Francisco Aguilera has been plying the stonemason’s trade for 36 years, with expertise passed on by his family, as he belongs to a fourth generation of stoneworkers.

This master’s work process starts with the manual extraction of stone from his own quarry, causing no environmental impact.… The stone with which he works has a natural levante or “lift”, with horizontal sedimentary layers. So its extraction involves knocking in wedges until a piece separates from (or lifts off) the rock face.

Once in his workshop, Francisco examines each piece visually so as to gauge its potential. If a stone is suitable for carving, he smooths the faces to be worked, draws an outline for carving on it and proceeds to carve it out. For masonry blocks, on the other hand, the work consists largely of dressing the stones so as to make smooth faces for laying and finishing.

Francisco uses mostly hand tools, which he makes himself in a forge. These include flat chisels, point chisels, tooth chisels and toothed stone axes.