Quarry Sap

Stone which is extracted from the ground always has a certain amount of moisture in it. Even though this dampness is undetectable and the stone seems completely dry it isn't, and because of this fact freshly quarried stone material turns out to be more easily worked than material left on the surface for many months, mainly because of the fact it has this 'quarry sap'. Evaporation due to many months of exposure to the atmosphere causes the stone to become much harder and sometimes so brittle that it is difficult to shape. Freshly uncovered stones have a softer cores and more pliable surfaces because of the presence of this quarry sap and so it makes them a much more pliable material for masons to work with.

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Some people say that sap obtained from tapping freshly quarried stones if collected and boiled down to a thick mineral oil, tastes a lot like marble syrup.

The Stone

The Stone

 I feel the stone 

and through the stone the earth, 

and my past, 

and my future, 

as I am grounded in my present.

in the ridges and hollows, 

are the rise and fall of my heart,

as I live out my destiny. 

to tell of the stone. 

to tell of the earth. 

to tell of the journey, 

my journey on the surface of the stone, 

I am but a dust mote pitched from place to place 

on the whim of the wind. 

I scatter some seeds of poems 

to be carried on the beaks of birds, 

to be mixed in the whispers of the wind, 

for the one who will hear my message, 

and come to me bearing treasure. 

the treasure of truth, 

in that one line of love. 

 DRAX

Rockin

The Dry Stone Wall Hand book.

Sure there are 'how to' manuals. There are good books about how to do everything, of course. I've made a thing of collecting books out there about dry stone walling. When I see one or hear about one I buy it.  There are some very good ones out there. And there are a couple of really bad ones. One notable example is a book simply called A guide to Dry stone Walling, by Radford. The front cover alone should be enough to make you  wonder about this book. 

The number of rules that are broken just in the photograph of the wall they have chosen to put on the front cover of his book makes me think it should be filed in the humour section. It is certainly not the best dry stone walling handbook for those wishing to learn how to do it properly. 

Discerning walling enthusiasts will want to get the book put out by the DSWA in Britain. 

The thing is even a good hand book on the subject can't replace getting proper hands-on help.Getting down and dirty and just getting some first hand experience doing it is best. A better handbook may in fact be a book of poetry. The thoughts and ideas expressed in a good poem or a book of walling poems may touch you deeper and quicken your sensitivity to what it is that's actually going on when a person sets about trying to lay stone upon stone. Aesthetics is hard to teach. A how-to book will not help you very much in that department . Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost or T. S.  Eliot may come a lot closer.

依 我 看 来 How's your Chinese?

Fairchild TV or FTV (Chinese: 新時代電視) broadcasts info-programs in Cantonese 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, across Canada. They contacted me in September to do a short segment about Dry Stone Walling Across Canada . Their TV  crew came to Caledon Ontario in October of 2011 for several days to film our Festival of Stone called - Rocktoberfest -  and also took a road trip out to the Port Hope area to film other projects from previous annual Rocktoberfest events.


Thanks to Vincci Chung and her crew for all the work they put into this project.


(apologies for the annoying the skysoft logo)

Fractal Transition

Bubbles, plant cells and other natural patterns can look a lot like dry stone walls.

Or is it the other way around?

Below is simple little fractal-wall movie for today's blog entry

Fractal Landscape

I had a bit of a revelation on my return home from Britain some years ago, after having visited several dry stone wallers in Scotland and England. As the airplane was flying over the green countryside, it occurred to me that the beautiful patterns of walled and hedged fields below revealed the same fractal shapes as the  contours of the stone which fit together so well in the walls I had been looking at during my travels.

It had been a bit of a working holiday that year. I had helped build two walls in Yorkshire and then went and spent some time in Scotland helping repair an old granite fieldstone dry stone wall near an historic castle. 


What I was seeing reproduced everywhere in the landscape below, was a larger quilt-like pattern that I had been appreciating in those dry stacked stones .  I had to try and do a painting of it.


It has been said that dry stone walls create unique microcosms, but what about the macrocosm of the larger surface of country they embrace? The same pattern is there too.The network of stone shapes within any well-built wall, and the patterns these walls create in the larger context, as they outline field and pasture throughout the British countryside, have a distinct self similarity. And why is it ,when looking down from above, there is such a similar beauty contained in these patchworks of colours and lines? Why is the cellular tidiness that these walls create so pleasing to look at from any distance? Are we unconsciously making an association - intuitively seeing some deeper significance? Is there a fractal equation perhaps that prescribes the order we are seeing ? 


Let's look more closely.

The plural of sheep is sheep

The plural of sheep is sheep. This is 'fractal-like' definition contained within our vocabulary. Here is a photoshopped visual of that same fractal concept. 


A fractal is an object or quantity that displays 'self-similarity'. When you look closer at a single subject you see that its made up of plurals of the same configuration. 


In a somewhat technical sense this happens on all scales and on all levels of our existence. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at any level of magnification, but the same "type" of structures must appear on all scales. 


Basically, a fractal is any pattern that reveals greater complexity as it is enlarged. Thus, fractals graphically portray the notion of 'worlds within worlds' which has obsessed Western culture from its tenth-century beginnings. 


Tomorrow let's look at  dry stone walls as exhibiting some of these obvious fractal properties.

Rock Paper Scissors

The photo of these boulders reminds me of the classic children's game Rock Paper Scissors and the three part relationship of creativity (expressed through thinking with our hands).

Let's consider the game in the case of those of us who work with stone.

-What is it are we have chosen to be creative on/with ?  Rocks. We need them.

-Paper ? - it is the outstretched fingers of our HANDs. That's us. What we bring to to the rocks. Our knowledge, our skill, our enthusiasm. Farley Mowat shared something about this once. He said  "While we get something mysterious from the rocks, we give something back to them too."

-The Tools - are what we use to fashion the material - it may not be SCISSORS- but it could be a hammer, a pneumatic chisel, a saw , maybe just a long pry bar or whatever we use to be creative.

For there to be creativity there has to be other things come into play too - synchronization, freewill, timing and spontaneity. The rules are simple and allow for an orderly progression to determine a undisputed result. 

For the game to be rewarding and make any sense these elements Rocks Hands and Tools alternate dominance over one another.

When the three are combined in the right proportions something of significance is left behind for others to be inspired by.

Christmas is over

Christmas 2011


  It's always sad when it comes time to toss the dry stone tree out.

Jan 2 2012

Up and over the wall.

The new year  2012 presents us with all sorts of opportunities and new walling possibilities. 
As we rise to the occasion, we leave the old year in the shadow of our soaring excitement. 
The grass may not necessarily be greener, but without fences and all those wonderful dry stone walls, it wouldn't even appear to be 'greener' on the other side of the wall or the calendar. 


Thank you to those who I have met or have written me to say you enjoy reading 'Thinking With My Hands'. Thanks especially for all your comments. It's been a great two years of daily blogging now.


I find it is more important than ever to look upward and forward and continue to keep everything in perspective. 


Stay tuned for another year of visual surprises and off the wall thoughts on walling. 

Venus Gate In December

I just found this photo taken this week by Louise Knight-Warn of the Venus Gate we built at Hart House Farm during our 2011 Festival of Stone. I thought it was worth sharing here. I like to think of this shot as representing a wonderful year of great accomplishments here in Canada in the realm of dry stone walling. The festival was certainly the crowning achievement but there were other memorable events and projects throughout the year.


As I look at this dry stone entrance way lit up festively in green and red lights I peer on through the  opening into the darkness. I realize the future, though unknown, has a lot of direction to it already. The momentum is there. I know everyone who got involved with dry stone walling across Canada this year is looking forward to what we've got planned for the new year. It looks like there will be a number of interesting walling collaborations, including some free walling events, new workshops, a walling tour of Mallorca and plans in the works for our upcoming 2012 festival to be held near Ottawa.


One thing I have realized however is that it's better not to post (boast?) about things that haven't happened yet and indeed might not materialize at all. This arch way, this 'opening' of the present is certainly enough to celebrate. Our past achievements as an organization have encompassed much of the resurgence in dry stone walling here in Canada.   Through this beautiful 'gate' there may well be a universe of possibilities but shining here in the dark it represents a testament to nine years of skilled collaboration and well channelled enthusiasm amongst wallers throughout Canada. This structure is a guide post, even in a wintry storm. It provides a realistic reference point to proceed from.

Stones are always in season.

Stones are always ready for us to be creative with. 

Stones just want  to be used. 

You get the sense that the material is constantly looking for some way to be put together. 

 

You could say that they are always in season. 

Whereas pumpkins are only in season for a little while each year. They can only to be built with after they've matured and before they start to rot. You can't build pumpkin walls the whole year round.

Unlike pumpkins, potatoes or squash, stones are a fruit that is always in season.

They continuously offer us the possibility of taking part in the 'creative inevitable'.

The creative act.

Being creative is the highest form of human fulfillment. It beats any other kind of  're'creation. It is the opposite of so much of what we do, ie. wrecking creation. Some would argue that it is more important than 'pro'creation.

The creative act is vital. Other activities and endeavors can not achieve the same level of satisfaction. No amount shopping, education, entertainment, competitiveness, or commitment to selflessness or selfishness will secure the sense of pleasure and purpose that comes with being involved in a creative act, no matter how brief.

We are all supposed to be creative. It is our function.

There are many ways to be creative, but stone alone provides the rawest potential for human beings to explore.

Stone exists in abundance as the silent, unformed, motionless protagonist ever able to unleash that inner artist in many of us.

There is bond between us and stones. They are more animate than we think. We have more of an affinity with them than they openly acknowledge.

When we come to a stone we must see it as more than a blank canvas to create on. The very mass of stone contains within it an endless source of possibilities to build on or with. 


Stones are the basic building blocks for our creative survival.

A little frost and the little glued stone wall is destroyed

Well the industrial glue gun didn't do the job very well. The tiny stone wall that I'd stuck together  (see It's a small wall after all. ) was left outside over night and the thing literally blew apart, affected I presume by the little bit of frost we had on Christmas eve. If it had been just a 'dry' stone miniature wall I had fashioned (of small stones fitted in place) it probably would have stayed together better. Because I depended on the glue to keep the stones in place instead of relying on fitting them so they stayed on their own, then as soon as the glue released, the wall fell apart.

It's a small wall after all.

I was making Christmas presents for friends and family last week. I figure, what better gift can you give someone than something that you've made yourself? Moreover, what says 'I love you' more than a dry stone wall? Hence, I have ventured into building miniature dry stone walls again. This time I have a heavy duty dry stone wall glue gun, not just an amateur  'unofficial' one!  

The tiny stones I collected over the past few years were fragments painstakingly gathered from the ground at various walling sites I've worked at where life-size stones were being shaped. These shards are proving to be perfect for doing some nice delicate free-standing walls.

There are a lot of similarities between building walls on a miniature scale and full scale versions, but obviously there are some very striking differences as well. 

Tiny stones, while weighing proportionately less than big ones, seem to lose that all important gripping aspect more exponentially. Stones carefully balanced and even well fitted together have surprisingly little locking power. One might be tempted to think smaller stones could still be configured to hold together as well as the bigger ones in real dry stone walls regardless of their difference in weight. Not so. In fact, building anything structural becomes very difficult. 

Let's consider how this translates if were are building a real wall. While it is tempting to think it would be a lot easier to build any wall if stones in general didn't weigh as much as they do, in real life, it turns out if they were lighter it would be almost impossible. They would never bond properly. While most stones have basically three main properties, weight, hardness and roughness - it becomes strikingly obvious in wall building ( on any scale ) that 'heaviness' is an extremely important factor. 

Next week, let's consider other aspects of mini walling such as hearting, batter, types of tools needed and material/site accessibility. Another question worth exploring is - what helps make a miniature wall look convincingly realistic? Things like - keeping your finger out of the picture.

So this is Christmas

Dry Stone Christmas Music

What better way to 'rock the night away' this Christmas Eve than by getting together with friendly wallers and singing along with these remastercrafted hits from the past  

This special 2011 dry stone compilation includes three Bonus Songs to complete your walling collective.

-I saw scree chips go sailing by 

-Dyke the walls

-It's beginning to be a rock-like Christmas

( Readers might like to suggest other song titles to include in next year's Christmas Cd )

Stone-ifferous trees.

Over the years I've had an opportunity to do a number of Stone-ifferous Trees.

I thought it would be nice to see a few of them again this Christmas season.  

A Wreath of Stones

Wreaths, stone circles and sheepfolds. What do they have in common? This holiday season, if there is a 'holy-day' presence to be discovered, I would suggest that is all wrapped up in 'rings'.


Consider the circular configuration known as Stonehenge. Overlooking the Plains of Salisbury like some monumental ornament, on this day the huge stones align our attention to the moment of the earth's orbit when the sun reaches the critical angle marking the winter solstice.


For years it has stood there as a reminder of the cycle of life, and a signal to the start of each new year. The standing stones of many other ancient circular structures have the same function. Their 'rings' tell a timeless story.  We earth dwellers come and go. Those of us going round on this tiny globe realize once more the timeless potential for love, hope and peace, as we align ourselves with that story. 


Is it that strange that these stone circles have such a 'ring of truth' about them?  Do they not all echo the same circular shaped message of unity and completion? Gradually the megalithic theme is developed through other configurations as it echos down through history in a variety of circular reminders . Our lives are encircled by wreaths signalling the celebration of life and creativity. Like children around the maypole, all our lives move in circles - family circles - social circles - musical, dancing, festive circles - calendar cycles - decorative, spiraling motifs, every one of them. All of this is alluded to in the ornamental loops of Christmas garlands and balls we decorate with. 


From before birth, to our departure from this mortal coil, we are enclosed in a protective circle.


Here we are, metaphorically speaking, huddled in a circle around the camp fire, drawing circles in the dirt with our sticks and making glowing circles in the night sky with our fiery brands. We look up to see the familiar round shapes of the moon (and the sun) as they cross the vault of heaven, and we celebrate the circle.


As in olden times, and still to this day, Shepherds enclose their flock within round walls of stone to protect them from harm each night. As one approaches such an enclosure of stones, stacked in a free-standing circular configuration, there is, for those who enter in, a reaffirming sense of place and purpose amidst the wreath of stones.