![\"allen-stichler-woodcarving\"](\"http:\/\/stichler.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/WP_20160925_001.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0 ![\"allen-stichler-woodcarving\"](\"http:\/\/stichler.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/WP_20160925_004.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe preliminary sketch above shows how I intended to fit the stylized birds and beasts into the shape of the trunk.<\/p>\n The picture above shows my trusty rusty adze, which was invaluable in this job. Chipping away large areas with a gouge would be time consuming, but the adze helped me to hack off big sections in next to no time.<\/p>\n Using the shape and curvature of the split trunk to my advantage with the owl’s wings.<\/p>\n The next stage was the squirrel above the fox’s nose, and just like the other elements I drew him on free-hand with chalk, followed by felt tip.<\/p>\n Incidentally, this area where the squirrel and dragonfly were to be situated had a fabulous zig-zag pattern on the bare wood once the bark was removed:<\/p>\n The weather became a bit unpredictable at this point, with several heavy showers cutting the carving day short, so to prevent me exploding with frustration I rigged up our faithful budget-price gazebo, which although reaching the end of its lifespan was slightly better than being exposed to the lashing rain.<\/p>\n The damp weather meant that I could observe the different stages of a shaggy ink cap toadstool:<\/p>\n Anyway, the next step was the squirrel’s tail and a dragonfly, which mirrored the fox and the owl somewhat with their over-and-underlapping.<\/p>\n From this picture you can see that I had to achieve quite a bit of depth around the squirrel’s tail to enable me to give it a sense of dipping under the tail of the dragonfly ~ again, my adze was useful in removing large chunks in a shorter time.<\/p>\n I had some decisions to make with the underside of the dragonfly’s wing, as I couldn’t go too mad with the undercutting; I couldn’t make it so fragile that it would weather and drop off prematurely, but on the other hand I didn’t want to leave the wing so thick that it looked odd. I had to scoop away with a spoon gouge to ensure that the main front view was good, whilst leaving enough wood to support the wing; I also had to blend in the area next to the squirrel tail and above the dragonfly.<\/p>\n Once the background was established, I finished off the wings and head\/body:<\/p>\n I started on some acorns and an oak leaf next, under the squirrel.<\/p>\n After the oak, a horse-chestnut leaf with conkers, and a sycamore leaf.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n