Hammerhead Stoneworks Creates Custom Stone Logo Mosaic
Peter J. Marcucci
When Stone mason/artist Marc Archambault was approached to create a large-scale mosaic logo for an Asheville, North Carolina brewery, he may have been just a bit ecstatic. You see, up until that moment, Marc, the founder of Hammerhead Stoneworks Incorporated in Asheville, North Carolina, had been producing exquisite but utilitarian work including patios, chimneys, walls, steps, walkways and fireplaces.
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“The skin tones used on the face are made from stone quarried by the Tennessee Marble Company. They are just a few hours away from here and have a bone yard pile that I picked through. That’s also where I got the Serpentine eyebrows. The whites of the eyes, I think, are from Georgia. The majority of the background is sandstone is from Crossville, Tennessee, only a four-hour trip away. “The background is mostly Crab Orchard Gray Sandstone from Tennessee. There are small fossils, geodes and pebbles mixed in, which are from our expansive collection of weird-cool stones.” “The majority of the stones in the leaves are from Pennsylvania sandstone, used a lot for patios. The eyes are Malachite from local gem shops, but I believe it originally comes from Africa. The black used in the pupils is plain-old granite tile from a big-box store, and we are also using reclaimed slate from a house in Asheville, N.C. . |
“I was very excited about the opportunity,” said Marc. “I had been imagining creating large-scale (stone) mosaics like this for years. I’ve made smaller ones, as proof of concept or just for fun, and I’ve been waiting for a chance like this for a while.”
Not to be confused with run-of-the-mill stonework, Marc’s style since 1997 has always been a mix of rustic charm and local color, topped with his signature eclectic style. When viewed whole or partial, distant or close-up, his work is a decorative mixture of texture and color, combining different stones.
“The Greenman came about from two previous business relationships, one of which was Krista Lablue,” continued Marc. “She does interior design and was working with Dennis and Wendy Thies, the owners of the Greenman Brewery, a local craft brewer where people can socialize while drinking or touring. I had worked for Krista previously and had done a very unique floor in Dennis and Wendy’s house, during which time they talked about building their company logo into their brewery’s outdoor patio. For whatever reason, that never came about. So when they decided to expand the brewery to take advantage of the tours along with the other breweries in the area, they again approached me to do the project. This time, however, the logo would be installed on the wall.”
Marc, along with Hammerhead Stoneworks crew Gary Wilson, Jonathan Frederick and Fred Lashley began the project by imagineering from start to finish how to get it done.
Gary, a gifted craftsman, has been with Hammerhead almost since the beginning and has a keen eye for aesthetics and detail.
Jonathan has been with Hammerhead for almost three years. He studied painting at LSU and brings his artistic gifts to every project.
Fred Lashley and Marc have worked together the longest, almost nine years, on and off. Fred has been working with stone for over 20 years and was Marc’s first mentor in stone work.
Fleshing Out The Greenman
Marc continued, “We started by duplicating the pattern of the leaves, the contours of the face and that kind of stuff onto a paper drawing. This was one of the most challenging parts of the project, actually, because it was basically rendered in two shades of green and white. Taking each image and extrapolating them out to create the logo was very time consuming and a very back and forth process.
“One of the interesting things about it was when I was drawing the lines of the pieces, the lines really stood out. But when you’re standing back looking at the finished drawing of the mosaic, the lines become secondary and disappear. You only see the black against the white, so it was hard to translate what the finished product would look like. It’s not like working in a Photoshop app. What the finished product looked like compared to the drawing is like night and day. That was also one of the challenges of the process.”
When the preliminary drawing was approved by Krista and Wendy, Marc printed out sections of the face in full scale. These sections were then put together and hung at the correct height to critique the Greenman full size. It was here that Marc ran into another problem. “I realized that the Greenman was so high and viewed from so far away, that the lips looked huge, the nose looked huge and the eyes looked small. This was due to looking at it on the screen as opposed to looking at it on the wall. So this is where I made some significant changes.”
With the changes completed and using felt roofing paper, Marc and crew converted the paper templates into more durable templates. According to Marc, the roofing felt paper doesn’t get messed up by water or torn easily.
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Materials Used and Quarry Locations for this Project:
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Prefitting the mosaic at the studio: “There were two things going on at the same time – fitting, and a color check. Then, most of the pieces of the leaf were epoxied onto diamond pattern lath. That’s how we did the perimeter where the face meets the background. We could build it in our shop, transport it, and install it anywhere.” |
Show Me the Colors
“This was kind of a transition point in the project,” continued Marc. “I had Krista and Wendy come over to the shop, and we laid out a whole host of different stones that we were thinking about using. I said to them, ‘This is what I’d like to use for the face,’ and, ‘Here are the green colors for the leaves,’ while putting the stones next to each other. We went through the process like that for at least an hour. The lips were the only place where people were unsure if they should be lighter or darker, and sometimes the crew made different samples of what it could look like one way or another. Fortunately, everybody from the beginning was on board, and it wasn’t a major hurdle. No one had an opinion that was contrary to the general trend, and that made it pretty easy.
“Having worked with both Krista and Wendy before, they had a lot of faith in what we do and how we do it, so we were given a little bit of room to roam. There would be technical challenges with the cutting and the mounting and the materials, but the aesthetics and the decision making was pretty seamless.”
Fabrication & Test Fitting
At this point, said Marc, everyone knew the Big Picture (no pun intended). For four weeks, every day, beginning with the leaves around the bottom, the crew painstakingly worked their way around by cutting and fitting each piece to the last, on the ground. Each leaf was its own art project for whoever was working on it. Marc, who’d been working on the face, could now begin to discuss things such as putting a little more of this color here, or it doesn’t fit right, and we need to adjust this piece. When fit to satisfaction, each piece was epoxied onto small sections of diamond mesh lath, making the 16-foot-wide, 20-foot-tall project ready to transport.
Installation Day
“Beginning with the eyes, nose, forehead and cheeks, using thinset, we put up one section at a time and worked our way out, ” continued Marc. “When we were sure that the face thinset had set up, the background was installed. We had most of the background cut by the time we started.
“Unfortunately, we were unsure about how the leaves would fit the background and couldn’t effectively template around the leaves until they were installed. So doing one piece at a time we’d run out, cut, and run in to check the fit. It was basically like a tile application. We additionally drilled through the mesh to secure the pieces so they wouldn’t drift as we were waiting for them to dry.
“After working our way out to the walls, we grouted it. Grouting hadn’t been in the plan, but we figured it was the best way to unite all the pieces and clean up any discrepancies in the cuts. Some of the materials had a polish on them, some didn’t. It was difficult to grout the ones that didn’t (have a polish), because the grout would stick to them if we weren’t careful, and it took a lot of elbow grease to get them clean.
“I love the way that the grout made it look like a continuous surface. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but once we did it, I was happy that we did.”
Marc’s Final Thoughts
One of the things that meant a lot and brought a lot of satisfaction, added Marc, was that most of the stones he used were locally quarried. “I love exotic stone and do work with them on a small scale, but it made me happy to create the Greenman mostly out of stones that were nearby. I also think that it’s a visually striking to mix and match materials that are honed and polished. It makes you want to run your hand on it to feel that contrast. All materials have a different feel to the texture, and I want to touch it and wonder about it.
“What I like about projects like this is that we can make it in the shop and go just about anywhere to do the installation. Build it in North Carolina and install it in Seattle, you know what I mean? I do like the shop work where I can wrestle with the creative stuff in my own space, and then bring it to the local jobsite and install it. Making the Greenman was really fun for the crew. It’s the more creative challenges and the technical aspects that keeps us engaged, and it was great in that regard. There was definitely a learning curve, but now that I’ve figured out how to do it, I’m ready for the next one!”
For more information about Hammerhead Stoneworks, the Greenman Project or other projects by the crew visit www.hammerheadstoneworks.com .