I've been trying to think back to when Walter and I first communicated via email. I can't remember exactly, but it was back in the early 90's when the internet was new to me. We'd communicate every so often, and I would browse his site and marvel at his incredible carvings in stone. He joined the Cafe shortly after it went online and has made some of our best contributions to the Tips Archive, with acanthus leaf examples and sharing what he knows on the subject. Walter is not a metal engraver, but shares our passion for ornamental artwork which he deep carves from big chunks of stone. His work is nothing less than spectacular, and it's with great pleasure that I present an interview with this brilliant craftsman. Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for Walter S. Arnold, the Official Cafe Stonecarver!
~Sam
====================
Q. What's your name?
A. Walter S. Arnold
Q. Where are you from?
A. The Chicago area, but I also spend a lot of my time working in Italy.
Q. How long have you been engraving?
A. Haven't started yet. But I've been carving stone since I was 12.
Q. What made you want to become an carver?
A. I really don't have a good answer, since it wasn't that I decided I wanted to do it. It was more that I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life. The bit question in life for me was never "what" or "why", but rather, "how"... from the start my concern was how to learn, how to do it.
Q. Are you a hobbyist or professional carver?
A. Professional
Q. How did you learn carving?
A. I spent my teenage years trying to learn to carve, dragging home stone from torn down buildings and figuring out what to use as tools. I realized I was trying to reinvent the wheel. To really learn this craft, this art, I knew I needed to find mentors, carvers who had learned and mastered the age-old tradition. I found them in Italy. I went there when I was 20, to the small town of Pietrasanta, near the famous marble quarries of Carrara. This region has been a center for carving and marble work since Etruscan times. The men I worked with had learned from their fathers and grandfathers, who in turn had learned from their predecessors
Subsequently, I returned to the U.S., and eventually was hired as a carver on the Washington National Cathedral. I was fortunate to work with some very experienced carvers on the cathedral, including master carver Vincent Palumbo, a fifth generation carver, and Patrick Plunkett, who had spent years working on Salisbury and other cathedrals in the England.
Vincent used to say, "you don't learn carving, you steal it". You steal little ideas from every carver you meet, every carving you see, and put that together to develop your own ability.
Q. Are you a hammer & chisel and/or push engraver, or do you use
pneumatic tools, or a combination of hand and power?
There are similar issues in carving to those in engraving. The pneumatic hammer was introduced in the mid 1880's, and gained full acceptance in the U.S. and Italy in the first decade or two of the 20th Century. However, some other countries, including France, still resist it, and usage is limited and often frowned upon in England. The chisels are the same, it's just a question of what is on the back end striking the chisel.
I use both, and move back and forth between them constantly; it all depends on the stroke and angle I want. Knowing both gives a wider vocabulary and more flexibility. I know a lot of carvers who trained from the start with pneumatics, and never developed a level of comfort or experience with the mallet or hand hammer. I feel that limits them.
Q. What are your favorite books pertaining to carving?
A. Pugin's Gothic Ornament, (a Dover reprint of an 1838 original is readily available) is a wonderful resource. I have a very large collection of 100 to 150 year old books on ornament and design, and consult them regularly.
Q. Of the old masters, whose work is among your favorite?
A. Lots of them; not just the famous ones, but the anonymous ones who carved all the wonderful pieces on European cathedrals, the facades of French and Italian buildings, the Japanese temple guardians and Javanese sculptures. Recently I've been looking at Aztec carvings; there are things to learn from every tradition.
Q. What's the worst carving mistake you ever made, and how did you fix it?
A. I think I make a mistake everytime I bid a job... I can estimate the carving time quite well, but all the other factors (design time, customer interaction time, getting the stone, handling it in the shop, stopping to research details and refine the concept) are unpredictable.
Q. What are the majority of your carving jobs?
A. A mix. Probably 60% is high-end residential (including fireplaces, fountains, and the occasional gargoyle). The rest is a mix between commercial, institutional, restoration, and the occasional memorial or work of public sculpture. I like keeping a wide diversity, and avoid getting stuck in a single market segment or type of work.
Q. What type of magnification do you use (microscope, Optivisor, etc)?
No, I work big. I wear bifocals, but I have a separate set of single focus glasses (like reading glasses, but with safety shields) that are focused for 17", my typical distance from the stone.
Q. What part of carving do you find the most challenging or difficult?
A. I'm always trying to improve quality and learn more, and questioning whether the piece I'm doing could stand up to the standards of the old days.
Q. What part of an engraving job do you dislike the most, and why?
A. Juggling construction schedules (since much of my work is architectural), and sweating the dimensions and fit. Often a fireplace will have 15 or more pieces, all of which have to be cut to fit precisely, and usually I have to base that on architects drawings or preliminary site conditions. Then, when it's delivered, the drywall or carpentery might have been changed, and things don't fit right any more.
Q. What's your favorite part of an carving job, and why?
A. The range and diversity, and the way that, for each different job, I have to learn something new and study something different. For example, I recently carved a series of animal heads, Rocky Mountain animals, and got to look into the types of animals native to that region and their anatomy. A while ago I did a fireplace in the style of a Chinese brush painting, and spent time researching the styles they used to paint trees and mountains.
Q. Do you like or dislike lettering, and why?
A. I do some lettering jobs; I've carved the names on a half dozen museums, and a number of other buildings. I find lettering keeps me honest; it's very precise and controlled, so it pulls back my precision after I've gotten too loose on some of the more sculptural work.
Q. What kinds of carving do you refuse to do?
A. I'll only work limestone and marble. I won't touch granite or sandstone. Limestone and marble are almost pure calcium carbonate (like breathing the dust of Tums), whereas the dust of granite and sandstone is very dangerous. Also, they work very differently, and require a different approach and different tooling.
In general I try to be selective about what jobs I take on; I look at whether I can make the client happy and make myself happy. I figure there are three things to get out of a job; money, fun, and a good addition to the portfolio. Not too often can you get all three out of a particular job, but it needs to provide at least two. If I only see I'll get one of those three, I'll take a pass on it. Life's too short
Q. How do you rate the quality of carving done today as opposed to
50 or 100 years ago?
A. The carvers of 100 to 150 years ago were phenomenal, I see things on old buildings which just blow me away. Quality and quantity had really diminished by 50 years ago; lack of demand killed off the supply. There are very few carvers now who could have gotten a job in a typical shop of 100 years ago, but we're trying to bring it back.
Q. What country or countries impress you with their highly skilled carvers?
A. Italy still has some of the best, but even there it has changed significantly in my lifetime, there are only a handful with the truly superb skill levels.
Q. What affect has the internet had on your hand engraving?
A. Probably 85 or 90% of my work comes to me because of my website, http://stonecarver.com
I launched the site in 1994, so I was very early. Lately I've also developed a fan page on Facebook; that gives me a venue to quickly post work in progress and finished work without having to format it to fit the structure of my website. That is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walter-S-Arnold/56306749133
Q. What advice would you give to someone who wants to learn carving?
A. I don't have a good answer, although I get asked often. Traditionally, carving skills were passed on from generation to generation, from master to apprentice. While the ideal way to learn these skills is to spend years working with these masters, that is generally not an option. There are just too few masters around, and most are not in a position to take someone on. I do know several sculptors who have worked in that environment and who periodically offer classes.
::: Personal :::
Q. How many children do you have?
A. Two (step-children).
Q. What's the occupation of your wife?
A. She's a registered nurse, but she also manages my business and provides me with a second set of eyes. She can look at the work from my clients viewpoint.
Q. If you have traveled, what was the most exciting country you
visited and what did you enjoy most?
A. I've been to 15 or 16 countries, and all but about 5 states of the U.S. I maintain an apartment in Italy, since I spend much of my time there working.
Q. What's one thing of which you are most proud?
A. It's always the most recent project which I've finished. This week it's my book, Staglieno - The Art of Marble Carving, on the incredible sculptures in the monumental cemetery of Genoa, Italy.
~Sam
====================
Q. What's your name?
A. Walter S. Arnold
Q. Where are you from?
A. The Chicago area, but I also spend a lot of my time working in Italy.
Q. How long have you been engraving?
A. Haven't started yet. But I've been carving stone since I was 12.
Q. What made you want to become an carver?
A. I really don't have a good answer, since it wasn't that I decided I wanted to do it. It was more that I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life. The bit question in life for me was never "what" or "why", but rather, "how"... from the start my concern was how to learn, how to do it.
Q. Are you a hobbyist or professional carver?
A. Professional
Q. How did you learn carving?
A. I spent my teenage years trying to learn to carve, dragging home stone from torn down buildings and figuring out what to use as tools. I realized I was trying to reinvent the wheel. To really learn this craft, this art, I knew I needed to find mentors, carvers who had learned and mastered the age-old tradition. I found them in Italy. I went there when I was 20, to the small town of Pietrasanta, near the famous marble quarries of Carrara. This region has been a center for carving and marble work since Etruscan times. The men I worked with had learned from their fathers and grandfathers, who in turn had learned from their predecessors
Subsequently, I returned to the U.S., and eventually was hired as a carver on the Washington National Cathedral. I was fortunate to work with some very experienced carvers on the cathedral, including master carver Vincent Palumbo, a fifth generation carver, and Patrick Plunkett, who had spent years working on Salisbury and other cathedrals in the England.
Vincent used to say, "you don't learn carving, you steal it". You steal little ideas from every carver you meet, every carving you see, and put that together to develop your own ability.
Q. Are you a hammer & chisel and/or push engraver, or do you use
pneumatic tools, or a combination of hand and power?
There are similar issues in carving to those in engraving. The pneumatic hammer was introduced in the mid 1880's, and gained full acceptance in the U.S. and Italy in the first decade or two of the 20th Century. However, some other countries, including France, still resist it, and usage is limited and often frowned upon in England. The chisels are the same, it's just a question of what is on the back end striking the chisel.
I use both, and move back and forth between them constantly; it all depends on the stroke and angle I want. Knowing both gives a wider vocabulary and more flexibility. I know a lot of carvers who trained from the start with pneumatics, and never developed a level of comfort or experience with the mallet or hand hammer. I feel that limits them.
Q. What are your favorite books pertaining to carving?
A. Pugin's Gothic Ornament, (a Dover reprint of an 1838 original is readily available) is a wonderful resource. I have a very large collection of 100 to 150 year old books on ornament and design, and consult them regularly.
Q. Of the old masters, whose work is among your favorite?
A. Lots of them; not just the famous ones, but the anonymous ones who carved all the wonderful pieces on European cathedrals, the facades of French and Italian buildings, the Japanese temple guardians and Javanese sculptures. Recently I've been looking at Aztec carvings; there are things to learn from every tradition.
Q. What's the worst carving mistake you ever made, and how did you fix it?
A. I think I make a mistake everytime I bid a job... I can estimate the carving time quite well, but all the other factors (design time, customer interaction time, getting the stone, handling it in the shop, stopping to research details and refine the concept) are unpredictable.
Q. What are the majority of your carving jobs?
A. A mix. Probably 60% is high-end residential (including fireplaces, fountains, and the occasional gargoyle). The rest is a mix between commercial, institutional, restoration, and the occasional memorial or work of public sculpture. I like keeping a wide diversity, and avoid getting stuck in a single market segment or type of work.
Q. What type of magnification do you use (microscope, Optivisor, etc)?
No, I work big. I wear bifocals, but I have a separate set of single focus glasses (like reading glasses, but with safety shields) that are focused for 17", my typical distance from the stone.
Q. What part of carving do you find the most challenging or difficult?
A. I'm always trying to improve quality and learn more, and questioning whether the piece I'm doing could stand up to the standards of the old days.
Q. What part of an engraving job do you dislike the most, and why?
A. Juggling construction schedules (since much of my work is architectural), and sweating the dimensions and fit. Often a fireplace will have 15 or more pieces, all of which have to be cut to fit precisely, and usually I have to base that on architects drawings or preliminary site conditions. Then, when it's delivered, the drywall or carpentery might have been changed, and things don't fit right any more.
Q. What's your favorite part of an carving job, and why?
A. The range and diversity, and the way that, for each different job, I have to learn something new and study something different. For example, I recently carved a series of animal heads, Rocky Mountain animals, and got to look into the types of animals native to that region and their anatomy. A while ago I did a fireplace in the style of a Chinese brush painting, and spent time researching the styles they used to paint trees and mountains.
Q. Do you like or dislike lettering, and why?
A. I do some lettering jobs; I've carved the names on a half dozen museums, and a number of other buildings. I find lettering keeps me honest; it's very precise and controlled, so it pulls back my precision after I've gotten too loose on some of the more sculptural work.
Q. What kinds of carving do you refuse to do?
A. I'll only work limestone and marble. I won't touch granite or sandstone. Limestone and marble are almost pure calcium carbonate (like breathing the dust of Tums), whereas the dust of granite and sandstone is very dangerous. Also, they work very differently, and require a different approach and different tooling.
In general I try to be selective about what jobs I take on; I look at whether I can make the client happy and make myself happy. I figure there are three things to get out of a job; money, fun, and a good addition to the portfolio. Not too often can you get all three out of a particular job, but it needs to provide at least two. If I only see I'll get one of those three, I'll take a pass on it. Life's too short
Q. How do you rate the quality of carving done today as opposed to
50 or 100 years ago?
A. The carvers of 100 to 150 years ago were phenomenal, I see things on old buildings which just blow me away. Quality and quantity had really diminished by 50 years ago; lack of demand killed off the supply. There are very few carvers now who could have gotten a job in a typical shop of 100 years ago, but we're trying to bring it back.
Q. What country or countries impress you with their highly skilled carvers?
A. Italy still has some of the best, but even there it has changed significantly in my lifetime, there are only a handful with the truly superb skill levels.
Q. What affect has the internet had on your hand engraving?
A. Probably 85 or 90% of my work comes to me because of my website, http://stonecarver.com
I launched the site in 1994, so I was very early. Lately I've also developed a fan page on Facebook; that gives me a venue to quickly post work in progress and finished work without having to format it to fit the structure of my website. That is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walter-S-Arnold/56306749133
Q. What advice would you give to someone who wants to learn carving?
A. I don't have a good answer, although I get asked often. Traditionally, carving skills were passed on from generation to generation, from master to apprentice. While the ideal way to learn these skills is to spend years working with these masters, that is generally not an option. There are just too few masters around, and most are not in a position to take someone on. I do know several sculptors who have worked in that environment and who periodically offer classes.
::: Personal :::
Q. How many children do you have?
A. Two (step-children).
Q. What's the occupation of your wife?
A. She's a registered nurse, but she also manages my business and provides me with a second set of eyes. She can look at the work from my clients viewpoint.
Q. If you have traveled, what was the most exciting country you
visited and what did you enjoy most?
A. I've been to 15 or 16 countries, and all but about 5 states of the U.S. I maintain an apartment in Italy, since I spend much of my time there working.
Q. What's one thing of which you are most proud?
A. It's always the most recent project which I've finished. This week it's my book, Staglieno - The Art of Marble Carving, on the incredible sculptures in the monumental cemetery of Genoa, Italy.
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