Some of my artistic roots not of the briar type

[Boulder&Briar]

One of the many things I do. I've been carving since I was 16 and still do a few carvings every year. It used to be anywhere from 10-30 carving a year and the most being close to 60 address stone when I first started at 16. I just took on a project today that will be the largest I've done yet. It is a 7'x6'x1 1/2' piece of sandstone that weights 9,450lbs. I will be carving it for a yacht club.

 

[MisterE]

Whoa! That's impressive!! :shock: 

:cheers: :cheers: 

 

[Anonymous]

Amazing work. I love the way the eagle flows into the stone.

 

[Boulder&Briar]

Amazing work.  I love the way the eagle flows into the stone.

Thanks guys!

And that eagle was unfinished and never was completed the way I envisioned it. I had the intention of finishing the feathering on the wing and it was actually to have a flag over the left shoulder. I was going to lightly texture the red stripes and etch some stars on it as well. Well what happened was the person I carved it for liked it the way it was and insisted I leave it be and not finish it. I had don vet little to it from when I took these pics. It was a little more defined but as you stated just blends and flows into the stone.

 

[Anonymous]

So, you are saying I'd be the same kind of low brow client that wouldn't let you complete your vision? :affraid: 

:lol!:

 

[Growley]

You ROCK! ....get it?....Rock? Ok, that was bad. Your carvings are awesome. I particularly liked the train. Having to do something in 3D like that adds a whole new dimension to things. Ok, that one was bad too.

Very impressive work. Don't let my bad puns ruin a quality compliment. You've obviously got mad skills.

 

[Boulder&Briar]

You ROCK! ....get it?....Rock? Ok, that was bad. Your carvings are awesome. I particularly liked the train. Having to do something in 3D like that adds a whole new dimension to things. Ok, that one was bad too.

Very impressive work. Don't let my bad puns ruin a quality compliment. You've obviously got mad skills.

Hahaha nice! Thanks for the compliment Brian. It's kind of funny, when I started doing it at the age of 16, I was staying with a friend out in a small town and when when I returned back home to the city and everyone asked where I was I told them I was selling rocks to the country folk :lol!: ok so that was almost as bad as your joke. But I really was telling the truth

 

[Buckshot]

Just totally, totally awesome work! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: 

 

[Anonymous]

when I started doing it at the age of 16

So, you didn't just get up one morning and say, "Oh look, an old cold chisel laying by that nice rock." There has to be more to the story.

 

[Boulder&Briar]

Just totally, totally awesome work!  :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: 

Thank you sir!

 

[Boulder&Briar]

when I started doing it at the age of 16

So, you didn't just get up one morning and say, "Oh look, an old cold chisel laying by that nice rock."  There has to be more to the story.

Ok brother, you asked for it. and man are these pics way to big from a PC. I'm operating from my phone 99% of the time and didn't realize they're this big.

Anyway,
When I was 16, my best friends house burned down. it was a very terrible situation and he not only lost his house but his step mom went back in to save the dogs and was over come by the smoke and didnt make it back out, and the house was a total loss and needed to be tore down. I was a troubled teen, had moved away from my home town, living is a small city, a few towns away from my friend. My step mom and dad were trying to force me to become a Jahovas witness, and I was not one to be forced to do anything I didnt agree with. I ran away from home to go and help my friend and his dad rebuild their lives as well as mine. In the summer of 96 We tore down the house, and the basement was made of block sandstone. Some were very large weighting over 2000lbs. and we used his dads Ford econoline Van to pull them up a ramp and out of the basemant. We didnt know What we were going to do with them until one day I was screwing around with a wood chisel and hammer trying to carve Jimmi Hendrix LOL! Someone pulled in and asked if it was Elvis LOL (no joke) And then they asked if I could carve numbers. He said if you can carve my address I'll pay you $300 :shock: I was like hell yeah, were going to party! While I was carving that one out in front of what was left of my friends house, people were pulling in and asking what I was doing and started asking if I could do an address stone for them. It was fair time and the people just kept coming. That summer I did over 60 address stones that ended up all over NE Ohio. Unfortunately I was a stupid teen and pissed all my money away and at the end of the summer all I had was a $500 BMX bike. LOL I did a few here and there for several years and then when I move out into the country when I was 22 I decided to carve a stone for my self and do a victorian flower design. Again someone pulled in asking if I could do something for them. Well I took things to new levels and did some sculptural work and lots of address and name stones over the years. I still do it, but I like working with briar better. Its much easier to work with, smaller scale, just as many option left to the creative mind, and less abusive on my body. Oh, and I cant smoke a pipe when carving stone:x 

There you have it.

 

[Anonymous]

OK, interesting!

I do hope you now have separate chisels for wood and stone now.

 

[mark]

Awesome work.

 

[Boulder&Briar]

OK, interesting!

I do hope you now have separate chisels for wood and stone now.  

Its kind of funny, I dont actually own a wood chisel. :lol!: all of my pipes are shaped on a wheel and with saws, files and lots of sand paper. Drilling is done on an old Southbend A model lathe.