Hammerhead Stoneworks

This is the beginning of a set of drystone steps that fall on a very tight radius. This is a new challenge and one I’m truly enjoying. When completed it’ll be a set of eight steps that lead to a patio that I’ve nearly completed.

Here’s another view of the tight radius, from the inside. Not quite a spiral staircase, but still tight and fairly detailed in terms of structure and placement. Unlike a spiral staircase though, there’s ample room to land a foot on each tread, an important aspect for a heavily used set of steps.

This is the sketch I made to help guide me through the layout, so that I hit the top of the block wall in the proper alignment. I spent a couple of hours moving pixel-stones around on the screen, trying different configurations to get the right arc. So far, reality is lining up with the design quite nicely.

I just added a new portfolio page for the Montford Terrace project, which is featured on the new postcard.

This is a photo montage/panorama of the steps I built this past winter in the Montford district of Asheville. The step treads are made of the full-color variant of Pennsylvania bluestone. The wall, columns and step risers are made of granitic gneiss, mostly from the Hooper’s Creek quarry in Fletcher. The steps and columns are mortared; the wall is completely dry. Click the image for a larger view.

Sandstone steps and wall buried in snow. Looks positively comfortable right now. Click the image for a larger view.

Last Friday I led an hour long workshop for craftspeople and artisans on how to market their work. It was part of Handmade in America’s Art, Craft and Design Expo at the North Carolina Arboretum. The main push of my talk was that marketing is education and that craft artists should focus their marketing efforts on the 3 P’s: product, process and person. I also talked a bit about setting goals, making a cohesive plan and punk rock.

Here’s the scene at the entrance to the Rock Hill horse farm. The connecting wall will top out at about 28 inches, so there’s a bit more to go. The far column has some sample caps resting in place. Columns of this volume might require a massive cap to help visually anchor them. That decision hasn’t been made yet…

Here’s a front-on view of the mailbox vault shortly after completion. I’m very partial to this style: structural quoins, solid stone lintels, serious gravity. It’s a mix of old school and new style. My conservative estimate puts each column weighing over two tons.

This is a plan from my tiny notebook that I eventually scrapped, in favor of thinner stones for the quoins, adding an extra pair of stones in order to make full height. I worried that at almost 7″ thick, the quoins as drawn would be out of scale to the rest of the work.

Detail looking down the quoins.

This North Fence Lizard spent the night resting in a nook in one the block I used for my low scaffolding. It was a very safe place until I started work in the morning. I had to move him because he was too cold to move himself. His tail is obviously shortened, perhaps by a predator, perhaps by not being careful enough around the stone pile.

Yesterday, I spent the day with photographer Steve Whitsitt taking pictures of stone projects I have worked on around Asheville. He is putting together a coffee table book of stone work, hopefully to be published in 2011. It was fun and educational to spend a day with a pro photographer. We visited several projects and I got to take some shots too. It’s always good to revisit the work as it ages and weathers in.

I have been tying for a while now to get a good panorama of this project. It’s in a very tight space and I can only get a small bit of it in each image. Yesterday, while wandering around taking pictures with Steve, I got the best panoramic view of it I’ve done so far. Click the image for a larger view.

The sun really brings out the textures.

Click the image for a larger view.

This drystone wall connects two columns in a Montford backyard. The redial steps are visible in the distance. Another wall segment will continue from the furthest column and turn at the bank. Most of the stone is a granitic gneiss: heavy, sharp and cantankerous. And it makes a lovely wall. Quarried a few miles outside of Asheville, it looks like it belongs here because it does.

In the photo below, find the green marble tucked in the joinery. In the bottom photo, there’s a pool ball.

This is the start of a drystone wall that runs between two columns in the radial steps project. One column is visible in the image; the setback and batter of the wall are clearly shown.

High temp on Wednesday was about 35. I’m looking forward to the day when I can swing the hammers unimpeded by so many layers- at least seven in this photo.

I just added a new portfolio page about the recently completed dentist wall and bench. The image above links to the page. On the page itself, the same image links to a monster panorama.