GAZETTE www.slipperyrockgazette.net V OLUME 24, ISSUE 286 THE BEACON OF THE STONE INDUSTRY APRIL 2018 RockTops: Kansas City Specialists in Ultracompact Fabrication he stone industry can be Joel Davis normal production. It’s a chal- a hard one to thrive in, lenge for many shops, because T but Kansas City-based Photos Courtesy RockTops they try to cut miter edges on their RockTops is using the latest normal production equipment, waterjet and robotics technologies tying it up and slowing every- to carve out a niche in the fabrica- Fixing a Bottleneck thing down. It becomes an issue tion of ultra-compact materials. Part of that strategic planning that most people give up on rather has involved giving customers than trying to find a solution.” Co-owner Mike Hyer is a even more material choices by RockTops turned to BACA Kansas City native with a back- branching out into the fabrication Systems, the leading manufac- ground in construction. He of new ultracompact surfaces. turer of robotic and automated and co-owner Tim Richardson Between the technical challenges fabrication solutions for the founded RockTops nearly five posed by working with ultra-com- stone industry, for a solution. In years ago to serve both the retail pact materials and the need to May 2015, they bought a Robo and new home construction mar- meet changing consumer tastes, SawJet, which couples the func- kets. “Business has been great in RockTops had to significantly re- tions of a high-pressure abrasive Kansas City,” he said. “We fo- design the workflow in its fabri- waterjet and a 25HP direct-drive cused on brand recognition and cation shop. saw with a precision KUKA marketing, and it worked well for “For us, it was really about fix- Robotics industrial robot, and a us. We grew rapidly. Today we ing a bottleneck within our shop,” BACA FlexJet, which is a 5-axis have about 60 employees. It took Hyer said. “Miter edging has be- waterjet. a lot of strategic planning along come more popular these days, Please turn to page 12 This stunning kitchen features a Carrara marble island with 3-inch the way for that kind of growth.” but we did not want to jam up our mitered edge, and Nero Orion on the perimeter countertops. Peter Marcucci Soaring Above and Beyond in Stone Photos by Peter Marcucci and Courtesy Andreas von Huene stone artist since 1991, Andreas von Huene resides in Arrowsic, a small Bath Iron Works, a shipbuilder town located along Maine’s southern coastline. Bath, a neighboring founded in 1884 and located on the Creativity Inspired A coastal town and financial mainstay of the area, is just a stone’s throw Kennebec River, nourished the area’s “My love of creating began at age from Arrowsic, and was one of the first settlements in New England. economy until 1909, when shipbuilding eight, while working in my father’s Photo by Peter Marcucci slowed. And like the tides that ebbed shop,” explained Andreas von Huene. and flowed throughout the centuries, so “Bath was a ghost town when I was ebbed and flowed the area’s economy growing up. The economy was weak, until 1914, as the dawning of World War so we moved to Boston where the shop l demanded ships — lots of ships. Again, started in the apartment hallway. My dad money flowed into the area as the war- had a small lathe to make musical instru- ships sailed out to defend distant lands ments, and just being allowed to use it across the sea. was great. Even better, I got to hang out Around this same time, Bath had be- with him a lot. come the end of the line for the railroad “Years later, my parents bought a that served the shipbuilding, fishing, tim- building close by. I could walk to the ber and farming enterprises that dotted shop after school and pick up a project, Maine’s coastline. Upriver stood huge sweep the floors, or watch the craftsmen bays of freshwater where ice was har- who worked with the exotic woods that vested, packed in sawdust and loaded smelled good while being shaped. This onto ships bound for all destinations. combination of sights and sounds and By the time World War I ended in smell of the grinder burning up (just kid- 1918, so did the need for warships. As ding, but it happened) was wonderful. the economy ebbed again, Bath became My father’s colleagues were especially a ghost town until the early 1940s when kind to me. I also learned to feel strongly war again raged in distant lands. America about making things that respected the To mount this cantilevered sculpture, Andreas drilled a 39-inch-deep hole and inserted a was going to war once again, and the beauty of the natural materials we used machined steel sleeve in the right wing. One end of a 2-inch-thick steel bar was tapered down money again flowed into the area — this whether in natural form or processed. to 1 inch and then inserted into the bird, while the 2-inch end was inserted into a rock base. time for nearly a decade... Please turn to page 2 Shop www.braxton-bragg.com for Stone & Tile industry products Visit www.slipperyrockgazette.net for more Stone & Tile industry news | 2 APRIL 2018 SLIPPERY ROCK GAZETTE Soaring Above and Beyond Drive is a fusion of move- ment using a beautiful Continued from page 1 also important to sticking with banded quartzite and a “I also saw the respect with getting a form while carving, and richly-grained hardwood on which tools were used — and to support that sculpture to its best a stainless steel base. made! So early on I had very effect when finished. positive associations with people “There is a funny point in who made things.” sculpting; let’s take stone, for ex- ample. There’s a point where you Creativity Elevated have a rough shape, an interme- Von Huene continued his en- diate shape and then a wonderful gineering studies at Worcester stage when everything is starting Polytechnic Institute in to pull together and the character Worcester, Massachusetts, and of the piece is coming out. You’re ten years later attended Stanford able to identify some hints from University working toward a your efforts, while mistakes also masters degree in engineering, inform you of the character of craftsmanship. After all, I grew up in a shop Andreas soon switched to the the work. Then there’s the stage making recorders and flutes that had to be right school’s product design program when it’s a dance of every tool. on the money acoustically and aesthetically. So which combined engineering and You’re still taking some big deep my process of discovery is retold by sculpting art design. In his own words he cuts with a gas saw here and cuts both figurative and abstract work with their dif- received the call to not just con- with smaller tools there and magic ferent rules. centrate on difficult tasks, but is happening. There is no word in “What kinds of things are going through my to combine thoughts and under- English that correctly identifies mind when I’m carving? A lot of it is shape, standing. Eventually he could this place that is both work and such as in the beginning while getting the basic flip the time spent doing tedious joy. This is a high level of living proportions right. Using light, you can see how work such as polishing stone into for me.” certain shadows indicate a rhythm that let him simultane- a form, and if I’m in good ously think outside the box. Soaring Above form, I’ll be paying atten- “Engineering extends into my I asked Andreas, “So what is tion to not just the shape, but art all the time,” Andreas con- your art and what are you thinking the shapes of the shadows, tinued. “The manufacturing, the while carving?” highlights and the gestures moving and the understanding “There are people that say I’m of the pose. Sometimes it’s of how things move or rotate are all about flow and energy flow,” the slightest bit of shaving universal skills, and I make a he continued. “Sometimes that that makes all the difference. point of understanding everything is true — sometimes not; I do so I’ll shave off 1/16 inch, and on a jobsite to predict what is many different things. I do enjoy all of a sudden the form going to happen. Do I want it ro- building character into the work will read correctly. Good tating, static, hanging or cantile- as if I’m engaging the piece, but I craftsmanship is a delight, vered? The engineering discipline don’t want to overstate that. There and therefore permission to builds mental flexibility, which are lots of pieces that seem to go deeper into understand- is of great value in any creative have no character unless you hap- ing what the art is about. endeavor. Good concentration is pen to like that kind of work. Then Conversely, bad craftsman- you groove on it. On each piece I ship negates all the good like to have the large forms, the work by tripping you up as small forms, the surfaces, and the you observe the art. This granite bench installed at the Patten Free Library was carved craftsmanship available to the “What is my art is a tough from Jonesboro Pink, quarried in Jonesboro, Maine by J.C. Stone, in viewer.