Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. - Albert Einstein
I keep this quote tacked up in my workshop as a reminder of what is important in my day-today existence as a stoneworker, whether I am carving an inscription, creating a sculpture, fabricating a fountain, or building a stone wall that only a flock of sheep will encounter. The timelessness of stonework, the beauty of the stone itself, the demands it makes and the rewards it offers are the characteristics that have continued to attract me for 35 years, and that, for thousands of years, have attracted others before me. Stone has always been revered and respected - like a wise old man. And stone has been good to us, providing civilization with shelter, work, and stunning art.
Yet it is easy to recognize how stone, such a low tech and humble material in today's high tech society, can be taken for granted. Its preeminence is constantly being challenged by new products that promise to be more enduring, easier to work, more consistent and factorymade. Listening to clients who come into my workshop, I sometimes think that stone has seen its better days. The client is often more familiar than I am with the latest high tech competitors, and he or she may want to know how stone compares with these alternatives. To address clients' questions and concerns, I need not pull out a slick catalog or contact a supplier in China. Instead I am likely to pick up a hammer and chisel and cut a letter into a piece of slate, marble, or limestone. Or I might create some possible textures with a point, tooth chisel, or bush hammer, or simply walk them around the stoneyard pointing out various portrait busts, fountains, sculptures, and benches. With a little time and explanation, they begin to understand the enduring qualities and beauty unique to stone. They sense the inimitable connection with history, art, and architecture that belongs to stone. And they are often amazed at what can be accomplished with seemingly primitive and simple stoneworking tools.
I have been working mainly with these deceptively elegant tools throughout my career, but I am not against technology. Quite the contrary: I use diamond chainsaws, grinders, drills, diamond polishing pads, pneumatic carving tools, and sandblasting equipment. There is an appropriate place for these time-saving technologies, but this is not to say that they can or will replace the handwork. It is, after all, the handwork that brings the stone to life. The chisel and hammer in the hands of a skilled artisan can be compared to the final polish put on a slab. It creates the wow factor.
My concern with technologies is that with every advance we seem to become one step removed from the stone itself. Consider, for example, that in many instances it is only the end user who actually rubs his or her hands along the surface of the stone. What will be lost of our understanding of stone if we simply abandon our traditional techniques of working stone? If we, as a culture, forget what the simple hammer and chisel can tell us about the incomparable qualities of natural stone, we will have lost an invaluable link with the history of mankind.
These long-standing concerns motivated me to find a way to keep the traditional techniques and skills alive, in addition to maintaining my own full-time stone business. In 2000, we began offering carving and sculpting workshops at my stoneyard every summer, inviting the most accomplished carvers we can find to teach seven-day intensive sessions. Last year I also began teaching a stoneworking class at the University of New Mexico in the winter, introducing young and old alike to what can be done with stone. All of these classes require countless overtime hours of preparation with little or no financial reward, but my overriding goal is to keep the connection alive between the past and present, to keep skills and techniques vital, and to provide a supportive resource, a place where the next generation of stonecarvers, sculptors, and letterers can learn the basics of stonecarving. It is my hope that by teaching the basics, the stone trade can continue to be both relevant and prosperous.
From a business perspective, a familiarity with handworking techniques gives the stone professional more options to offer each client. Some clients, if given the option, may very well want something that can only be created by a skilled artisan, like a fireplace surround, a handcarved memorial stone, or a large public commission. The four magnificent marble lions recently commissioned for the state capitol building in Salt Lake City, Utah, are a perfect example. Carved over a period of two years by guild certified master carver Nicholas Fairplay and his skilled artisans, the lions provide a contemporary example, accessible to the public, of what can be done using age-old techniques.
As an industry, it is important to support the small artisan shops and ateliers, because it is there that the traditions and skills are kept alive - skills which have in reality served the industry well for hundreds of years. Their lack of sophisticated high tech machinery should not be perceived simply as a lack of capital, since the proprietor may indeed have chosen a path in which process is paramount. Chances are the motivation is a love of the direct, hands-on involvement with the stone and the satisfaction gained from utilizing skills that took many years to perfect. It is a hard life but a dignified one. The chips of stone that fall one by one around their 'bankers' are not what counts, but rather the creation emerging gradually from the stone before them as they carve.
The hand that carves...
In fact, our beginnings as a proven industry, where shaping, cutting, and carving matured, can be found long before machines and technology. The art and craft of stoneworking started more than 3,000 years ago in Egypt-as evidenced by the great pyramid at Khufu. It was at this site that the first organized and successful attempt was made to codify the basic tenets, skills and techniques of stoneworkers. Six million tons of stone were amassed to create the world's first abstract sculpture, the pyramid. Our museums are full of exquisite Egyptian statues carved from the hard diorite, granite, and porphyry.
We have come a long way since then, but it is amazing how little some things have changed. The tools in my workshop, for example, are similar to those used to build the great cathedrals. I even rub stone on stone to refine a shape or smooth a surface. The ancient teachings, the ancient monuments, are our history - the bedrock, so to speak, of our art and craft. It is why I am proud to cite these magnificent objects of the past as examples of the enduring, incalculable quality and beauty of stone. Where would we be without those examples, without those time-honored skills? It is essential to preserve our artistic and architectural heritage and to build upon it as our foundation. While you may be sitting on a mass-produced chair, watching a flat-screen TV and drinking coffee from a Wal-Mart cup, we as a society must not lose site of the value of a hand-hewn George Nakashima chair, a marble sculpture from Rodin's atelier, or a deceptively simple Japanese ceremonial tea bowl. We cannot all be great artists, but we can strive to have a connection with our chosen medium. It is our obligation to educate ourselves in our chosen field in order to give our material its greatest opportunity of expression.
Today we are at a crossroads where 100% mechanization threatens traditional skills. We should try to keep a balance between the two approaches: the high-tech, fast-paced machine centered approach, and the slow, low-tech, human driven approach. We must balance the computer driven production model, where profit margins and efficiency dominate, with the traditional ways of working stone. It is usually this kind of blending of old and new, machine and hand, imagination and production that has produced the most profound advances in any industry.
For those who are just starting out, remember that a hard-working, dedicated person can still make a good living with a hammer and a few good chisels, an out-of-pocket expense of about $200. Your main investment will be time and effort, and the basics will serve you well.
For those in the larger stone industry, support your local stonecarver, or send some of your young and eager employees to a stonecarving or sculpture workshop or course. Keep the traditions and skills alive, and keep the customers options open. As an industry, I think it is our obligation to support those willing to make the commitment to becoming accomplished stoneworkers. They, after all, will be the people who have the passion to excel and carry our traditions forward, connecting the old and the new. To learn the skills of a stonecarver is to learn to appreciate the sound and music of the tap, tap, tap.
Mark Saxe owns and operates Southwest Stoneworks in New Mexico, and sponsors the Sax Stonecarving Workshops, now in their tenth year, every summer.
For more information on these workshops, go to www.saxstonecarving.com, or call Mark at 505-579-9179.
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