Ever since my husband, Dick Barrett, and I have been married (some 40 years), we have always picked out a stone which was typical of the place where we vacationed.

For instance, when we were fortunate enough to visit friends in the vicinity of Merano, Italy, we picked up a piece of dolomite, as the mountains there are basically dolomite. However, this habit got me in high-priced trouble back home.

I knew that the contractors were redoing the gray granite curbstones in our area and I quickly asked the company if I could take some of the curved, corner curbstones, since they were going to discard those in any case. They agreed; so, I got in my truck, picked up the curved curbstones and delivered them to my studio.

I thought to myself, "Boy, was I smart...I got all this stone for nothing." Then I started trying to carve the granite curved curbstones into a sculpture entitled, ROCK 'N ROLL. They were super hard, basalt-hard. Well, the only method that worked was bushing, of course. (I work with an air compressor; bushing heads are what I use.) But the bushing heads became dull fast. Between sharpening the points on the bushing heads and carving my shapes into the stones, I was one overwrought sculptor. Then came the polishing. (I like to use opposites...highly polished versus texture.) I used enough wet-dry sandpaper to sink a ship and enough diamond paste to do the same.

In summary, I overdid my lust for these "free, granite curved curbstones," plus other straight granite pieces, that they were throwing away. (No wonder!)

Anyway, this is how ROCK 'N ROLL turned out. Diamonds couldn't be more precious.

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