Wagener-Salley High Grad Crafts Orangeburg Veterans Monument

When Orangeburg city officials recently approved the completion of the Veterans Memorial in Veterans Park they commissioned the job to Pelion Stonecarver Ron Clamp of Memorial Design.  Clamp is well known internationally for his work and known in Wagener particularly for carving our WWII Memorial in 2009 and the Hootie and the Blowfish monument in Columbia in 2010.   Clamp immediately assigned the Orangeburg project to Wagener Salley High 2006 graduate, Tommy Sliker.  The Orangeburg Veterans Memorial would be Sliker's first Project Manager assignment as an apprentice to Clamp. 

Clamp had no doubt Sliker could handle the Orangeburg Project although Sliker had only been in the business less than a year.  “Tommy has enough artistic talent that he's going to be really good.” Clamp said.  “He's meticulous.   The problem with carving stone is that there is no margin for error, you have to be meticulous.”

“I love having Tommy on board,” Clamp continued.   “I've been really impressed with him.  I've had as many as 16 employees at one point, but he's picked it up the quickest.  He has a natural eye.  You can learn theory in school, but to learn balance and what looks good – you can't be taught that.  You either have it or you don't.  Tommy's got it.”  Sliker graduated from USC in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts Technology and admits that he's using a lot of the graphic design and computer skills he learned in school.  He had just returned from a convention in Orlando where he represented Memorial Design.  

Sliker is also responsible for sales and design, gilding, laser etching, and the art features on mausoleums and church monuments.  He's worked in several states already and claims his ultimate goal destination is American Samoa to learn to hand chisel.

Clamp has also been commissioned to do the First Responders Memorial in Columbia and has had Sliker working on that as well. 

The centerpiece of the Veterans Park Memorial in Orangeburg was originally constructed in November, 2009.  In May, 2011 the town was ready to complete the project by having the wings crafted with over 700 names engraved, adding about 24,000 pounds of stone to the original centerpiece.  The names engraved were those of veterans from Orangeburg County who were killed in active service.  Sliker received the architect's design in mid-May and laid it out on the CAD system.  After some revisions, the city approved it and Sliker fabricated the stencil. 

                  (Sandblasting the granite)

Meanwhile, the gray granite arrived from Georgia on a tractor trailer and was parked just outside the Pelion studio. The next step was to put the template on the rock, 6 pieces at 4,000 pounds apiece.  Sliker glued the stencil and spent several days in the June heat out on the back of the tractor trailer sandblasting the names into the rock.   “The hottest June since 1988,” Sliker smiles, adding, “Day after day in the sun while Ron supervised from the air-conditioned office.  Day after day.”   I'm enjoying watching these two guys volley back and forth.   Ron smiles and shakes his head while Tommy jokingly adds “He's sipping iced tea and complaining about the air-conditioning.”

Upon completion of the sandblasting, Sliker then painted it with lithochrome, a shadow enhancer.  He peeled off the stencils, removed the glue with a pressure washer and took the granite to Orangeburg where a 40-ton crane was used to set them in place.  Memorial Design agreed to have Sliker go back and completely re-do all the lithochroming on the original memorial to give it a fresh look.   Orangeburg officials will soon have the unveiling ceremony and present the memorial to the public.

   (The Veterans Memorial with the new wings waiting for unveiling ceremony)

“Did you have any concerns,” I asked Sliker, “when you were handed your first solo project?”  He laughed.  “Yeah, that I might accidentally burn the stencil or not go deep enough sandblasting because we didn’t have enough of the material specified by the City of Orangeburg to replace a damaged piece. Things can get pretty expensive if you mess them up.  As far as design goes, I didn't have any concerns here because I knew the city of Orangeburg had gone over that with a fine toothed comb.”  The work was all stuff Sliker had done many times before, just not of this magnitude.  “I've done things with smaller rock,” he said, “but this was my first big project.”   He admitted that everything finished smoothly.  He is proud that he has done something that his great, great, great grandchildren can look at with pride.

I asked Sliker what his favorite part of the whole project was and he laughed, “Caulking!  Because that means I'm done! Followed by when Luke took the pressure washer and sprayed me down.  No, seriously, I just like it all.  I guess my favorite part is diamond etching, which is a skill I didn't get to use on this particular project.”  Clamp chimed in, “With Tommy's computer graphics background, the laser and impact etching is right down his alley.  He also has both the skill set and the natural talent for hand etching which requires even more skill.”

While I was packing up to go, I asked the gentlemen what's next on their agenda.  “We've got a lot of medium-sized monuments to do, some granite church signs and things, but the next big thing is the First Responders Memorial in Columbia.  And soon Tommy's up for certification.”  Clamp is confident he'll easily qualify for his journeyman when it comes time.

Veterans Memorial Park
Corner of Riverside Dr. and John C. Calhoun Dr., Orangeburg, SC
Architect:  Summers & Associates, Orangeburg, SC
General Contractor:  Advanced Outdoor Services, Columbia, SC
Stone work:  Memorial Design, Ron Clamp, Pelion, SC