Company
Natural Stone Sculptures has been blessed with one of those rare occurrences in the business world today. Whether by luck or by the shared appreciation of the work we do, we have become a true family. As a family, our care and respect for nature and for each other, makes for a wonderful work environment. This we take with us to each job, insuring a garden constructed from a single vision and not a combination of separate elements trying to create a unified design.
Our Staff Associates include Mac Hulslander, a certified plant professional with a degree in landscape gardening. Mac also brings three years experience of living in Japan and fluency in the Japanese language. In addition to his interest and study of Japanese and natural gardening methods, Mac brings a personal interest in sacred place making, labyrinths, and has helped set stone for the Columcille Megalith Park, a Celtic center located in Bangor, Pennsylvania and featured in Stone Circles.
Another artisan working regularly with Natural Stone Sculptures is Omar Llanas. Omar developed his interest in Japanese-style gardens and structures while training with Phil Hathcock in the Japanese martial arts. He is an accomplished carpenter and expert in making use of natural and recycled building material in conjunction with stone - whether its in making a Japanese-style Azumaya (pavilion) tea house, machiai (waiting shelter), torii (gateway) or Japanese-style privacy walls.
Larry Plyler was our water feature goto guy. Larry and his son Edward worked with us on any job involving waterfeatures. Their background in the swimming pool industry became very important when taking on large scale pond and waterfall projects. They were masters at the sizing of pumps, waterlines, skimmers, and various filtration systems.
His expertize in equipment handlery made him also very useful when some of our projects required the setting of over 100 tons of boulders installed on rubber liners without doing damage. Larry and Edward were hard working men that grew up farming the soils of NC. This gave them the work ethic that would not let them settle for good enough and to strive for excellence. Larry and Edward's free time would be spent playing bluegrass music and both were accomplished musicians. Larry has since passed away, but his legacy lives on in the Water Features of this website.
Fran Duncan was a master gardner who was small in status but instrumental in many of the beautiful gardens seen on this Web site. Fran has a deep respect for and love of nature. She has studied nature all her life not only in NC, but in countries all over the world. Fran worked tirelessly throughout the course of the job. Once the landscape was finished that's when Fran's expertize was really utilized. Fran would then paint our garden with carefully planted mosses and groundcovers while also utilizing cedar she had collected for bordering and terracing and to give the garden a natural feel.
Fran was also an avid artist. She possessed an ability to dig through a pile of stone and, after a period of time, pull out and assemble a bird or fish or turtle. She also carves wood and stone as well as paints scenes from her main love, nature.