• Spare the Rod and Spoil the Gate
• Really Retro Rock Art
• Stone Stackers
• Hand Carved

There's a small rod of iron mounted on the wall in Helmut Hillenkamp's workshop office. Next to it is a rose that he fabricated out of a similar piece of metal. Hillenkamp is an extraordinary craftsman who can create intricate designs out of iron as well as he can the massive gates that adorn northern New Mexico custom homes.

Gates and railings are Hillenkamp's specialties. The German-born craftsman learned his trade as a welding apprentice in Germany and as a blacksmith apprentice in Switzerland. He also studied traditional gate and railing designs used for centuries throughout Europe and can fabricate these time-honored creations for his clients. If a client wants a contemporary design, Hillenkamp can match that, too.

"I often invent techniques of working with iron with each new job," he explains at his Industrial Road workshop in Santa Fe. "That's part of the fun for me. I love stretching myself."

Although Hillenkamp mostly works with iron, he also uses bronze when clients request it or when he fashions poolside railings, because bronze won't rust like iron. Still, iron gates with spots of rust have a certain appeal to both Hillenkamp and his customers—this more ancient, weathered look complements Southwestern homes.

Prices for railings with a banister start at $350. An elaborate iron gate can cost as much as $25,000. Hillenkamp is usually booked six months in advance because he mainly works alone. An occasional assistant helps out, but it's his incredibly skilled hands that do most of the labor-intensive work.

"I love the aesthetic pleasure I get from looking at one of my gates at a distance or close up," he says. "Making things that size really challenges me."

Iron-to-live-with, 2873 A Industrial Road, Santa Fe, N.M. (505) 474-3060 or www.irontolivewith.com

For as long as he can remember, geologist Jerry Willis has been fascinated by petroglyphs. It's probably by design that he and his wife, Della, bought property south of Albuquerque near some beautiful ancient petroglyphs. Willis recently decided to turn his lifelong love into a new business called Southwest PetroArt. He has been traveling around the area studying and photographing petroglyphs so he can recreate these Anasazi and other prehistoric and historic petroglyphs on natural sandstone, shale, slate, and basalt in the form of patio tiles, garden walkways, and rock garden centerpieces.

Willis, who retired from a career in the mining industry, works out of his Los Lunas-area home. Using a series of hand tools and power grinders he carves images into everything from paperweight-sized materials to four-foot-tall boulders. His goal is not to make the objects look old but to reproduce the petroglyph images as accurately as possible. Customers have been gravitating toward the Kokopelli, also known as the humpbacked flute player, a mythical character dating back to ancient times. Animal images also are popular. Willis works with his clients to create one-of-a-kind, custom-designed reproductions of just about any petroglyph.

Southwest PetroArt pieces can be laid as individual tiles within an outdoor patio or set as freestanding objects in a garden. Sizes are determined by the availability of specific materials. Willis will work with owners and builders to create the right outdoor design for each project.

Southwest PetroArt, 1 Chamisa Cove, Los Lunas, New Mexico. (505) 866-5273 or www.geocities.com/petroart2001

When it's time to add a rock wall or retaining wall to your property, Nick Ruiz is the man to call. A native New Mexican from Chacon, Ruiz loves the medium he has worked with since 1972. He set up shop south of Denver for eight years, then moved back to New Mexico in 1980, working out of Santa Fe ever since.

"The biggest change my business has gone through during the past 20 years involves the cost of rock," Ruiz explains. "It used to be well under a dollar per square foot for local stone. Now prices are up to $3 or more per square foot." If imported stone is needed, Ruiz often finds prices hovering around $175 per ton.

Ruiz can build rock walls and retaining walls with mortar or without—called dry stacked—and he can even strategically place mortar behind a wall so that it looks dry stacked from the front. One of his recent elaborate projects involved building a 150-ton rock wall with four terraces in the Hyde Park Estates area of Santa Fe for $18,000. Whether he's making a huge wall or a more modest one, Ruiz has tremendous pride in his work and carefully builds each wall to be aesthetically attractive as well as functional.

"I create beauty with rocks," he says. "For me there's nothing quite like building a beautiful rock wall."

Stonemasters, Custom Rock Walls and Retaining Walls, Santa Fe, New Mexico. (505) 470-1031.

Southwest Fountains Supply is the New Mexico and Texas distributor for De Santana Handcarved Stone, a company based in Guadalajara, Mexico, that has been producing high quality fountains, benches, and columns for more than 20 years. Both cantera and adoquin stones are used by the Mexican carvers. Cantera is a strong and malleable natural stone ideal for architectural applications such as entryways, fountains, window trims, and crown moldings. It comes in goldish and pinkish tan, light to dark gray, and orangish brown. Adoquin, which is mined near Mexico City, is denser than cantera stone and more difficult to carve. It's a better choice for trims, moldings, copings, and pavers. Colors range from charcoal black, brown, and gray to orange, pink, and lavender.

De Santana produces eight different fountain designs, but Southwest Fountains will work with architects to custom design a fountain that precisely fits in a specific patio area. The most popular fountain is five feet tall with two tiers and a bottom pool that measures six feet in diameter. It weighs about 1,000 pounds and costs a minimum of $1,500. The smallest fountains are three feet high. Businesses have ordered fountains as large as nine-feet tall.

Southwest Fountains Supply is owned by Linda Ross, her husband, Steve, and Jim Stewart. While they often work through architects, homeowners are usually present at these inspections to make sure they're ordering exactly what they want. Designs are frequently carved into De Santana's architectural features, and homeowners are often an integral part of design discussions.

Southwest Fountains Supply, Inc., 6535 B Edith NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico. (505) 345-1300 or www.swfountains.com.

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Copyright 2001
Hacienda Press