metal art and masonry

metal art and masonry

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security grating needn't be bars

the full grate has a spider also

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click here to open gate to main website Go to slate/stoneposts main website click here!

for a tour of my own garden, CLICK HERE

click here for third site: workphotos

Blue Pot

this was once a light fixture in a school

Steel can be any color and most of it in my garden is natural rust. It is the way it is and it will far outlast me. That said, color in the garden, all year long can be dramatic and directing to the eye: it makes you look in a certain direction. My flower pots are all powder-coated in the primary colors, blues, yellows, green and bright red. These pots were salvaged from the scrap yard while on their way to being ground up. I bought the bunch, about 60 and have about 20 left. They are not for sale, as I have never found any more and I like them. That is the nature of found art: sometimes you do and sometimes you don't but you know it won't be there tomorrow: someone else will buy it or it gets recycled.

Tables

most of my tables have travertine or slate tops

There are no rules with scrap art: anything can become something! An old industrial gear, heavy and solid becomes the base of this travertine-topped table. The table in the background is supported with a piece of copper tubbing with a vine running up its length. The little corner table, made for a Budda statue, is from scraps off the floor. Design, of course is the controlling element and will it stand the tests of durability, strength and gracefulness. Looks heavy but feels soft is the perfect combination!

vine pedestal

lots and lots of pedestal styles and designs

deco garden bench

not rectangle, nor square nor round: musical!

slate topped coffee table

design and masonry by Sarah Carlin

Herron Arbor

Art? it's huge! 12' tall and35' wide

When is something art? and not mechanics, color samples on paper or a do-dad someone made? This arbor is my biggest to date. The actual arbor has an eight foot gated opening and is about 13 feet tall. Include the wings, decorative fencing panels and it is about 35' wide. It becomes the entry to a private garden. It is easily seen from 200' away and says 'come here! I am the garden entry!' On approaching it one sees the stainless steel herrons with a pond in the background. There is a closer photo of this detail on the other website. Is it art? I don't know but I like it and enjoyed making it and know that it is the only one in the world.

Double Entry Gates are always impressive and don't have to be split down the middle. '

this one is serpentine, yin and yang, the dividing curve is the same as the top arch. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this.

Tree of Life Gate

serpentine split double gates

When is it art? This railing replaced a very heavy wooden rail system that had 2X6 top and bottom rails and 2X2 ballisters in a 1970's timber-frame house with all dark wood. I was asked how to make it different, lighter, modern and more accomodating to the customers existing displayed art. This rail is powder-coated 'silver vein' and is topped with a 2" molded cap rail for a nice grip on the hand. In a different location it could have had stained glass inserts here and there. In a different location I would have made it different. I have been back many times to add additional steel elements into the home.

Double Classical Gate

6" steel posts with 1 yard of concrete each

interior wave railing

4" spacing to meet codes are sometimes fun

art can be big: greenhouse wall

when art becomes the wall itself

one of my ladies

limited edition, ladies walking dogs

My art projects are mostly big: 24' stone bridges, eight foot tall interior waterfalls, heavy 200# tables and my Stone Light Posts weighing over 150#. The above photo is one side of my greenhouse. Three sides are slated with glass and the northside has my pump-house attached. Slate makes a wonderful wall surface, full of color and texture. For a greenhouse it acts as a heat sink getting warm during the day to release its heat at night. Most of my art is practical and has a use, thus functional art: hang things from it, use the surface for a table, placed in the garden, even my "ladies walking dogs" become trellis's. My"ladies" are almost entirely made from 'found' pieces and because they are difficult to find, I only make twelve a year.

coat rack in Dr.s Office

clear powder coat over blued steel

cats

this cat does't eat but will keep you company

once a barrel on a logging road

now framed art on my office wall

The steel plate in this 'picture' used to be a barrel on an old Oregon logging road. One time it was hit by a logging truck, and then another to perhaps thousands! Each set of tires embedded gravel into the once smooth surface creating a texture and rust pattern that I found interesting. Framed in 3/4" channel, it makes a distinctive wall hanging. There is only one.

Steel in frame

when the steel itself is art

My wall hangings are mostly stainless steel and copper with one element emphasizing the other. The stainless is always crisp,reflecting the light as the copper absorbs it and returns its coppery hue to sometimes golden to sometimes green. I like the contrast and emphasis. The coatrack is polished steel, heat treated to achieve the bluish tinge and powder-coated clear.

Jerry Carlin

stainless steel and copper wall art

Most of what I do is commisioned, I build what you want, or how I think you want it. This is why I consider what I do as art. There is an element of interpretation in what I do. That is why the tour of my shop and garden is so important (tour from May through October) and that is why the invitation to your house is so important: we get a sense of each other and I can build a project just for you. Estimates are free as are preliminary designs.

Rock Table and Checkerboard Bench

interior and exterior furniture

Mostly this has been a learned trade for me. I have been a contractor for over 30 years. About ten years ago, as a hobby, I invented Stone Posts Co. These are concrete posts covered in slate and although mostly used as light posts, some have been used as gate and fence post. Customers wanted iron fencing and my stone posts. The first couple of jobs I hired other welder-fabricators to build for me and I quickly realized their disinterest: they were frustrated trailor builders! So I bought a little welder and started practicing! Two hours a day, every day and I fell in love with it (more of this story on the other website). I bought books on classical designs and read and read and read! Then I bought a bigger welder and now I are one! But I don't build trailors!

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Sometimes 'found pieces' make the best art. Often I will incorporate these into my work, sometimes I will make them my work, and sometimes they are perfect standing alone or in a simple frame. Sometimes I know the history of the found object, what it was and I take on the task to determine what it will be. Scrap piles of steel are pretty amazing and always changing. A huge pile, almost a city block and 20 feet tall can be gone tomorrow, and I always wonder what I missed! It is a hunting expedition this search for 'found art', never the same and always discovering what was always there. What I really discover is the use for it.

pile of scrap iron to be recycled

sometimes the scrap itself is the art: ENTER

one of my 'ladies' with offering plate (copper)

out of the scrap heap they shall rise

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Stone Posts Co. 1-541-747-5977 stoneposts@earthlink.net