Employing his shadow.

Canadian waller Eric Landman sent me this pic yesterday and said that this guy was just standing around so Eric put him to work.

The dimension of now

Stones bring the 'now' to us.   Let's not keep knocking these present opportunities, as if the past (or the future) holds out something that the present doesn't. Stones are like spacial presents to us. In fact they are space and time. And they come in all shapes and sizes. They need to be appropriated here and now. Let's create something with them 'in the present', and stay humble in the presence of such inspiring material.

After all the stones speak in present tense. If we listen we may eventually rediscover more of the hidden potential of this amazing material that the ancients understood so well – a potential which transcends time.

There is no 'progress' without stone.

Stones contain the present, in every sense, whether they be modular, random, dimensional or even non-dimensional (what ever that is). The age of plastic is over. Concrete should no longer be allowed to rule any more. Stone is and always has been the only thing that stays relevant. Give the gift that keeps on...

More Perspective

Perspective (from Latin perspicere, to see through) is an approximate visual representation capturing the depth of an image on a flat surface as it is seen by the eye. The  objects in the scene are drawn smaller as their distance from the observer increases and the details are foreshortened, where the size of an object's dimensions along the line of sight are relatively shorter than dimensions across the line of sight.

For perspective to work - for a 3D image to fool the eye into seeing depth and for the relationship of objects to appear believable and in proportion, it requires that the veiwer look at it from a specific angle and position.

The image of the dry stone Venusgate we built in 2011 appears to pop up off the page in the first drawing.

In the drawing below , looking at things from above,  you can see how stretched that concept is. 

This photo of the Venusgate is still only just  an illusion.

The image will distort or break up or disappear altogether when viewed from an 'incorrect' position.

It's only the stones in the real life structure that 'make' the real Venusgate, and put everything else in perspective. 

It's all about perspective.

While traveling the 'information highway' (ie. the internet) I've been seeing some pretty amazing photos of 3D chalk art that people have been doing in the streets. Ever wonder like me how it's done? 

Inspired by the very clever drawing I came across yesterday ( see above) I decided to do some sketching myself and then experiment with the angle of the viewing plane . With the help of Sketchup and Photoshop I was able to wrestle a drawing I did into a very exaggerated perspective and then toggle back and forth to get a sense of how one might begin to do a large 3D painting in the same style. The short movie I made of the 'sunken garden' scene from two different angles exposes what's happening to make the optical illusion that these clever chalk artists magically create. It is a bit surprising how distorted the images need to be. 

I am sure there are ways to apply this new optical craze and do something similar in stone. I'll have to figure out how to build dry stone features that give the illusion that they are getting bigger as they run off into the distance, perhaps. Maybe build walls that appear to be leaning  past the point of balance or floating above the ground or contorting into some Escher-like configuration. Who knows? Got any ideas?

(If you are using an iphone use Youtube link at bottom of this page to see video.)

Crocs in the mud.

I like crocs when Im working in almost any weather  but yesterday in all that rain and mud they seemed a little slippery and dangerous.

A different angle on standing stones

Foamhenge is a full-size replica of Stonehenge made entirely out of styrofoam in Natural Bridge, Virginia.The structure was created by Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studio in 2004, with the pieces in astronomically correct positions. Cline has described Foamhenge as his greatest achievement.


Foamhenge was completed in six weeks using beaded styrofoam blocks weighing 420 pounds. It was delivered on 4 tractor trailer trips from Winchester Virginia 100 miles north.

Seeing the light

A recent wall I just about hearted the daylight out of.

Storing Stones

Aren't you glad stones don't have a best before date? Unlike most everything else, you can store stones indefinitely until you are ready to use them.

Thinking Without Hands

Building a lot with character

Sandra Piller is building a wall at the front of her lot in Brighton Ontario. She took a workshop at the Dry Stone Wall Festival we held in Cobourg three years ago. Norman Haddow taught the course. Apparently people stop by every day to ask her questions and take pictures. I was told about her wall and decided to drop by one rainy afternoon.  I liked the wall and told her it had a lot of character. She told me of her plans to do 60 more feet of wall yet.  I wrote her the next day and asked if I could do a blog post about her bold walling effort. This was her reply.


Dear John:  It was fantastic that you took the time to stop by yesterday and comment on my dry stone wall in progress.  I appreciated your comments and encouragement.  It was unfortunate that I was late for an appointment with my daughter and that we were in the middle of a deluge, however, as I would have liked to have chatted longer and to have asked you a few questions.   By the by we have a creek in our back area that sure could use a stone bridge, something that far exceeds my meagre abilities.


By all means use the photo if you don't think your members will think my wall has too much "character."  Some people might be interested to know that I'm making these walls on my own.  I've noticed that most of your photos show men making walls and women should know they can do this too.  Much more productive that going to the gym.

My main problem with the Madoc stone is the size.  I had been assured that they would be no larger than a bread box as I requested but as you can see some are considerably larger. 

For the good and profit of all.

St. Christopher House is a neighbourhood support centre at Ossington and Dundas in the west end of Toronto. The volunteers work with diverse individuals, families and groups to promote personal and social change in order to achieve a safe, healthy and accepting society for all. Some of us at Dry Stone Walling Across Canada were honoured to be able to come and help rebuild the walls in the garden courtyard this weekend. 

Thanks to Kathy,Beverly,Sean,Kate and all the people at St Christopher's for accommodating the volunteer workers Bill, Brent, Caesar, Judy, Shelagh, Jeffery and Richard who came to learn the craft of dry stone walling, as well as make a valuable aesthetic contribution to the premises of this care-giving organization. Thanks too to DSWAC members Fraser Sinclair and Evan Oxland who gave up their weekend and helped with the rebuilding of the cloister walls.

Bill Cheng is understandably very proud of the section of garden wall he and Jeffery helped rebuild.

Handling the pattern.

The Waller's Muscle

 Zach Goebelt of www.OutDoorInstallation.com showed me a bulge on his arm which he calls the "waller's muscle" that appears on his wrist when he flexes it. He recons anyone who builds walls a lot and is working lifting up big stones every day will be exercising this particular muscle a lot and gradually developing a bump here. I hadn't noticed and was surprised to see I had a somewhat pronounced muscle thing happening on my wrist too. Jared Flynn who was dining with us that evening added that this was the 'real' waller's  muscle and not to be confused or compared with something else. Hmmm. 

Choices

I will always be able to find fault with my work.

In a way it makes me careful not to criticize other people's work .

It is important to remember there are limitations and varying circumstances related to the building of any wall.

The choice of stone that you have available to work with puts enormous restraints on any project.

Even so, good wallers will usually make good choices with the materials they have at hand.

These choices might not be the same ones another waller would make, but we should not be too eager to say they are the 'wrong' choices.

Time constraints may be an unavoidable factor too.

If you don't have to rush you usually do a much better job.

This wall happily got built just in time for Christmas 2011.

I enjoyed building it applying a very strict coursing from top to bottom.

I had the time, I knew the rules and how to do it properly.

I revisited it on my way back from Vermont yesterday.

I thought you might like to see it.

Sometimes I just have to wonder.

What do stones like?

Stones like to be handled. They like it when we gather them up and neatly nestle them in rows to make nice walls. Their absolute arch favorite thing to do however, is to get us to put them into dry stone arches and bridges.

That's what we did here. The photo was taken at a DSWAC planning meeting and barbecue in Whitby Ontario a number of years ago. We played several stone related games afterwards. One was to build the tallest arch you could with no help from anyone else and not use a form to rest the stones on.

It was fun. The stones loved it too.

You can almost see their excitement in the picture. They are literally jumping around the lawn. 

Undulations Part 2

'Interfingering' in geology refers to a marbleized mixing of two types of layered rock material, where the visible distinctions partially merge into each other in well defined wedge shapes. I like to use the term to include the geographical meshing of hills where erosion has caused a zigzagging pattern. Perhaps it should be called inter-knuckling. It appears to be locked together like a large scale zipper. There is a very human element to the way the land 'meshes'.

This kind of connectivity is pleasing to look at. When stones are fitted together meshing like this it maximizes the strength of a dry stone wall too, in much the same way dovetailing works on the corners of a log house and in the wooden drawer joints in wood cabinetry.

I think it would be interesting to do a dry stone installation which incorporates the look and feel of a landscape of intersecting mounds. The domes would naturally knuckle together to create an undulating pattern with one or two meandering valleys running through them.

Undulations Part 1

Undulations
(This link may take some time to download before the video begins )
http://www.johnclive.co.uk/chapter4.html

We are creatures in an undulating world.

The hills and valleys on the surface of the earth are merely the evidence of a once fluid geology below, which has now become suspended briefly in time and space. We can almost imagine these swirls and curves as being the folds in some huge extended blanket covering the contours of many large creatures about to rise from sleep. We see gestures of invisible bodies which appear to have caused the bulges and dips that extend in every direction below the ground and which make up the varied landscapes all around us.

Dry stone walls can sometimes become contour lines that help define these mysterious forms. As we follow the lines of stitching we appreciate the underlying 'living' influences which give form to the risings and fallings we see off in the distance.

Solar panels in a dry stone compound.

It was amazing to see the contrast in technology here on the island of Menorca. There are huge arrays of solar panels covering acres and acres of land along the north west region of the island where primitive dry stone huts still dot the landscape.

Star in a Stoneboat

Robert Frost - A Star in a Stoneboat For Lincoln MacVeagh Never tell me that not one star of all That slip from heaven at night and softly fall Has been picked up with stones to build a wall. Some laborer found one faded and stone-cold, And saving that its weight suggested gold And tugged it from his first too certain hold, He noticed nothing in it to remark. He was not used to handling stars thrown dark And lifeless from an interrupted arc. He did not recognize in that smooth coal The one thing palpable besides the soul To penetrate the air in which we roll. He did not see how like a flying thing It brooded ant eggs, and bad one large wing, One not so large for flying in a ring, And a long Bird of Paradise's tail (Though these when not in use to fly and trail It drew back in its body like a snail); Nor know that be might move it from the spot— The harm was done: from having been star-shot The very nature of the soil was hot And burning to yield flowers instead of grain, Flowers fanned and not put out by all the rain Poured on them by his prayers prayed in vain. He moved it roughly with an iron bar, He loaded an old stoneboat with the star And not, as you might think, a flying car, Such as even poets would admit perforce More practical than Pegasus the horse If it could put a star back in its course. He dragged it through the plowed ground at a pace But faintly reminiscent of the race Of jostling rock in interstellar space. It went for building stone, and I, as though Commanded in a dream, forever go To right the wrong that this should have been so. Yet ask where else it could have gone as well, I do not know—I cannot stop to tell: He might have left it lying where it fell. From following walls I never lift my eye, Except at night to places in the sky Where showers of charted meteors let fly. Some may know what they seek in school and church, And why they seek it there; for what I search I must go measuring stone walls, perch on perch; Sure that though not a star of death and birth, So not to be compared, perhaps, in worth To such resorts of life as Mars and Earth— Though not, I say, a star of death and sin, It yet has poles, and only needs a spin To show its worldly nature and begin To chafe and shuffle in my calloused palm And run off in strange tangents with my arm, As fish do with the line in first alarm. Such as it is, it promises the prize Of the one world complete in any size That I am like to compass, fool or wise.