Sculpture
For me the contrast between building musical instruments and sculpting rocks is extreme. It is the difference between workmanship of certainty and the workmanship of risk. Regulated planning versus free-form fabrication. Perfect measurements and precise geometries versus experimenting with designs and techniques for aesthetic variety. After years of instrument building, I like the diversity that rock sculpture adds to my life. The freedom to explore a new medium and the outdoor adventure of finding rocks to work with has added a fresh appreciation for the subtleties of my creativity.
All of my sculptures have felt bottoms and my “signature” which is an inlay of a small stone cylinder of a contrasting color. Two part sculptures have a stainless steel pin fitting into a brass bushing. Prices indicate the value of the stones, the cost of tool ware, labor at $40/hr, and artistic merit.
Currently Available click on image for larger photo.
All prices include shipping.
- Olivine Dish, $55
Olivine dish is green with a brown rind. 7" x 4" x 2"
- Brown Porphyry Dish, $50
Brown porphyry dish from Deer Creek in Oso, WA. 5" x 5" x 3"
- Black and White Granite Dish, $50
Black and white granite dish from the Middle Fork of the Snoqualme River near North Bend, WA. 6" x 5" x 3"
- Jade Dish, $50
A hard, dark green, jade like dish form Deer Creek in Oso, WA. 7" x 4" x 3"
- Conglomerate Dish, $50
A conglomerate dish of mixed pebbles form Deer Creek in Oso, WA. 7" x 6" x 3"
- "Meditation", $240
Rounded cylinder Pudin' stone from Evart, MI on a mahogany base. 6.5" x 4" diameter
- Pudin' Stone Candle Holder, $270
Pudin' stone with a hole to accept a tea-light candle or flowers (flower frog included). This conglomerate has many inclusions and was found in Evart, MI. 8" x 7" x 6"
- "Inspire", $380
Unknown stone on granite base from Icicle Creek near Leavenworth, WA. 15" x 10" x 8"
- "Chutzpah", $410
Blue quartzite from a gravel quarry near Seattle, WA., mounted on a green porphyry bass found in the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River near North Bend, WA. 13" x 9" x 8"
- "Merriment", $330
Conglomerate rock found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It has a hole to accept a tea-light candle or flowers (flower frog included). 8" x 7" x 4"
- "Bamboozle Bullion", $410
Pyrite in green chert with bands of quartz on a green porphyry bass found on Camano Is, WA. It has a hole to accept a tea-light candle or flowers (flower frog included). . 11" x 10" x 6"
- Divided Granite, $200
Divided Granite with an inlaid brass plate found on Camano Is, WA. It has two holes, one to accept a tea-light candle and one for flowers (flower frog included). Has three leather tipped feet for a stable support. . 10" x 7" x 4"
- Rocky Lake, $180
Two different granite types on the same rock found at Rocky Lake near Machias, Maine. It has two holes, one to accept a tea-light candle and one for flowers (flower frog included). 7" x 4" x 3"
- "Sea Green", $1100
Petoskey stone (fossil coral from 350 million years ago, Devonian) found in Evart, Michigan on a porphyry bass found on Icicle Creek near Leavenworth, WA. It has a hole to accept a tea-light candle or flowers (flower frog included).
- "Grace", $920
Fossil coral on a granite bass found on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River near North Bend, WA.
- Jade Dish w/ Two Holes, $120
A hard, dark green, jade like rock form Deer Creek in Oso, WA. It has two holes, one to accept a tea-light candle and one for flowers (flower frog included). 7" x 5" x 4"
“Let each man exercise the art he knows.”
— Aristophanes 450-388 BC
I am a member and past board member of the North Seattle Lapidary and Mineral Club, and a member of the Northwest Stone Sculptures Association.
Some Notes on Rock Sculpting Techniques
The power tools that I use are two four-inch angle grinders. One I have had since the late 1970s when I was rebuilding a 40-foot, rusted-out, steel sailboat. The other I bought more recently and it has a water feed for use with wet polishing pads and diamond core drills. The only other power tool I use is a Foredoom which is similar to a Dremel Tool and is used for detail-work. I use many different types of common hand tools including carbide chisels and diamond files.
The steps I use for many of my small dishes is to first find an interesting stone and flatten the bottom by dry-grinding with a diamond wheel. I rub it on a flat, lightly rusted steel plate to see where the high spots on the bottom of the rock pick up some rust, and then I grind them off. Next, I cut what are ironically called frets in the top of the rock. These are a series of parallel cuts that define the concave dish shape. Much time and tool ware is saved by chipping out the stone between the parallel cuts with a hammer and chisel. Final shaping is done with silicon carbide grinding wheels (50 and 120 grit). Next, I drill a .5" hole in an appropriate place to inlay a .5" stone cylinder for my “signature”. Polishing with a series of wet, diamond pads (up to 3000 grit) comes next. The final step is to glue a piece of felt to the bottom so the sculpture will not scratch the furniture. The whole process takes a little over an hour for a small dish. It takes much longer for a stone that is larger, has many surfaces to sculpt and polish, and is mounted on a base.
Geology Background of the Materials Used
Most of the rocks that I use come from riverbeds around Washington, but I do of course look for rocks at every opportunity. Washington has a very interesting geology for many reasons. One reason is that most of the state came from many islands in the Pacific Ocean that collided with the North American plate, the edge of which is actually near Spokane. For example, there is a whole mountain of olivine near Mount Baker. Then there are the many glaciers that have moved through this area during the numerous Ice Ages carving and depositing rocks. The Glacial Lake Missoula dumped it's entire contents (500 cubic miles of water)onto eastern Washington as many as 40 separate times. Each one was a massive flood that scoured the valleys and exposed the bedrock. The old basalt lave flows of the Columbia Plateau were largest in the world. The floor of the Pacific Ocean sinks beneath the west coast of Washington to a depth of 60 miles causing melting of the overlaying mantle and a number of volcanoes, one of which was active in 1980 (Mount Saint Helens). Washington has been a wonderful place to collect rocks and study it’s geology.