Sunday, August 21, 2011

Every Stone Has A Face.

As with humans, most stones have a unique and distinctive 'face'. And in the same way its true with people, that stone face is often a window into the personality. Or should we call it the stonality?

A stone that's had a hard life, had many hard knocks along the way, will often show the evidence of this in its appearance, and in how it reacts to being put into a wall. Stones like these can seem to be very unfriendly, with an inner strength that almost appears to be obstinate. Like people these are the stone faced ones that are often hard to read and resilient to change.They dont seem to like being put into a wall.

Glacial granite stones have very rounded faces. They have have no recognizable angles or flat planes to grip on to or use to lock them into the wall. These are stones that have resisted cracking under the pressure of mile high ice or splitting from crashing into other rocks along their journey of geological life. They will also present a challenge to a new waller who is finding it hard to get to know the stones unique traits and tendencies.

Stones with more angular faces give evidence of a different stonality. If we read these stone faces correctly we recognize in them a more accommodating nature . They are sometimes softer and more forgiving structurally in a wall.