Pandemic projects: Creating wall art: Rockhounds build backyard ‘sculpture’ from rock collection

When Sunny Armstrong-Hanson was 8 years old, her sister gave her a rock polisher. The polish wasn’t included, so she used floor polish.

Roger Hanson was in charge of his Earth Science Club’s rock collection in high school.

“We’ve always been rock hounds,” Armstrong-Hanson said.

Hanson had a 25-year career as a naval flight surgeon, and the couple traveled the globe. The nomadic military life style isn’t conducive to collecting, but when Roger retired from the Navy in 2003, and the couple settled in Spokane, their rock collecting began in earnest.

They would travel a circuit hitting Idaho, Montana, Utah and Arizona, discovering an amazing selection of rocks, minerals and geodes.

When they weren’t collecting in person, Sunny scoured the internet, purchasing stones from South Africa and Mexico.

“It had gotten to the point where there were bins and bins of minerals and rocks in our backyard, as well as collections inside,” said Sunny.

So, she began to dream about transforming a selection of specimens into a freestanding wall in their South Hill backyard.

“I’d leave some rocks outside to see how they’d do in a Spokane winter.”

She said her husband wasn’t a fan of the idea, so the dream simmered as their collection grew.

In their living room, several tables (including one Roger built) display their assortment, and an entire room they dubbed the “Science Room” is filled with special specimens.

Using a black light, Roger revealed the spectacular colors of fluorescent rocks.

“Once we drug a UV light to the Oregon coast,” he recalled.

While the light made it easier to discover fluorescent rocks and minerals on the beach, the logistics of lugging the light down the cliff to the sand, proved daunting.

“We only did that once,” said Roger, grinning.

Montana excursions added rocks featuring fossils to their collection, and geodes with their sparkling crystal surprises hidden within, became another passion.

They acquired rock saws and a geode cutter, to further explore their finds.

A trip to Tucson, Arizona, resulted in the addition of a piece of local history – an eerie-looking yellowish- green piece of autunite from the Daybreak Mine.

“Daybreak was a uranium mine up by Mount Spokane,” said Roger.

Autunite is used as a uranium ore and is weakly radioactive. This specimen is kept securely under glass.

Their collection reached a point where the couple were running out of room to keep it.

“We’ve overwhelmed even ourselves,” Roger said.

Then came the pandemic which gave Sunny the time and motivation to pursue her idea of turning some of their minerals, crystals and rocks into a sturdy, outdoor piece of art.

“The logistics of building an almost 5-foot-tall freestanding wall was too daunting for us,” said Sunny. “So I was on a mission to find a stonemason to help us.”

She contacted several, but none that embraced her vision.

“I was just about to give up, when I finally found James Konkle, of Black Diamond Masonry. He really deserves the credit for putting it together,” she said. “He’s the best stonemason in the world, as far as I am concerned.”

Sunny was delighted that Konkle was able to bring her design to life. Concrete forms, rebar, cement and, of course, a combination of specifically selected rocks and minerals from the Hanson’s collection were used to create the wall. The project took several months to complete, but proved worth the wait.

“The idea of the wall had been living in my head and taking up space in there for so long,’ she said.

Chert from Arizona, a rock from Wallace that shows the trace of the Palouse floods, coral from the Cayman Islands where their son was married – each stone in the wall is part of their family history

“I’m so happy! I must admit I find it pretty spectacular, and I look at it every day,” said Sunny. “It’s like a sculpture.”

Though he wasn’t originally a proponent of the project, Roger enjoys the result of his wife’s vision.

He ran his hand along the sandstone top of the wall.

“Every rock in here has a story for us,” he said. “This is a storyboard.”

———

Cindy Hval can be reached at dchval@juno.com