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John Carmichael Jr. lifts his
safety glasses to study a cut lie’s made in a sandstone
disc. Satisfied, he drops the glasses back in place and
revs up his diamond-tipped drill to carve another
part of the tan-hued stone he’s transforming into a
functional work of art.
Time is a specialty for Carmichael, the nation's
only professional stone sundial maker. He began
crafting the unique timepieces in 1992 after selling
his plant nursery in Mexico City and moving to Tuc
son, Ariz. “A book on sundials from a friend got me
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Carmichael skillfully etches
numbers on a stone sundial.
see don't work because they're in the wrong loca
tion,” says Carmichael, whose creations are accurate
to within one minute. "They have to be designed for
the latitude and longitude of where they are going
into this, so it’s a classic
case of a book changing
your life,” says Carmi
chael, 48, who's since
created more than 100
sundials.
With no moving
parts, a sundial’s func
tion is to track time
using the sun and a
gnomon, an object that
casts a shadow on the
sundial face. Some of
Carmichael’s creations
also indicate the time
of sunrise and sunset, as
well as high noon.
"Most sundials you
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to be placed. All that requires math, but once you
figure out that data, you put it into an equation and
can develop a drawing of the sundial face. By know
ing the latitude and longitude of where the sundial
will reside. I can make a working sundial for anyone
in the world.”
Carmichael's craftsmanship can fetch as much
as S2O,(XX) for a 15-foot-high outdoor sculp
ture sundial, while more manageable 26-inch
stone pieces sell for $3,500 or more,
depending on the amount of etching
required. A 26-inch sundial can
take a month to create, while a j
larger piece may take half a rear, 1
depending on its complexity.
The actual cutting of the sun
dial face is a painstaking process.
First, Carmichael uses a bladed cut
ting tool to fashion a piece of flagstone,
sandstone, limestone, marble or slate into the shape
he wants. Then he uses a diamond-tipped, motor
ized tool mounted above his worktable to cut lines,
markings and etchings on the sundial s face. Finally,
he attaches his own specially designed, thin-cable
gnomon that casts a sharp, well-defined shadow on
the timepiece.
While stone sundials are the lure that got him
into making the ancient timepieces, he also crafts
sundials made of stained glass, porcelain and bronze,
and even paints them on walls.
What sets Carmichael sundials apart is that he
engraves all the markings by hand. "His wtirk is
very artistic and well-done with sculptural elements,”
says Fred Sawyer, president of the North American
Sundial Society, based in Glastonbury, Conn. “He’s
shown it’s still possible to make a living as a tradi
tional sundial craftsman.”
Sundials have a long history dating back to the
Egyptian, Greek and Roman eras. They remain pop
ular in England, France, Germany. Italy and Austria,
as well as the United States.
B M
v a
Charles Hogan, a retired U.S. Air Force vet
,/,„c eran in Park City, Utah, purchased a
c
thick granite sundial at Discovery Canyon School
in Colorado Springs, Colo. The massive timepiece
consists of two large slabs providing the time and
the date.
"A sundial is the perfect combination of art and
science,” Carmichael says. “Its a piece of art that does
something useful.”
Alan Al. Petrtllo is a writer in Tucson. Ariz.
Visit www.sundialsculptures.com to
learn more.
Page 4
John Carmtchac , l Jr. stands
on the roof of his Tucson,
Ariy.. home, which displays
his handiwork—-one-of-a-kind
functional sundials.
~ 36-inch sundial from Carmichael
in 2(X)4 for a military memo
ry rial he was building. "John
w'as the only person I could
j find who could do everything
/1 we wanted," Hogan says. “He
even engraved a large U.S.
r eagle on the face."
One of Carmichael’s newest
creations is an 8,000-pxind, -l-inch
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