BendStone: Art for your garden

BendStone Inc. is based in Bend, Oregon and began in 2006 with the goal of producing high quality strong and durable cast stone garden art. We focus on designing and creating garden pieces that stand apart from others.

Our company’s mission is to provide an alternative to what is available on the market today. We are a small company hoping to provide our retail and trade customers artisan pieces that are truly one of a kind.

Our Team:

Paul Samuelson and Annie Alcorn, our sales and office team, have been in Bend, Oregon for 8 years. They have years of experience with plants, plant care, garden and container design. Paul and Annie worked at Eastside Gardens in Bend, Oregon and had the opportunity to participate in selling, ordering products as well as seeking out new items of interest.

In 2005, Backyard Oasis was born. Backyard Oasis a company owned and operated by Paul and Annie and provides landscape maintenance to clients in the Bend area. This experience has fine tuned their knowledge of container gardens, container longevity and ideas on how planters can enhance the look of outdoor landscapes.

In 2006, when Paul learned of the work that Vygantas was capable of he was immediately interested in helping others find his work and obtain for themselves, a planter that provides art for the garden.

Vygantas Paulauskas was born into a famous Lithuanian woodcarving family and his life has been influenced by all manners of visual arts. In 1985 Vygantas got his BFA in the Glass Art Department of Vilnius Art Institute in Lithuania. Since 1986 he has taken part in various collective exhibitions in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Finland. Additionally, he has had a wealth of personal exhibitions in galleries in Vilnius (Lithuania), Skyrup (Sweden), and Prien (Germany). He has also participated in international glass symposiums in Bardudvarnok (Hungary), Lvov (Ukraine), Fraenau (Germany), Novy Bor (Czech Republic), Tokad (Hungary), Riga (Latvia), and the 33rd Annual Glass Art Society Conference in Seattle, WA. Vygantas is a member of the Art Society of Lithuania (2001), the British Columbia Craft Association (2002), and the Glass Art Society in the U.S. (2003).

For over two decades, Vygantas's glass sculptures have explored vibrant color, fine and subtle lines, and an unexpected assemblage of new ideas carved in glass that are meant to attract and move the eye of the viewer through the sculpture.

As a master of blown glass, Vygantas was surprised and excited to be able to transfer these skills into the medium of cast stone. In Bend, Oregon, he is now able to successfully bend concrete into beautiful works of art for the garden.

Vygantas’ designs stand out and a talent is so obvious that some competitors of ours in Canada are still using his models as their products. Before featuring in Bendstone- for more than four years Viva worked in Vancouver BC learning to bend a stone to make it look elegant and gracious as his artworks of glass do look.