SWCAMBORNE » Stones, Water and Spirit

Backyard Beauty

Simon — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:47:46 +0000

A beautiful garden is an evolving work of art.

This season the fountain pond is filled with flowering Water Hyacinths.

New Fountain Installation

Simon — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:06:01 +0000

This is an interim photo of the new fountain installation we made at my home.

I got five rocks in the summer and one of them was drilled by Mark E locally. I installed it solo a few weeks ago. Mark did an excellent job drilling the rock and Dr Payne’s new plinth worked very well.

I took a series of pictures of the installation using a tripod and remote and posted them on Flickr

Stoned

Simon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:54:58 +0000

I got a new batch of stones from the San Gabriel River a few months ago. After they sat in the driveway for a few months I had some large men move them around.

This one I’m going to clean, drill and make into our permanent fountain:

This stack, which nobody likes, I’m going to drill so that the stones are cantilevered and leave as a sculpture in the yard.

It is going to look good. Like a Woods Davy sculpture except larger. A lot larger.

The Rainbow Stone

Simon — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:46:43 +0000

The Men of Stone showed their gratitude to Rainbow Canyon Ranch by installing a beautiful fountain near the office at the ranch.

The final installation

The design objective (without the deer or the tree)

Most of the real work was done by my assistant Ruben.

Jesse, an old friend, instructs Ruben at the site

Ruben does the Excavation

Ruben finishes the Hardscape

Simon and Candy celebrate

Rainbow Stone Art Photo

Click here to see a complete list of the installations by The Men of Stone.

Free Ranging Rocks

Simon — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:56:48 +0000

There are two kinds of rocks in the world: “Free Ranging” and “Caged.”

This picture illustrates the point nicely. the large boulder and small rocks along the petunias in the foreground are free ranging the stones cemented into the walls are caged. You can see that the free ranging stones are happier. Is it stone torture?It is important that every garden have some free ranging rocks to balance the human imposed order of concrete.

Here are some free ranging stones used as a lovely garden border.

There is an opportunity for someone to start the Free Ranging Rock Company. They could “hand select” beautiful boulders and sell them to people who live in urban areas as garden accents. You would come to the customers home with a truck full of beautiful Free Ranging Stones and you would help them select stones that fit their urbanscape. Each stone would come with a certificate of origin and a geological history. Size would effect price of course and I suggest that the sizes be Sparrow, Pigeon, Chicken Turkey and Ostrich. You can buy pigeon sized rocks at a local rock yard for $3.00 each but they are not hand selected, don’t have a pedigree and are not delivered.

A Beautiful Free Ranging Ostrich

Thanks to Jane F. who asked me for some “head sized” loose rocks when I was installing her fountain. Her request gave me this idea.

Fishman Stone Installed

Simon — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:14:54 +0000

The Men of Stone shown here are celebrating the installation of the Fishman Stone:

Dick, Simon and Howard

We are now taking reservations for phase two stones.

Contact Simon for more information

The Stone

And for the engineers:

An installation detail.

The Fishman Stone

Simon — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:13:46 +0000

Today the Men of Stone are installing the Fishman Stone. This is our first qualified installation in the second phase.

This picture shows it during its trial on the test stand.

This picture answers the question: “how do you lift them?”

The Colbert Stone

Simon — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:00:08 +0000

The Men of Stone completed their first public installation last week at Colbert Studios 94 North Baldwin in Sierra Madre, CA. The owner of Colbert Studios, Allyn Colbert was extremely gracious, helpful and cooperative in allowing us to make this installation.

DeLoss admires the Colbert Stone.

Dr Payne and DeLoss with the new installation.

During the last two years, what I call the learning phase of our enterprise, the Men of Stone have discovered, recovered, designed and installed seven stones at no charge. We have learned a lot about the process and what works and doesn’t and are now ready to begin the next phase of our project. In the next phase we will install seven to ten large stones at cost on qualified sites. Qualified is a term of art that will be defined as we go along.

Our objective in the second phase will be to perfect our skills and to begin positioning the art for marketing in the final phase. These stone fountains are works of art. They are difficult to create and require a coordinated effort of a number of artists, craftsmen and engineers. The final price will have to reflect this reality.

To see more photos of this installation click here

To see more photos of all our installations click here.

To contact the Men of Stone about an installation email simonburrow@mac.com

Latest Fountain Installed

Simon — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:01:33 +0000

We (The Men of Stone) finally finished the installation of the fountain in the David’s garden

It looks good. This is our fifth permanent installation and both the product and the installation technique are continuing to improve. We now have only two more stones in stock available for experimental installation.

The stone in place before the fountain.

The first installation attempt

successfully using the hoist

Before the landscaping

Simon shows his pride in the the new stone by giving it a hug

Garden Art

Simon — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:43:42 +0000

In Santa Fe we bought a garden sculpture/mobile from a very nice young man, Ben Malley at Wiford Gallery.

I finally arrived and I finally installed it. When the wind blows it turns and reminds me of flowers. When the wind doesn’t blow it just looks like a very nice copper sculpture in the garden. The manufacturer is Whitaker Studios in St George, Utah.

Happy New Year!