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southern Indiana has some of the finest limestone in the United States. Carvers across the nation pay large shipping bills to have the heavy stones delivered to them; Winningham simply goes to the quarry and picks out the stone.
He describes himself as selfeducated when it comes to arts and crafts.
“ I get real focused, or obsessed” with a topic, he said, and devours books on it, talks to people who are experts in the field, and immerses himself in the craft. Most of the space in his workshop is taken up with stone and the tools he uses to carve it. But it also holds evidence of his varied interests, including a detailed scrimshaw powder horn, carved pipestone, stained glass, a kachina doll in the style of southwestern Native Americans, and a miniature replica of Lewis and Clark’ s wooden longboat.
He has shared his knowledge with other carvers, including Sidney Bolam, who lives in northern Brown County.“ As a fellow stone carver, we always enjoy talking shop,” she said.“ I don’ t do( much) lettering work, and that’ s almost exclusively what he does. So, we always have a lot to talk about in regards to tools and techniques.”
Bolam said Winningham’ s“ gentle and introspective nature” makes him a good match for memorial work, and his study of historical techniques and styles makes
his process nearly as interesting as the final product.
Since about 1900, most headstones are sandblasted, not carved, Winningham said. At modern monument companies, computers are used to cut designs and lettering into a rubber mat which is placed over the stone before blasting. This results in uniformity.
“ You lose all individuality, creativity and uniqueness,” he said.
“ I have a hunger to reach out and look for new ways. I just want to continue to evolve in my craft until the day I die. People ask me why I don’ t make my own headstone. If I would have made it seven years ago, I would now be so disappointed in it, because I keep getting better.”
More information: < caseywinningham @ gmail. com > or < caseywinningham. com >. •
Jon Kay, director of Traditional
Arts Indiana, thinks it might be time to consider making a copy of the missing bust of Stone Head, and placing it on the original base.
“ It’ s been long enough now that it’ s obvious we’ re not going to find more pieces of it,” he said.
Though he was initially opposed to the idea of a replacement head, he said time has changed his mind.
“ I would think of it more like the reprinting of a book rather than making a replica.”
Now, with 3-D printers and other modern technology, it is possible to reproduce a more exact copy of the missing head, Kay said. Such a venture would require crowd sourcing from lots of people, with as many as 500 photos of the original work, taken from every angle.
He said the marker, credited to Brown County stone carver Henry Cross in 1851, had been in a fragile state even before unknown vandals removed the head on Nov. 6, 2016.
Cross created the Stone Head monument and mile marker as payment for a“ road tax” when land owners were expected to work on new roads or pay someone to do it for them. He carved the head in the likeness of a township trustee at the time, and he may have carved similar markers which have since been lost.
Kay also believes the original marker may not have been solely Cross’ work, since the lettering and carving on it are not of the quality of headstones known to have been carved by him. Kay said Cross had several employees who worked with him, including his son, and they may have helped carve the original piece.
50 Our Brown County March / April 2023