About Us
NYCSculptor.com was started at the end of the first formal stone carving class given by Chris Pellettieri at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine (21 June - 26 July 06). The website is intended to be used by Chris and his students as a method of keeping in touch, sharing their personal progress, and helping eachother learn from their experiences on their journeys as Stone Carvers.
This website is also a good place for new students or anyone at all that is interested to get a feel for what it is like to learn how to carve stone and create sculpture. Chris and each student have their own page on the website to compose as they will. In addition, everyone can make blog entries as they wish to share news, new projects, or whatever!
About Chris Pellettieri:
Mr. Pellettieri’s training began in 1990 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine’s Stoneyard Apprenticeship program. He uses two forms of carving in his craft. He performs direct carving, where he creates a sculpture in stone without trying to duplicate a model. In this method, he makes creative decisions and uses judgement as he removes the waste. Mr. Pellettieri also uses the pointing method, where he first creates a clay model of how the final sculpture will appear. Then, he casts the model in plaster so it will withstand the rough handling necessary during its duplication in stone. All his creativity in this process goes into the creation of the model.
Much of his background is based on Geometry, which plays a major role in stonework because large shapes of a building are almost always composed of very small units. The craftsman must create templates to enable drawings to become stone building blocks that fit together.
Mr. Pellettieri particularly appreciates the melange of intellectual and physical challenges that stoneworking offers. His current jobs include fireplaces, fountains, and sculptures. He hopes to one day train his own apprentices, so that he may work on large-scale construction projects in the future.
