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Wooden Expressions — Original Designs & Creations
Now taking commissions
Custom Carved Signs
Hand-carved wood signs for homes, schools and business. We start with your vision and design a sign that meets your needs, in the finest woods and any finish or color.
“I love to bring wood back to life.”
Luis Villarreal, CarverPlease contact us with your sign designs and details at:
From the Archive
Since 1976 we have carved furniture, mantels, cabinetry, sculpture and architectural work. These pieces show the range of the craft. They are past work only; today we take commissions for custom signs.
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Shown as past work. We are no longer taking commissions in this category — custom signs are our current work.
Have a sign in mind? Send us your designs and details.
Start a sign
A redwood sculpture · Capitola, California · 1980
Niños del Mundo
Children of the World
A globe held up by hands, with the faces of four children at its base. Luis Villarreal Villarreal carved it over five months from a block of redwood more than a thousand years old, and for thirty-five years Capitola kept it in trust for the children of the world.
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“The Future of the World Is in Its Children.”
The ceremony at the unveiling · March 20, 1980
Chapter I · La inspiración
The Inspiration
In 1979 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the International Year of the Child and named UNICEF to lead it. Artists all over the world answered with work of every kind, made to honor our love for children.
In Capitola, Luis Villarreal Villarreal had founded Wooden Expressions in 1976 as a place where ideas become unlimited expressions in wood. His answer was a sculpture: the world, held up by hands, resting on the faces of four children.
Inspirada en el Año Internacional del Niño de 1979.
United Nations · UNICEF
1979
International Year of the Child
Año Internacional del Niño
Chapter II · La secuoya
A Thousand-Year-Old Redwood
The sculpture began as a fallen tree: a local old-growth coast redwood more than a thousand years old, its trunk eight feet across. Business support and community donations bought a single block cut from it, three feet wide, three feet deep and six feet tall.
- Age
- More than 1,000 years
- Diameter
- 8 ft (2.4 m)
- Block
- 3 × 3 × 6 ft
A Matter of Scale
Una cuestión de escalaHow tall mature trees grow, set beside the Statue of Liberty and a person on one shared scale. The heights are illustrative, including very tall examples; they are neither averages nor records.
One shared vertical scale; bar widths are schematic. The original height of the tree used for the sculpture is unknown. The Statue of Liberty is measured from the ground to the torch.
Chapter III · Del árbol a la escultura
From Tree to Sculpture
Over five months at his Wooden Expressions studio, with the support and participation of the community, Luis carved the block down to a globe held up by hands, with the faces of four children at its base.
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“I love to bring wood back to life.”
Luis Villarreal, CarverThe globe rises from the block on a column of hands. Below it, on each side of the base, a child’s face looks out. Five months after the first cut, the sculpture was ready for the people of Capitola.
Chapter IV · Los modelos
Four Young Models
The four faces at the base are real children. Each one sat for Luis for thirty minutes a day, after school, while the carving took shape.
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Cada modelo posó para Luis 30 minutos al día, después de la escuela.
Chapter V · La presentación
The Unveiling
On March 20, 1980, thousands of children and families gathered in Capitola Village for an outdoor celebration. Mayor Mick Routh unveiled the sculpture and named the City of Capitola its trustee on behalf of the children of the world.
Capitola Village
March 20, 1980
20 de marzo de 1980
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The Lakota prayer
Mitakuye Oyasin
We are all related · Todos somos familia
Chapter VI · Treinta y cinco años
Thirty-Five Years in Capitola
For thirty-five years the sculpture stood where Capitola’s children could see it: first at the mall, then in a children’s bookstore, and finally at the public library.
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Seeds of Change stood across the street from Capitola City Hall. Its carved sign is in our custom signs gallery.
Chapter VII · La proclamación
The Mayor’s Proclamation
Before the sculpture left Capitola, the City honored Luis and his work. Mayor Ed Bottorff signed and sealed the proclamation on April 13, 2016. It is reproduced here in full.
Chapter VIII · Rosarito
A New Home in Rosarito
From Capitola the sculpture traveled south to Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico, to be kept there in trust for the children, as the proclamation puts it, “a neighborly and brotherly act of friendship and cooperation.”
Un acto de amistad, hermandad y cooperación entre comunidades vecinas.
The dedication
Niños del Mundo
Escultor: Luis Villarreal Villarreal
Dedicada a los niños de todas las naciones · 1980
Children of the World
Dedicated to the children of all nations · 1980
The future of the world is in its children.
El futuro del mundo está en los niños
Santa Cruz · 1976
About Wooden Expressions
Wooden Expressions was started in Santa Cruz, California in 1976 as a place where ideas become unlimited expressions in wood. We start with your vision and application and then design a quality plan that meets your needs and satisfies your imagination. We use only the finest woods and materials and work with any type of finish or color. We custom install all our work and will ship orders.
Today our work is devoted to custom carved signs. Our furniture, mantels and architectural pieces remain in the archive.
Sign commissions
Please contact us with your designs and details at:
luis@woodenexpressions.net 831-476-8339When I was young, I drew and painted both at school and in my spare time. I later studied art and design, and wood became my medium of choice for its beauty and endless creative possibilities.
“I love to bring wood back to life.”
Luis Villarreal, Carver