Brian Bastress, Stone Mason

“When I worked for Phil Hawk, I learned what was involved in ‘dressing the stone.’  You take a piece of stone, say, right off the side of the mountain, and you pick it out specifically because it has pretty good potential for being a building stone. But you can’t just throw that stone in the wall as it is, you have to actually dress the stone. The tools have been around forever. They’re very simple—hammer and chisel. There is an artistry to it. So you take your hammer and chisel to that stone and dress it in such a way that it’s appropriate to put in a wall. And when the wall’s finished it looks straight and true. If you dress the stone properly, basically you work with gravity. The mortar isn’t so much a glue as it is a filler. Take The Pyramids for example—you can build without mortar if you desired. It’s pretty primitive, it’s pretty simple, but there’s something about putting that stone on a table and dressing it that has some magic to it.”

ARTIST: Brian Bastress, Stone Mason
              Bastress Stone Works,
              Spring Mills, Pa

HOMETOWN: Williamsport, Pa

INSPIRATION: Lemont stone mason, Phillip Hawk