Make Your Own Cute Wooden Gifts: Hand Carved Totoro Figurine

Studio Ghibli has produced a handmade wooden carved Totoro, wood carver using more than 50 kinds of tools to carve from a whole piece of camphor wood, priced at 330,000 yen, about 2,000 U.S. dollars, sold in a limited quantity through a lottery, which is very difficult for normal people to own.

The cute and healing Totoro, who doesn't like it, so we can reproduce one ourselves. Although there is a big gap between it and the original, it's very fulfilling to carve it by hand.

It's a good idea to make multiple Totoro figurines of different sizes as wooden gifts to be placed on a shelf at home for viewing or collecting, or to give them to friends who love Miyazaki's animation.

Line drawing for Totoro wooden figurine.

Use a rectangular block of basswood, the exact size can be decided by you. Draw seven equally spaced horizontal lines and a vertical line in the center in the front view. This step is to help us form the proportions of the Totoro's body.

• The vertical center line will be located right in the center of the body of the Totoro figure.
• The first horizontal line is located at the top of its head.

Please refer to the example drawing in the picture for the remaining part of the figure to make its body as pear-shaped as possible, rather than a symmetrical oval.

All side views of wooden gifts need to be drawn in drafts that line up with the auxiliary lines of the front view; this is an especially important point to always keep in view of both the front and side views.

Cutting out the shape of the Totoro figurine.

Cut out the shape of the Totoro figurine by cutting off the excess wood following the draft lines drawn in the previous step. Use a small carving knife to slowly carve out the narrow areas to avoid over-cutting and ruining the piece. This step does not require careful carving of the details, so it is normal for the body to retain the carvings and angles and appear less rounded, as shown in the picture.

Carve and sand the details.

Redraw the lines from the first step and use the carving knife to carve out distinct lines of demarcation on the top of the head, ears, facial expression, belly, etc. Use sandpaper to sand down the obvious carvings and angles to make them as rounded as possible, but it is necessary to retain the natural grain of the wood.

The finished effect.

Please enjoy our finished wooden gifts. The Totoro Wooden Figurine was wood oiled, and hand painted with a green hat and face and paws. Arranged on a tray, it looks adorable and log-inspired, making it a beautifully crafted gift.