carving

The beauty and versatility of natural stone are among the many reasons homeowners and builders gravitate to the material for their projects. Artists often are drawn to stone for similar reasons.

Sandstone heritage lives on through the work of master stone carver Keith Phillips who uses traditional hand tools to carve stone at a modest workshop known as The Shed, he is passing on his skills to a new generation of Tenino stone carvers.

After an exhaustive 4-year renovation of The Peninsula Paris, the century-old building took a giant leap back to reclaim its rightful place among the city’s most impressive architectural structures.

The stone monument incorporates 27 varieties of marble and has been considered “one of the finest marble installations in the United States” in a story published in Through the Ages trade magazine in 1926.

Soapstone comes in a wide range of color combinations—browns, greens, greys, yellows, black speckles. Each type of soapstone has specific qualities, and each individual piece of stone has its own character.

In a world of bytes and bites, the next generation of artisans is still studying with mallets and chisels and doing its part to carry over an ancient trade to another century.

Stone carvers today uses a combination of modern machinery and ancient craftsmanship to restore buildings and sculptures to their former magnificence.

A case study about award winning Minnesota State Capitol restoration project.