Hammerhead Stoneworks

This is an idea I floated for center of the landing inside the house, where the zipper walkway terminates. It’s a 24″ by 24″ slab with a six by six square knocked out of the center. That’s a piece of dalle de verre, a super-thick, richly colored stained glass inset into the small square. We’re going to use pebbles instead of the glass, but I liked this mock-up a lot. With a glass like this though, it really needs a light radiating through it, as in this image. I’m afraid that lit from above, it would appear too dull.

I’ve been working my way through a rounded corner, where the zipper walkway meets the driveway, at the big steps. The following images represent three phases of the process. First, I laid out the shape in pebbles and took some pictures. This helps me get a visual sense of what’s going on. Second, I made templates out of roofing felt. The radius is elliptical, and so all of the templating was done freehand. The next phase has me fitting the stones one-by-one. Aa each stone goes in, I revisit the templates, to see if I need to make adjustments.

Today I worked on the landing inside the house. The lighting is poor, hence the blurry image quality, but you can still get a sense of what’s happening in the space. To the front of the image are the big, super-tight steps I laid a while back. To the right is the doorway and the zipper walkway, currently protected by some chipboard. The level hides the cut-out in the center stone, visible at the top of the blog. This section- inside the house- is mortared. I wish it was in gravel, like the walkway outside, but I didn’t want anyone to think I was losing my mind. Really though, it makes great sense. The stones are 2 1/4″ thick and are butted up so close to each other that there’s no risk of movement. And everything has a solid frame around it, preventing the gravel from squishing out.

I left the house Tuesday slightly unprepared. Allie had to stop by and deliver: a sweater, a sweatshirt, long johns, camera, cell phone charger and thirty-five smiles. He liked the gravel in the little boxes.

I’m working on a walkway that I’m calling the zipper design. The stones from each side interlock a little bit like the teeth on a zipper. There’s a lot of cutting involved, but that’s fun for me. There are lots of small squares running down the middle of the design. Those will be filled with pieces of the same material. I can easily imagine another take on this design where the gravel remains in the holes, or each one is filled with something else entirely: a tile, a mosaic, a letter engraved. I may introduce another type of stone in a couple of these openings. I’m saving the fun part for last.

This litany of prepositions makes sure I place my corner template properly. It only looks like a square. The little almost 6″ by 6″ squares I’m knocking out will go back into the spaces left in the design above.

I am cutting a mouse-hole in this thick slab of Tennessee Crab Orchard for a downspout to pass through. I’m excited because this is the first time I ever busted out the compass to bring to work.

I start by very carefully scribing a line with the grinder. This traces just inside the pencil line and will be my guide, to make sure I don’t cut away more than I need.

I run the big cut-off saw just to get my knockouts started. It’s too small an area to do much else with this saw.

On to the hammer and chisels, mixed with lots of kerfing with the grinder. The opening is going to be 4 1/2″ in diameter, which is the same dimensions as the blade on my grinder. You may be able to see places where I kerfed parallel to the top of the stone, as well as the more obvious up and down cuts. The blade binds quickly when I go parallel, but even shallow cuts help me remove material close to the inside of the opening.

TO BE CONTINUED…