Basil Cake’s cute little stone crabs look as if they are about to give you a painful pinch. His stone turtles are adorable, too, appearing set to scurry through the sand back into the ocean.

Stone crab

Cake is a retired state worker who lives in Augusta and now devotes his time to craft, including making what he calls “my creatures.” The idea for them grew out of his primary mode of artistic expression, stained glass. (Cake’s true passion is creating Tiffany lampshade reproductions.) The creatures are soldered together like stained glass, but instead of glass for the heads and bodies he uses stones that he picks up at the beach, in the woods, in a good gravel pit – anywhere he can find them in the right shape. Their legs and claws are made of recycled utensils he finds at yard sales and thrift stores.

“Years ago you could buy a box for $5,” he said. “Now they’re a minimum of 50 cents to $1 apiece in a thrift shop.”

Stone turtle

The crabs’ eyes are made of wire and solder. Their claws are copper, and their legs are forks. It takes one-and-a-half forks to make a crab.

Basil has made other things out of the same materials, such as moose, and motorcycles whose engines are made from hollowed knives (but no stone). Musicians, too – a drummer, a guitar player, a cellist, a violinist, and others. But he prefers making creatures of the Maine coast.

Cake’s creatures cost $50 and can be found on the Island Institute Store online, as well as at the Center for Maine Crafts in Gardiner and Window Panes in Bar Harbor.