A World Traveller - Mike Ottom of Rock Steady Stone

Before founding Rock Steady Stone, Mike designed video game graphics for leading production companies. Several big name titles were slated to feature his creations. Unfortunately, few of these titles ever reached retailer shelves. The fruits of Mike’s 14-hour days vanished with the delete key.

Mike decided that office life wasn’t for him. He asked himself, "if the modern world ended tomorrow, what could I contribute?" Despite the financial step down, he traded his long days and fleeting results for something more real.

The first brick in his construction career was a framing crew. He gave up his mouse and screen for a hammer and two-by-fours. A year later, framing gave way to landscaping and his first encounter with real masonry.

But, landscaping provided only a taste of what he really enjoyed. A fountain here. A retaining wall there. It wasn’t enough.

A year later, he found work with a dedicated stonemason. The year-and-a-half of acquiring skills changed his life.

When the opportunity presented itself, Mike founded Rock Steady Stone. He sought to blend time-tested stonemason techniques with the technology he was already so familiar with.

As such, a natural evolution for him was to branch into sandblasting: an inscription process using compressed air and silica sand to permanently engrave a slab of earth. Hammers and chisels work, but sandblasting remains the modern solution.

Mike’s stonemasonry involves a uniqueness that his past pixels simply couldn’t achieve. Every stone is different. Every stone has it’s own history and personality. So, every creation using these stones possesses a character that can’t be erased with the delete key. Outdoors, you will find Mike’s water features and noteworthy stone signs. Indoors, you’ll notice his fireplace veneers, pillars, and custom kitchen and bath designs.

When compared to stonework, sandblasting fares far better with technological integration. How? Those are Mike’s trade secrets. You just have to let him work his craft for you.

He currently collaborates with local Native artists to give their designs a permanent home embedded on a piece of unique stone. The awe-inspiring results speak for themselves.

Yet the idea dates back centuries. The egyptians knew the value of inscribing information into solid rock. They had papyrus, and they used it. Who knows what they wrote on it. Today, we know the walls and hieroglyphics that withstood passing time. Wouldn’t an inscribed piece of modern history, created today, make a wonderful gift?

Mike Ottom of Rock Steady Stone is of two different worlds. When faced with never-ending office labour, he made the easy and concrete choice to pick up a rock. The rest is history.

Visit Mike's website at www.rocksteadystone.com or contact him by phone at (250) 240-1728.