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Tom Sterling

Artists Tom Sterling and Dr. J.P. Higgens combine stone tools and sculpture into unique masterpieces that are rarely matched elsewhere. Each creation is an original museum quality work, evocative of times long past. Long fascinations with many artistic and historic disciplines have led to artistic interpretations of the tools and weapons of bygone times, resulting in a fascinating fusion of cultures. Nordic, Celtic, Aztec, Mayan and Northwest Native American influences are often noticeable, but whimsy occasionally lets fly as well.

Dr. J.P. Higgins
Well-known master knapper Dr. J.P. Higgins fashions the blades from specially chosen stone, in the same manner as our prehistoric ancestors. Joe Higgins began "breaking rock" ten years ago as an outlet from the pressures of his thriving dental practice. Self taught, he began his long journey of recovering the lost prehistoric past during a period when few people knew anything about the art of knapping stone tools. Today, he is a master knapping artisan who readily shares his hard-won knowledge with others, encouraging them to take up this lost art. Master of both primitive and modern knapping methods, his blades are true works of art wrought in stone. Since retiring from dentistry in 1999, knapping related activities have become his predominate pastime, with a healthy dose of fishing thrown in for good measure.

Internationally known sculptor Tom Sterling creates handles from semi-precious hardwoods, horn, antler and fossil ivories. Tom Sterling began a unique and award winning career in wood art by carving Japanese netsuke (pronounced net-skeh) as a mechanism for coping with the extreme stresses of an Air Force career flying F-111 fighter bombers (the “switchblade Edsel”). Netsuke is a unique form of small sculpture which developed as an art form in Japan over a period of more than three hundred years, serving both functional and aesthetic purposes. Over time, netsuke which started as a toggle used to stop the kimono cord from slipping, began to feature elaborate carving, lacquer work, and inlays of rare and exotic materials including ivory, wood, precious metals, shell, coral, and semiprecious stones. After retiring from the Air Force, he began carving netsuke professionally, becoming well known in the international circles of netsuke collectors. Now, branching out into producing art knives, his background in Japanese art reveals itself in a unique melding with the other past cultures that have caught his interest along the way. After taking up an offer from Dr. J.P. Higgins to learn flint knapping, Tom became fascinated with stone tools and he and Joe became collaborators making contemporary knapped knives.

While the majority of this team's work ends up cared for in collections, each work they create is designed to be completely useable. Construction methods typically use exposed or hidden tenons, pegs or other mechanical holding mechanisms as well as top grade fixatives to ensure a lasting, museum quality work of art.

PREVIOUSLY SOLD ITEMS
(NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE)
Bronze Trilobite Pendant
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Celtic Executive Paperweight
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Centipede Tactical Lanyard Bead/Pendant
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Engraved NW Style Salmon Motif - Dragonfly Folder
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Engraved Spyderco Cricket "Puget Sound"
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Engraved Surprise Motif - Cricket Folder
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Fiddler Crab Kiridashi
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Forged Dragonfly Locket
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Frontier Style Antler Nessmuk
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Gambler's Modern Primitive Shiv
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Gent's Frontier Belt Knife
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Green Man in Autumn Dagger Pendant
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Knapped Silver Arrowhead Pendant and Earrings
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Knapped Steel Neck Knife
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Mantis and Wasp Kiridashi
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Moth Pendant
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Pacific Northwest Flounder Pendant
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Rat Tail Skinner Neck Knife with Frontier-Style Sheath
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Rawhide Utility
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