Gerald Croteau III: Stone Craftsman

Gerald Croteau III, the founder and artist of American Stonecraft, has traveled to far-away lands, but New England with its stone monuments has always been where his heart is. Gerald loved walking and driving through the countryside alongside the beautiful walls that stood the test of time, especially the ones built by his grandfather Gerald Sr, a stonemason. The stone walls in hidden sections of forest or hilltop, testaments to man's struggle in the tougher times only a few generations earlier, are his inspiration in producing beautiful stone food slabs. His goal is to share the story of New England farmers by creating sweet irony of the challenging rocky farmland.

As a younger man eager to learn the ways of the world, Gerarld earned an economics degree from George Washington University. He followed this with four years practicing economics in Washington DC and real estate in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Gerald transitioned from a pinstriped suit to a sometimes mud-covered suit when he founded the American Stonecraft studio in 2010. His stone workshop and studio is near one of Lowell, Massachusetts's historic canals.

For Gerald, sharing a new perspective on fieldstone felt slightly destined when he discovered that five generations of family were in the stone business. Each Slab starts as a hand-gathered stone from a New England farmer's field that is then sliced, polished, and sealed to craft the finest farm-to-table serving plate. The polished interior displays the complexities that hint at the ancient journey of each individual stone. The hand-finished surface becomes an epic record of that fieldstone's creation.