FARMINGTON — A work in progress has already drawn hundreds and hundreds of visitors to High Street who have stopped and taken pictures of the stone egg being designed by Jon Bubier.
Numerous people have stopped and asked, “is it a beehive,” “is it a fire pit,” “is it a brick oven,” Bubier said during an April 4 interview with The Franklin Journal. When told it is just a vision of an egg they look at him cross-eyed, he noted.
On April 4, Jon Bubier stands beside the six foot tall stone egg he built on his front lawn in Farmington. He plans to erect a 14-inch stone wall around it where the light colored stones are and fill the inside with flowers so it will resemble an egg in a flower basket. Bubier decorated the egg as a snowman last fall, may do things for other holidays. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
“It’s not unique to the art world,” Bubier said. “I saw one down in the woods in Vienna. It was kind of falling apart. I spent the next year and half trying to figure out how I could build one with some leftover stone I had from various other projects.”
A six foot egg designed and built by Jon Bubier is seen April 4 on his front lawn in Farmington. Part of the plywood template he created for the project is seen at the bottom of the egg. Bubier had to cut the template off once the egg was built, but it will be covered with garden soil once a stone wall is built to encircle the egg, Flowers will be planted in the soil to give the appearance of an egg in a flower basket. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Bubier said he has a lot of stone work, his whole backyard is done in stone. “I had a little excess stone,” he said. “It’s challenging to work with. I spent about a year and a half designing it, trying to figure out how I could make a pattern and maintain it. It’s not perfect by an standards.
“I took an actual egg and extrapolated out the dimensions of it and tried to make it fit. I used a sheet of plywood to make a template.”
Once the egg was built, Bubier couldn’t get his template off, so he had to cut it off.
The most difficult challenge for Bubier was creating a round object out of square stones. “I got it three feet high and tore it apart two or three times because I didn’t like the way it was going,” he noted. “I have 70-75 hours in it, it weighs about 2,500 pounds.”
Bubier plans to erect a 14-inch high stone wall around the egg and create a flower bed filled with tulips between the egg and the wall to make it look like an egg in a flower basket. This year, he plans to plant perennial flowers in the area until the tulips can be planted and bloom next spring. He plans to start working on the wall in the coming weeks.
“It’s not an urgent project, but it’s a playful project,” Bubier said. “Sometimes I do these projects to maintain my sanity.
“It does look beautiful when the lawn is all mowed up. When I get this part of it done and put some flowers out there, it will really pop.”
Last fall, Bubier put eyes, nose and mouth on the egg [which haven’t been removed yet] and a hat, which the wind blew off, for some Christmas humor. “I think I am going to make Chester Greenwood earmuffs to go on it for the season,” he noted. “I may do something along those lines, dress it up for holidays.”
Bubier has had to remove four trees from his front lawn, has more that need to come down. “I am losing all my majestic maples out front, had to do something, redesign the front lawn with this being the center piece,” he noted. “My next project is upside down pyramids. The whole goal is to make them look like they are free standing.”
A longer term project for Bubier is building eyebrows from granite. They will have lights and be near the driveway, he said. He has 15 pallets of granite to work with.
“I will work on those trees first,” Bubier said. “I hate to lose them, they make the house.
“It’s a work in progress. It takes a lot of time, is a lot of fun to do this and see people’s reactions.”
Bubier sees his egg and the reaction to it as something positive, a contrast to some things now happening in Farmington, the area and elsewhere.
Bubier envisions the egg and flower basket as the focal point of his lawn. In addition to the two pyramids, he may put out table and chairs so visitors can enjoy his creations.
“There are a lot of art things going on in the area,” Bubier said. “I like those things, it’s fun to see. This is my local contribution to the arts.”
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