PROFILE – NOV/DEC 2008

by Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano

A craftsman’s pursuit of quality

When the towering doors of Morningstar Marble & Granite’s Topsham shop are pushed wide open to let in the last of the season’s sunshine, the sound of whining saws fills the air. Only the shop radio—tuned to rock-’n’-roll, the volume knob twisted as high as it can go—can compete.

The shop is thrumming with the cutting, sanding, and polishing of stone. It is here that some of the most awe-inspiring natural stones from around the world are shaped into custom countertops, vanities, showers, and sinks for homes across the state. And it is here, in the hands of these craftsmen, that the functional use of stone is elevated to art.

Over the din, owner Nick Whatley enthusiastically explains the technicalities of Morningstar’s new computerized saw, a massive cutting instrument capable of slicing stone on five axes to a precision of less than half a millimeter. Whatley talks quickly but fluidly, full of knowledge about and exuberance for his vocation. “We’ve had this saw for about half a year,” he says, “and we’re still just scratching the surface of what it’s capable of.”

Next to the saw sits a rugged, industrial dolly with a reinforced frame, hydraulic arms, and heavy-duty motor. Overhead, the ceiling is punctuated by several bright-yellow steel I- beams outfitted with sliding winches. While the finished kitchens and bathrooms produced by Morningstar exude a polished, almost delicate, perfection, this is heavy, demanding work. On the far side of the shop, slabs of stone weighing 1,200 pounds each stand on edge like plates in a dish rack.

“There is marble and granite from around the country and around the globe sitting right there,” the 51-year-old Whatley says admiringly, pointing quickly from stone to stone: “India, Africa, South America, Turkey, Italy, Vermont, South Dakota, Texas, and, yes, Maine.”

When describing the “wavy earth tones” in a Namibian stone from southern Africa (it is available in Maine only through Morningstar), Whatley displays the intense fascination for the mysteries and potential of stone that has propelled him for the past twenty-one years. “I still get a charge from all of this,” he says.

Born in Massachusetts, Whatley spent summers at his grandparent’s home in Auburn and then moved to Maine after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont. He began working as a mason tender in his early twenties, but he grew impatient with hauling bricks and mixing mortar after just six months. “I don’t think I was a very employable guy back then,” he admits with a laugh. “I mean, I watched what those masons were doing and I thought, ‘I can do that.’”

Whatley soon teamed up with his brother and, under the moniker Morningstar Masonry, began tackling small masonry jobs. They quickly gained the confidence and know-how required to build fireplaces and chimneys. “We had the critical mass of foolishness and enthusiasm,” Whatley says with grin. When he was contracted to recreate a 1790s-era fireplace—right down to the appropriate bricks and mortar—Whatley discovered another untapped passion. “I think my inspiration has always been old stuff,” he says, “and that fireplace really got me excited.”

As Whatley refined his masonry skills and perfected traditional but complex techniques such as segmented arches, he was soon incorporating granite keystones into his designs. “The first time I tried to do something with granite, it was incredibly hard,” remembers Whatley. “But I loved the challenge!”

Though he continued to work as a mason into the late 1980s, his interest had shifted from brick to stone. Whatley made pilgrimages to quarries and stone shops in Vermont and Rhode Island, where he began purchasing tools and learning from old stonecutters. Whatley mastered chipping and slipping stone, and then moved on to polishing and finishing.

In 1992, Whatley made his professional conversion final when he incorporated Morningstar Marble & Granite.

In the mid-1980s, says Whatley, incorporating stone in new kitchens was still a rarity in Maine. But over the next decade, its popularity rose dramatically. “Now natural stone is everywhere,” says Whatley. “It’s almost expected.”
“Since 1992, I’ve had Morningstar on an almost single-minded evolution toward acquiring the best high-tech equipment,” says Whatley. Ever the craftsman, Whatley insists the shop’s myriad tools are not an excuse to work fast or sloppy: “I think this equipment frees up your mind to a degree, allowing you to focus even more attention on the quality and details.”

“Sure, the machines do the grunt work,” he says, “but humans do the finish.” Whatley points to a crew of men in rubber boots and bibs finishing wet stone with handheld polishers. The expertise required to join several pieces of stone into a single seamless design, combined with Morningstar’s initial design sense with a stone’s color and quality, is what sets Morningstar apart.

After outgrowing his old workshop, Whatley moved Morningstar to its current 10,000-square-foot shop and showroom in Topsham in 2001. Today, counting those working on the shop floor, his team in the showroom and offices, and a crew of four installation technicians, Whatley employs sixteen.

“This group of people I work with is amazing,” Whatley says, standing just outside the tall doors of the shop. Over the heavy, rhythmic drone of stone being shaped inside, he talks about the skills of designer and senior sales associate Colleen Spofford, shop supervisor Jason Kramer, and installation supervisor Travis Barton. “They make this all possible,” he says.

The bright sun shines intensely on an enormous monolith of granite standing like a misshapen sentinel outside Morningstar’s front door. Whatley plucked it years ago from a field where it had been cast off as a “second.”

“See, they were trying to split it and they failed,” he says, running his fingers over the craggy surface and across its tapestry of green lichen. With his hand still resting on the granite, Whatley grows quiet. He shakes his head in respect for both the stone and the men who once tried to bend it to their will.