Craftsman's busy hands yielding solid art

Some mothers get a card or flowers for Mother's Day, others get a customized granite walkway in the backyard.

Ron Williams, who owns Guaranteed Welding, made his mother, Alice Jimeson, a deck-of-cards themed walkway for her home in Electric City, complete with a large spade, club, heart, diamond, and, for the coup de gras, a joker. Jimeson loves to play cards.

The joker's face alone took about 12 hours, Williams said, and the surrounding pieces, such as the jester hat, took another 15 to make. The joker consists of a total of 22 pieces of granite.

The project as a whole took Williams about a month and a half, and he took the time to make sure the slope was right so that water doesn't pool on it, and other fine details.

"He's always been artistic," Jimeson said about her son.

With metal, Williams has made sculptures such as a dragon, a dagger, and much more. One piece, called "A Day in Nature," is a heat shield for a wood stove that has nine different animals, a sun and moon.

Having only been working with rock for a few years, with rock acquired both locally and from the Okanogan area, Williams has made staircases, walkways, benches, tables, and more. He gives some of his creations as gifts, and his Elmer City home has projects going on all around.

Williams made a 4-foot by 4-foot chess board in his yard, surrounded by more granite. The pieces he's made so far, also made of granite, took about five hours each to make. Williams plans to make new pieces out of wood, because the granite pieces are fragile.

"I've always liked art," Williams said. "It intrigues me being able to do this stuff with my hands. Once I see it in my head, I can make it happen. There's a sense of accomplishment."

Williams grew up with an artistic family. His father, Bob Williams, made a lot of axes and hatchets, among other things, that Ron keeps, as well as woodwork from his grandfather, M.E. Miner. Items that his mother made are in the house, as well as pieces by his daughter, Emily Hertenstein, such as a metal robot sculpture that sits outside Ron's home.

Another project at the home is a jet tub lined with granite, with a bathroom floor to be covered in pennies that will have resin poured over them to seal them in.

A knowledgeable craftsman with dremels and diamond bits and torches and any number of other tools, Williams appears to have great patience, and to find sheer joy in the act of creating.