Stone floors, stairs, wall cladding are beautiful and durable. The basement of the house, decorated with stone, or paved areas and paths increase resistance to mechanical stress, and, again, beautiful. Natural stone in natural form is a material for landscape design: Alpine slides and rockeries, gardens of stones and simple design of the site.
Today I want to address one more possibility of use of a stone for which realization it isn’t important that it is very strong material which can be kept for centuries practically without changes.
Here comes the first factor of beauty-not only the most unique texture of the material, but also the embodiment of the creative potential of the artist, creating a work of art. Stone hides an amazing variety of opportunities for artists and designers.
Stone architectural elements
Traditionally made from stone are made of different architectural elements for facades: mascarones, brackets, pediments, etc. However, today decorative elements made of fiber cement or polyurethane are increasingly used — it is easier and cheaper.
Architectural elements made of marble or granite will be useful not only in the decoration of the facade. Garden in a classic style decorated with small architectural forms, made of stone: the rotunda, stone balustrade balconies, garden benches, fountains.
The rotunda
Stone flowerpots are a popular element in landscape design and not only in classic style gardens. They can be used as an independent decorative element of the garden, or, in addition to decorative, can carry and utilitarian purpose: they are good to plant flowers.
Stone flowerpot for flowers in a classic style
In addition to stone columns and flowerpots, you can decorate your garden with an interesting object — a sundial. It is one of the oldest time-measuring instruments and an astronomical instrument. In addition to a fairly accurate indication of the time of day using gnomon (pointer sundial) can determine the time of the onset of the astronomical half-day, the angular height of the Sun, the Northern direction and geographical latitude.
Finally, the sundial can serve as a stylish decoration of the garden, giving it a touch of mystery. And the size can be anything-from small, as in the photo above, mounted on a stone pedestal or placed on the wall, and to the design of the whole site in the form of a frame (watch face) with a column-gnomon in the middle.
Garden sculpture
The tradition of decorating private and public gardens and parks with sculptural images is deeply rooted in Antiquity. The works of ancient Greek sculptors Praxiteles, Phidias or Skopos and to date remain unsurpassed examples. They were used for copying from Romans to modern replicas.
The Baroque era is a real heyday of garden sculpture. In European gardens of this time there were often more sculptural compositions made of marble than trees. Elegant forms of Baroque sculptures carried a complex allegorical subtext, sometimes so subtly disguised that it is difficult for the modern viewer to see the idea that the master or his customer put into the work.
Stone garden sculptures are made from different materials. Delicate marble is more often used in sculptures of the classical model — it is possible to convey the smallest details: fabric folds, embossed pattern, even the relief of the skin. In granite often make a modern sculpture, which has conditional forms.
Stone garden furniture
The gardens are designed for relaxation of body and soul. And if flowering plants delight the eye, the mortal body, tired of garden chores, useful outdoor furniture. The specificity of the furniture for the street is that it should be resistant to the sun and frost, rain and wind.
Stone copes with natural loads. Why not add in the garden design, for example, this is the sofa — soft, but actually hard, because it is stone.
Or look to the bench-box of natural granite shard: it is possible that any stone is in your area. And we can only set it around the track.
The range of objects from a stone for “furniture” of a garden is not limited: in a set to benches and sofas it is possible to pick up also the table on the monumentality not conceding to the base for a small structure.
Fencing as decorative elements
Any owner of the garden can not do without a fence, whether it is a fence around the site or fences that delimit the interior space. Ready options offered for sale, a lot, but showing a little imagination and having a decent supply of stones, you can try to create a fence, not only performs well restrictive separation functions, but also becoming a significant element in the design of the landscape.
And if the creative component — one of the main features of your nature, it is quite mediocre construction — fence — can become an example of modern sculpture, such as a stone egg in a niche — one of the works of English artist Andy Goldsworthy, whose sculptures and art objects made of natural materials can be seen on different continents, including the North pole.
Garden art objects
In modern art, despite the fact that this area of science is very conservative, Willy-nilly appeared and consolidated a new term — art object. Increasingly, it is used to describe the manifestations of art in the new era, instead of the usual “work of art”, “painting”, “sculpture”. The main difference of the art object is the absence of any rules. It is impossible to classify and rank art objects to one or another school or current. Impulsiveness and spontaneity are their distinctive features.
Own garden is the best polygon to add to beautiful. If you happen to be the owner of the works of the famous artist, to put on airs, showing it to others. Well, if you have created the fruit of your own efforts, you will have the basis for legitimate pride: your garden is decorated with real art object.
Soaring stones — a fairly common technique in land-Art – a modern direction of art where the art object is inextricably linked with the surrounding landscape. In this style works a German designer Cornelia Konrads.
Mystical impression of the work of Cornelia Conrads, really has a hard metal base, wire or armatures. Well, the stones in the compositions of Michael Grab hold only just found a balance.
If the search for balance — not your skate, you can try your hand at creating static compositions of stone balls. Scientists know similar spherical formations from granite, Sandstone or limestone, both having obviously man-made origin (for example, the famous stone spheres in Costa Rica), and appeared naturally.
Granite balls of different diameters will fit perfectly into the landscape composition. Stone polished ball, often made of granite — is one of the main elements of the original fountain “Floating ball”. Multi-kilogram stone sphere really floats — it can be promoted by one person. This design functions due to incompressibility of water.
Floating ball of granite
In the landscape design of natural stone, you can build a lot of interesting things. And by the way, it is not necessary to spend a lot of money on this decor.
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