maple 2 by 4 (1.5" x 3.5"). It took about 6 people and two tries (the first one splintered, probably not steamed enough).
I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.