Sometimes art hails from childhood memories. Carrie Arneson, founder of Cheminée Nest, helps create and install life-sized stork sculptures onto chimneys. “My company was born from a deeply personal and nostalgic place,” she says. Growing up in St. Louis, she and her parents would take Sunday drives to different ice cream parlors. “But what I remember most was the excitement of searching for something unusual along the way, storybook-like storks perched atop chimneys.” They were elegant, whimsical and somehow gave each home a sense of personality, as if the house had a story to tell, she says.
Years later, she and her husband purchased a home that had once featured a family of storks on its chimney. Sadly, after the owners passed away, their children removed the storks to place on their own home. “Determined to bring back that same charming art, I spent months researching for a replacement set. I reached out to antique stores all over Europe, only to discover something surprising. No one in the world was making them anymore,” she says. “That realization sparked something in me. If they no longer existed, I would create them myself.”
Traditionally, the storks were made of aluminum or other lightweight metals. But Arneson wanted to elevate both their beauty and durability, so she chose to work with bronze, the highest quality and strongest material she could find. The next step was to find the right sculptor, and by sheer luck, she found one of the most talented artists right in her own community. “Vlad, my sculptor, has been commissioned for works displayed in zoos across the country, including the world-renowned Saint Louis Zoo,” she says. His sculptures can also be found throughout the Central West End, and his work has even been featured in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “So, I found myself in very good hands,” she says.
To create the sculptures, Vlad Zhitomirsky first studies the storks’ anatomy, movement and posture to capture a natural, elegant feel. Then the birds are sculpted from clay into a full-size stork. “There is meticulous care given to gesture and flow so the form feels alive from every angle,” Arneson says. Once the sculpture is complete, molds are made from silicone rubber, followed by the creation of wax castings from those rubber molds. The latter process involves tweaking texture and feather detail. The pieces are then cast in bronze using the lost-wax process. Finally, the bronze is painted to achieve the natural coloration of the storks. The surface is painted with an automotive clear-coat lacquer for protection. The storks are also offered in the natural patina of bronze.
Together, she and Vlad have brought the old art form of chimney storks back to life, “combining craftsmanship, storytelling and a touch of magic that first inspired me as a child,” she says. The stork sculptures are inspired by the traditions of Northern Europe, particularly in countries like Germany, Poland, Denmark and Northern France, where storks are welcomed as honored guests, she says. “Villages often build nesting platforms on rooftops to encourage them to stay,” she says. “Their presence is widely seen as a symbol of prosperity, peace and continuity.”
In the same way that Arneson felt as a child, clients looking to commission a nest of storks for their chimney are individuals who value generationally lasting art and meaningful tributes. “Many families are drawn to the stork designs as a way to represent their own family story, selecting arrangements that reflect their household,” says Arneson. “Others commission them to memorialize a loved one, placing a stork in a garden as a quiet lasting tribute. Ultimately, our clients share a common desire: to add something distinctive and meaningful to their home.”
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