Back in 2010 stone balancer Peter Riedel and I built a dry stack arch at the Canadian Festival of Stone in Caledon, Ontario. It was his first arch and my first time doing one between two trees. I thought at the time if we had a form it would have been fun to try building it higher up the tree trunks.
Stonemason and Sculptor Johnny Clasper saw the photo of it on Facebook, and it gave him the same idea.
While his 'hanging arch' attempt #1 failed, Johnny wrote on a post. "I'm convinced this will work and still am, it slid down the trees and collapsed, I will learn from these mistakes.."
He went on to explain " These two trees were the only two close enough together, I feel a more robust former is required after looking at the photo, the arch was jammed tight and should've stayed put, maybe it pushed the trees apart."
Yesterday I decided to have a go.
My first attempt failed and came crashing down dangerously close to my crocks.
The second 'held', thanks a few choice shims deftly placed between the cobble stones as I removed the wooden form.
My daughter Maddy was brave enough to stand under it and pose for this picture.
A breeze came up, and I was wondering if it might fall down within the first few hours, but so far the 'Arc de Treetrunk' still stands proudly in the back acre of the property.
