![\"allen-stichler-tree-carving\"](\"http:\/\/stichler.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/WP_20141030_003-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nStill, with the bark off, the nice clean wood gave a great surface to work on:<\/p>\n
The scroll didn’t take too much doing, just clearing away the background and shaping the folds.<\/p>\n The notes and staves were drawn on; the notes had to be aesthetically pleasing and easily seen, so I didn’t space them strictly according to the time or rhythm of the song. Can anyone work out the secret tune?!!!<\/p>\n With this finished, I could move on to the notes on the guitarist’s tree:<\/p>\n The book looked a bit bare and needed something on the cover; I thought about words that would work as a title, but settled on the simple symbol of a heart. The subjects of the carving all pointed towards love ~ a love of music, a love of books, a love of family, environment and animals ~ so a heart represented that perfectly.<\/p>\n So, all three trunks together look something like this:<\/p>\n Spare a thought for the owner of these trees, Ali, who (when she returns from work each day) only ever sees her carvings like this:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 I lined out the staves next to the arm too.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n