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100 PHOTOS OF MY WORK! Click HERE!
check out this index to all my Web Sites! click
Masonry & steel art: check out my other website!click here!
nice little art site: CLICK HERE
Click Here for a tour of my personal garden!
Stone Posts are concrete and steel cores covered in slate. Most are used
as light posts, some as fencing posts and others for garden gates. This one has a vine, from steel, climbing around
it.
Why I Like Steel: It has been somewhere before, this tubular
steel and bar I work with. It is constantly used and reused, recycled, recreated, turned into a new form,from the scrap
heap: broken refrigerators, car bodies, and really old, good toys. Today more steel is produced thru recycling than
mining. Truly born again, a molecular process, not unlike a nebula giving birth to stars.
click here to go to my 3rd site: workphotos
| ARCHED STEEL AND STONE BRIDGE TO SHOP |
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| Call for a tour of my shop and garden |
Welding steel together is a molecular process.
I am mixing the molecules from one piece into another. It is not a gluing process, the pieces become one.
There is minimal waste with steel. The short pieces often go into another project or get welded together to become
long. Sometimes, in my shop, I will make something wrong. Wrong in the sense that it was not what I thought it
would be. I sometimes ignore the blueprints and do with the steel what it wants done. These pieces often turn
out so much better than my customers anticipated, but not always, so with steel there is no waste. I can cut it up and
use the elements in other pieces and recycle the rest.
I like the strength of steel, the heaviness, durability, sleek lines,
soft touch and subtle reflections. I like the shadows it makes on a summer day, saying I am here - and I am there!
I have seen iron-work, old gates and grills, hundreds of years old in Europe in castles, the oldest parts of towns, in cemeteries,
saying, "I will protect you, I will comfort you, I will be there."
| Shop, outside view |
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| flower pots were once light fixtures |
There are almost no design limitations working with steel. From time to
time, over the centuries architects and designers have controlled the construction of iron work, standardizing elements of
the art. Like all things in life - this is good and bad. Individual shops lost some creativity but classical designs
were created: art deco, art nouveau were created! Today designers have succombed to mass manufacturing, standard
fence panels, gates from catalogs, parts and pieces purchased at Home Depot.
A good ornamental iron creation, whether mine or another artist-fabricator,
will slow you down, hopefully actually stop you. Working with a small shop allows you to participate in the design of
your project, creating something complimenting your ideas, not purchasing something called "C-12" out of a book: "this is
mine, I helped design it and I love it!"
This is how I survive! word of mouth! Please tell a friend or relative or the post man about me. Thanks so
much, Jerry!
Not everything I do is expensive, although steel is a world commodity
product and sold by the pound...the more it weighs, the more it will cost. I do not work by the hour. I would
always be afraid that the time is up, or over or wasted and I don't consider time in those elements. I have a sence
of schedule and your job will be done as promised, but the 24 hours in a day are mine. I may get lost in your project,
working on it, thinking about it and building it in my dreams. It will be built on time for the agreed upon price -
never more and never less.
I enjoy what I do because it is earth-friendly, making something from a pile
of scrap, although a pile of scrap steel is pretty amazing in itself! I enjoy the part that you are so happy with what
I have created for you. I like discovering my pieces in your home. I like the challenge of creating something
today that was better than what I did yesterday, and I like the challenge, and honor, of being invited into your home and
creating something that belongs there. These are my pieces, you just have possession of them! And then, like most
artists, there is that immortality thing - I like creating pieces that will outlive me, that hopefully will never find their
way to the recycle yard, and if they do, just maybe to be picked up by another: "wow! I can do something with this!"
What may I build for you? Jerry Carlin
| Herron Arbor Garden Entry |
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| Arbors need to be very strong |
Most commercial arbors, trellis's and supports for plants will not support themselves, let alone a plant. Steel
structures will not rot out from beneath a mature plant. My arbors are anchored to the ground in six places, three per
side. This triangular support prevents racking and movement of the structure. Most of my arbors have victorian gabled
roof systems. This adds needed height for the plant, giving it space to grow and provides a visual focal point for your
garden. Arbors can be gated, enclosed with a seating area or totally open as a pass through to an open space.
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Grays Garden Center, both their Eugene and Springfield locations, carry some of what I do. You will find pedestals,
plant stands, trellis's and other plant supports in addition to my little art pieces and wall hangings there. The inventory
is always changing and I seldom make the same thing twice so you will have to check it out for yourself, often. This,
and your telling your friends is the only advertizing I do.
| Rose on a rock |
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| Detail is so important in a project. It is a design element that builds strength. |
This is the website for Stone Posts Co. We make stone light and gate posts and do our own fabrication of ornamental iron.
e-mail me slate@earthlink.net call me: 747-5977, or visit me: 1266 7th Springfield, Oregon 97477
| The strength is in the design! |
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| Powder coated: black, white, green,yellow, red. |
Gates should not be framed fence panels. This does not provide enough structural support and visually doesn't convey
the idea of entry. Gates should, at the same time, say 'welcome, this is the entry to my home' yet be substantial enough
to keep out unwanted intruders. Design is everything to a gate and every element should add strength to the whole, each piece
creating a truss system or triangular stabilization to the frame. I like heavy gates on two inch frames and often design
around a double frame with the space between creating a truss. Heavy gates and all gates that you want to last, should
have a strong support system. I use 6 X 6 heavy guage steel posts embedded three and one half feet in the ground in
a three foot diameter hole, filled with a yard of concrete. Even with masonry columns there should be a steel post inside.
| classical gates are for a reason! |
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| Stainless Steel center piece |
My Hobbies
| Triangle Gate, clear powder coat |
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| Modern, Classical and your designs |
| Romeo & Juliet installed |
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| Design. Build. Install. |
| Garden Bench, a resting place and focal point |
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| masonry by Sarah Carlin |
Garden Benches provide a resting place, a setting to appreciate the time and moment of now, an opportunity to reflect
and admire where you are both physically and spiritually and offer time to rest. They can be garden center pieces or
tucked away in a more private part of the garden. Benches with backs invite a longer stay and in my garden provide support
for climbing cucumbers trellising over the back. Most of my benches are steel with a slate or travertine seating area.
Styles vary considerably!
Schnitzer Steel is my main source of steel inventory. The helpful staff there have aided my transition into the
art of welding. They have a large inventory of steel, tubular, bar, channel and flat stock and a knoweldgable helpful
staff to accomodate my needs. They have a huge inventory of ornamentral iron elements and catalogs to acquire more.
Their scrap yard is most impressive and on occasion they pull interesting pieces for me that I incorporate into my work.
click here to contact me!
http://home.earthlink.net/~stoneposts/
in
addition to my family, my interests are mainly ornamental ironwork and my garden.
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| modern art gate: mostly found pieces |
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| address is stainless steel over slate |
| Romeo & Juliet Balcony in shop |
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| Jerry in his shop |
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