密歇根新闻广播 艺术家眼中的石头

Tom Fuleky is showing me some of his work. He's a stonemason and he's been at it for nearly 50 years.

And it took me 30 to really figure it out. And I know it sounds crazy, but once I figured it out, oh my god, it wasn't as frustrating¹, he says.

Fuleky says up until that point, he was doing the work. Nobody complained.

Well, I did the same style that these guys did. And there's a book that I got and I recommend it to a lot of students. It's The Art of Stonework [the correct title is The Art of the Stonemason and it's available here.] It's from a Scotchman. I don't know if he's still alive. His name is Ian Cramb. And you follow his basic stuff and that's all it is. You know, it started evolving. And once I got going it just it was so cool," he says.

Fuleky says in part, he just lets the stone be a stone. He doesn't chip away at it to reshape it. And he doesn't turn his stones on end. He doesn't like the vertical² lines and he says it weakens the structure. He lays the stone flat. Fills in with small stones when needed. But he's looking for horizontal lines as he shows me on his house.

TF: See how lineal it is? And the way I try to teach my students, you level up. You go over. You see, you get rid of those vertical joints³. I taught a class at Washtenaw (Community College) about 18 years ago. I had 16 people and a grandma. I taught her how to split stones. Ah, these these guys, these guys just loved it," he says. "I had, you know, just basic rules that I follow. Everything's laid down. There's nothing standing⁴ up here. See the corners? Tie it in and, okay, you can definitely see the pieces in there, but I lay the stone like it is. In other words, I don't do all these weird⁵ cuts. I laid that hole and put the pieces around there.

LG: "It looks like a big jigsaw⁶ puzzle, a really complex one."

TF: "Yeah, but it's, you know, you just start laying and it takes over. And it's fun."

How he places the stone is important to him, but so is the other material a stonemason uses.

TF: "What I think is really important is the mortar⁷ mix I use. I make my own mortar. I use a coarse sand, about three quarters lime, and about a quarter cement. And what that is, it's a weaker mixture. That doesn't sound right. But what it does is it's self healing if the wall is moving."

LG: "In what way?"

TF: “Well, if it moves, the mortar will tend to move with it."

LG: “So, it's got a little flexibility⁸?”

TF: “A little flexibility. The modern mortars⁹ don't have that.”

Fuleky says he really got to the point where being a stonemason didn’t seem to be such a "job" as it was before.

TF: “And you're always improving on yourself.”

LG: "Why do you enjoy it?"

TF: “Just the outside and it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. I like outside but, you know, November on, I hate it. I just despise it. Can't make any money. You know you're putting up plastic. Everything's got to be heated. It's awful. It's awful.

There are a lot of stone structures in Ann Arbor¹⁰. A lot of stone churches. And Fuleky has worked on additions to the buildings.

“I helped fix St. Thomas Church and I looked at the stonemasons a hundred years ago. Beautiful work but they got these really long vertical joints. So I'm looking at this and they got cracks in it. So they didn't know everything. But they were strong farm boys. I could never pick up those stones, he says.

He's a little skeptical¹¹ of where the trade is going. Besides a trowel, he basically has one tool he uses, a stone splitter. It's kind of like if a dull axe¹² and a sledge¹³ hammer had a baby. It's heavy. He says he's watched as one of today's stonemasons took a different approach.

They drill a bunch of holes and the stone's only this big. Drill a bunch of holes and then they tap those feathers and then breaks. Now give me that stone and I'll have it done in 20 seconds with my splitter. I used to split four tons a day, Fuleky says.

LG: What do you think about the future? Are there a lot of youngsters who are doing good stone work or is it a dying art?

TF: No, they’re doing all cultured stone. In other words it's a fake stone, I call it. I wish I could just go to those guys and I can give them some tips, show them how to make it look like real stone.

Tom Fuleky is past retirement¹⁴ age now, but he still stacks stone. He's been working on a wall of boulders¹⁵ at his driveway entrance, the border of a raised flower garden. He lets the equipment do a lot of the work these days. But it still takes his trained eye to know when it's right.

You know, I like this stone to be a stone, natural stone.

Tom Fuleky is a stonemason, and our latest Artisan of Michigan.

Support for arts and culture coverage¹⁶ comes in part from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

1 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

3 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。

7 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

8 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

9 mortars   

n.迫击炮( mortar的名词复数 )；砂浆；房产；研钵

参考例句：

• They could not move their heavy mortars over the swampy ground. 他们无法把重型迫击炮移过那片沼泽地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Where the hell are his mortars? 他有迫击炮吗？ 来自教父部分

10 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

11 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

12 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。

13 sledge   

n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往

参考例句：

• The sledge gained momentum as it ran down the hill.雪橇从山上下冲时的动力越来越大。
• The sledge slid across the snow as lightly as a boat on the water.雪橇在雪原上轻巧地滑行，就象船在水上行驶一样。

14 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

15 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。