A ROCK STAR IN COLBY
Local artist transforms stone into monuments
By Ross Pattermann
About a year ago, Colby resident Liz Baumgartner embarked on a journey that would lead her to the art of rockblasting. Her goal was to break the routine of work and the daily grind, and to act as an outlet for her creativity.
“I guess what got me into it was, I’m kind of creative, and in my current job, I don’t have a way to express that,” she said. “This allows me to do that.”
It’s a pursuit Liz says she’s felt drawn to for as long as she can remember..
“I’ve always loved art, even in high school,” she recalls. “I took every art class I could, and I remember teachers and secretaries always made me do bulletins. So I’ve always been creative.”
Baumgartner’s good friend Beth Krebsbach was the one who initially got Liz involved in rock-blasting. Krebsbach was already doing it, and that connection was the first step towards Baumgartner and her own rock-blasting endeavors.
“ I ordered rocks from her in the past,” Baumgartner says. “I always told her if she was ever thinking about getting out of it to let me know. She reached out to me and said she was leaving the rock part of it behind, so I went and shadowed her, and that was two years ago.”
Krebsbach is still blasting, just not rocks, and she continues to help Liz with
See ROCK STAR/ Page 5
SET IN STONE - Liz Baumgartner, a resident of Colby, displays some of the pieces she’s created since she got involved in rockblasting last year. Originally a means to get creative, Baumgartner now creates art for a growing clientele. Rock star
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any questions she has about using the equipment and process.
“She helped me get started, and any questions I have, even to this day, she’s more than willing to help.”
But with Kresbach still blasting glass, metal and wood, Baumgartner knew if she wanted to do get into rock-blasting she would need her own equipment.
It was a gamble, Baumgartner said, knowing she would have to spend thousands of dollars before she could even make her art. But her husband, Scott, and her friends and family, supported what she was doing.
“It is an investment,” she concedes. “It was a real gamble, and I didn’t know if there would be anyone interested in wanting something like this.”
Liz stuck to her guns, and last summer she took the first steps of her journey, purchasing her air blaster, a shed to work in, aluminum-oxide for blasting, materials and the computer and software needed to make designs.
She also discovered some hidden costs. The air-compressor is heavy, weighing several hundred pounds and she would need to get wheels to move it. She also needed wire brushes to clean the rocks. There was also the matter of getting the rocks, but that proved easiest to do.
“I have a source, a rock quarry in Spencer, where I get all my rock.”
Liz prefers to work with sandstone since she finds it to be readily available, fairly inexpensive and easy to work with. She also loves the natural beauty of it.
After securing everything she needed, Baumgartner worked on developing a system for prepping and making her art.
Once she finds a suitable rock, she washes it and scrubs off dirt and debris. She then lets the rock dry in a warm area for the next 24 hours.
From there, Liz heats the rock and lays a warm stencil of the design onto the stone. She has to be very careful when she blasts, as she says a wrong angle can damage the stone and ruin everything.
But when the stone is done, and Liz sees the finished project, there’s no great- er feeling in than having created something beautiful for people to love.
“ The best part of all of this is once you blast it and you paint it and you peel that stencil off, you see it done. You see what you made. It’s very rewarding.”
And with Facebook and word of mouth helping to showcase her talents, Liz has seen her clientele grow. She now does monuments like gravestones in addition to her rock cravings and engravings.
“People have been very receptive about it,” she said. “It seems like you sell one, then people see that and that’s how it branches off.”
But she’s quick to say this is still just a hobby for her.
“I still have a full-time job that I work 40 to 50 hours a week. And I have four children, so finding time can be hard.”
The weather is another obstacle to overcome, with summer humidity and winter chill a factor. Nevertheless, Baumgartner is often busy even through December, getting Christmas orders out.
And with her stones ranging in price from small $25 works to $250 works, she’s always got some project on her mind. She hopes to continue to grow and learn, and also have a work shed set up at the CRC Lumber in Colby, which she and her husband Scott purchased in early 2021.
One year later, and it’s clear that Liz’s gamble definitely paid off, and with people so supportive of her work, and willing to purchase pieces, she’s eagerly looking forward to creating more works of art now that the snows have melted.
It also means a chance to find more rocks to use.
“I definitely look at rocks differently now,” Liz says with a laugh. “Even when I’m driving, I’ll see one I really like and I sorta say ‘I could do something with this, or do this with that.’”
TOOLS OF THE TRADE- Baumgartner purchased a shed, an air-compressor and design software to create her art. She works with clients to come up with a design, and then uses a plotter on a computer to create it. From there, she will heat the stone, place the stencil on it, and blast the design into the rock. Above, a rock with a plotter stands ready for blasting, while a nearby stone has already been finished. Baumgartner prefers to work with sandstone (far right) since she loves the look and ease with which it can be molded and shaped.
