David Lewis grew up in Helena, Montana a third generation to call Montana home.

 

 After returning from Viet Nam in 1970 David moved to Missoula to study Art and Journalism at the University of Montana. 

 

  David started carving stone in 1970 when his dad gave him a piece of Montana talc and told him it could be carved using a pocket knife. Little did he know that it would turn into a life long therapy for service related issues. It became a way to help relieve stress. Over the years he has learned to pay attention to the stone and what it wants.To explore what ever comes to mind, Listening to music + carving = playing. He stopped questioning what was produced and just looked for directions from the stone and doing something new. 

 

David uses three techniques for creating stone items: carving, turning on a lathe, and fabrication.  The main tools he uses are: a band saw, lathe, fiber wheel, Dremels tool, Diamond Burrs, sanding boards and Knives. Most of the finish carving is done with a shape knife.

 

    The stone he uses, Talc, is from the Ruby Mountains of S.W. Montana. Called steatite Talc it ranges in hardness from  hardwood to marble so the types tools used are determined by the stone. 

 

   "I like the way the stone feels and after 40 years of carving am still taken away by the beauty of the finished stone. Plus it is just fun to do"

 

In addition to the stone David loves to play with recycled. computer parts. Many of the Cyber pieces are held together with magnets from the computer. 

 

  He made his living for 3 decades as a computer system manager. For security purposes hard drives were destroyed and the parts are used in pieces or recycled. 

 

  An interesting thing about both the stone and the cyber pieces they are both silica based.

 

We hope you enjoy looking at David's work. You can contact him at this email: 

Thanks for taking a look.

 

Email: DavidLewisMontana@gmail.com