Our relationship to stone starts with need, function, safety, shelter, tools, longevity, and is evolved through the masons skill, creativity, and curiosity. Anyone who mindfully sets one stone upon another is a mason while they apply themself and learn the basic laws that apply stone.
These are my children when they small...with no adult ideas upon their brains for what they might do with stone. Pretty cairns, flowers, cars, and many other things appeared before we built a little wall.
Finding similar shaped stones for the petals of a leaf, finding wheels for the car, or making a pointy stone out of a soft piece of shale for the letter A. Children are all creativity and curiosity. It is a beautiful thing to watch young children explore materials in nature. The simple stick becomes a wand that transforms the world around them and stories unfold.
Staying connected to being curious by nature as we age can be challenging....
I find myself daydreaming looking at stone in the simplest of ways..
A day at my aunts house in Arizona and the first thing I see in her garden is this giant quartz crystal....
I immediately think of it harnessing energy and directing at someone to heal...
An ancient healing tool.
A roughly shaped 'heart stone'....
A heart is a heart...they always make me pause.
Putting together many to create one..
Curiosity and creativity have been the two favorite elements to apply to the needs of customers. I never know what will be in the piles of stone that I get delivered by the dump truck or in pallets.
Yet structure and function have to exist. When I apply curiosity and creativity structures change.
This is a mini Scottish Broch I made for a client in Burlington Washington in 2017
with granite. 35 tons 9' tall, 15' wide
They have a soul. The hand of man is revealed...You could give give 10 different masons the same materials, parameters, site, and materials and the Broch would look completely different each time. We all have our own unique approach to how we build and that I think this founded in our childhood relationship with curiosity and creativity.
I started Borrowed Ground in 2007. I was curious about stone. It was this amazing raw material that was totally different from one type of stone to another. I had to apply and hone my skills through being creative, while being willing to fail until I was successful.
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