American Stonecraft Transforms Unwanted Stones into Artistic Serving Ware

LOWELL, Mass., Nov. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Anyone who has tried to plant a flowerbed New England knows about the region's infamously rocky soil. It is also true that most anyone who drives down a New England road will see quintessential stonewalls winding throughout the landscape. Not many are aware, however, that these two New England characteristics are closely related.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141103/156370
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141103/156371

There are more miles of stonewalls in New England than there are miles to the moon, all of them built by hand by local farmers. But they didn't craft these structures out of a masonic pursuit— they built them out of desperation! The region's earth is scattered with stones dropped by glaciers thousands of years ago.

Every year, the freeze-thaw cycle pushes new stones to the surface. You can imagine a farmer's dismay when, after clearing his fields of hundreds of boulders, he finds dozens more in the very same field the following year! Farmers soon began to adapt to their annual struggle against a land that grows rocks. They started building stonewalls for need of somewhere to put all the burdensome fieldstones!

After hundreds of years of farming, these rugged holdouts are still here growing provisions in New England. Now, however, the region's farmers have finally been relieved of their stony encumbrance by none-other than a small art studio in Lowell, Mass.: American Stonecraft.

The farmers may not know what to do with their fieldstones, but these artists sure do! They have begun hand-gathering the unwanted stones from farms and transforming them into one-of-a-kind serving ware. The studio currently makes food slabs, coasters and bowls in an effort to transform a once burdensome material into a highly profitable product. Once the transformation is complete (the fieldstones are sawn, polished, sealed and labeled with their farm province) the American Stonecraft team returns the stones to the farmers who 'grew' them.

"The farmers can sell these works of functional art in their farm stands", says Gerald Croteau III, Founder of the Studio. "The popularity of these pieces has been amazing. Farmers across New England are now making thousands of dollars in annual profit from the very stones they were spending time and money to rid themselves of!"

About American Stonecraft
American Stonecraft is a Lowell, Mass. studio that shares the story of a land that grows rocks and the farms who battle them. We do this by making a line of serving wares: coasters, slabs, and bowls, from fieldstones gathered at rocky New England farms. We stamp the underside of each good we make with the name of the source farm where the rock came from. On some goods, we also add a link to our website where there are pictures and information about each of these sourcing farms. Gift, home and food retailers sell our work in 48 US States, Canada, Mexico and Australia.

Media Contact:
Gerald Croteau III
Email
978-254-7625

SOURCE American Stonecraft