Our Story

Once upon a time (because that’s how all great stories begin) I met a beautiful girl named Annette in my central Indiana high school. I was a junior and she was a senior. We fell in love and four-and-a-half years later we were married. It was the summer between my junior and senior year in engineering school. I remember we received five blenders, probably from Annette’s family – they are all very practical.

I graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and we moved to Minnesota to begin my career in the steel industry. A few years later we moved to Kentucky, where God blessed us with two sons, Adam and Aaron. A position opened at Nucor Steel in Crawfordsville and we moved in 2001, happy to be nearer to our parents and have them involved in their grandchildren’s lives.

I had begun designing and building in my father's woodworking shop as a teen, and since then have dabbled in blacksmithing and copper sculpting. My mom always received the end result; each of them finding a home somewhere in her vast and beautiful flower gardens. I had not considered stonecarving until watching sculptor Dan Roth carve limestone at the Ohio Renaissance Festival. I made some gifts for Mom in this new medium with hammer and chisel and really enjoyed it. That was the fall and winter of 2008.

The Great Recession hit the steel industry hard, and in early 2009 many of my projects had been halted or cancelled. I was asked to assist with revamping a job that was largely clerical in nature. It suited me well, getting to design spreadsheets, work with our IT folks on new software workflows, etc., but I wasn’t building anything. I believed for a variety of reasons that God was calling me to begin a business carving stone, so in March, 2009 we opened. One of the goals has always been to work alongside my sons, providing them with a source of income and giving our family projects we could work on together.

One of our first orders was a stone that was to be given as a gift to the lay leader of the local women’s Emmaus Walk. I was honored to later be asked to create many pieces for this biannual event. Each project incorporated something new, challenging me to learn and grow, and God blessed the work of my hands. Every design was one-of-a-kind and custom designed. It was then that I learned the impact of carving something into stone - it lends a sense of permanence that no other medium provides.


I had been carving anything that was a rock when I came across some roofing slate from a barn roof. We had a wedding approaching and I wanted to create a meaningful gift. It was for a young couple in ministry and, even though blenders are nice (did I mention we received five?), I wanted them to have something to remind them that in our throw-away society, some things really are intended to be permanent. A garden stone didn’t make much sense for a young couple on the move, so I designed the first slate family name plaque with their last name and the year their new life began as man and wife.
The family name plaques have been enthusiastically received, so we’ve developed a few more designs since then, including monograms. My good friend Brad joined our team part-time in 2014 to help keep up with orders. I hope that in some small way, marriages are encouraged through our work. Marriage isn’t always easy, but it is always worth it. Besides, all the best stories end with “and they lived happily ever after.”

David Emerson