Summer Dry Stone Walling Workshops in Newfoundland

Are you interested in learning the art and craft of dry stone walling in a beautiful northern coastal setting this summer? 

If so, please contact Deb Wickwire for more information or to register:

deb@englishharbourartsassociation.com
or jwick911@yahoo.com
cell 860 558 0449

But do it soon - currently there are only a few spots left in the Newfoundland workshops. Workshop descriptions below. Click here for more information.

5-Day WORKSHOP July 29 - Aug 2, 2012
TITLE: Dry Stone Design and Construction
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: A collaborative design process culminating in the hands-on creation of a dry stone structure. Instruction in design will include site assessment, 3-D modeling and guide frame set up. Instruction in building with loose stone will include identifying each stone’s best use, applying the four basic principles for strong construction, and practicing safe methods for shifting and lifting stone. One day of the workshop will be devoted to working in nature to create a temporary environmental art piece.
PARTICIPANTS: Max 8

2-Day WORKSHOP Aug 4 - 5, 2012
TITLE: Stone Fence Building
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: Group construction of a free-standing dry stone wall. Participants will learn basic skills for building a straight section of 4’ high fence. Three different styles of construction will be instructed; Galloway, doubling and singling. Skills learned can be applied to retaining wall construction, as well.
PARTICIPANTS: Max 8


© All rights reserved Dan Snow In the Company of Stone

The Stone Eye - Three Dry Stone Building Styles

Showers every day added up to 2” of precipitation and sloppy working conditions at the stone eye project this week. Safety glasses fogged and the mud sucked at my boots but I was glad to be outside making progress on the construction. The lead-sinker hanging guide-point system is proving to be very reliable and flexible. When I need to move a group of points out of the way to pitch stone into the center, I simply swing them up to the wire grid and hook them there temporarily. As I finish an area of stone work I unclip and remove the point lines.

Moving into a new area of the construction I string up more sinkers. The distance they drop down from the overhead grid is determined by their master-plan X/Y/Z coordinates. For instance, where the #74 X axis intersects with the #15 Y axis the sinker hangs 34” below the grid, that point being the height of the stone work at that specific location. I’m always looking toward the next two or three points in space as I set a stone because it has to be aligned to conform with the developing curved surface.
 
Creating compound curves in vertically set dry stone requires most pieces to be hammer trimmed. Sometimes the face needs shaping. More often the sides need work to create a more pie-shaped piece to fit snugly with the stone coming before and the one coming after. The stones rest on each other’s edges, or, as the curve leaves the side of the construction and becomes the top surface, they rest on the crushed-stone center packing. In the case of this sculpture, the style of walling goes from horizontal coursed walling, to vertical random walling, to edge-set paving. 

© All rights reserved Dan Snow In the Company of Stone

Stone Eye Passage Roof Stones

A recent chance drive-by along Vermont Route 15 led to the discovery of Jeffersonville Quarry, and a way forward with the stone eye. In less than 36 hours, I’d sourced stone for vaulting the ceiling of the passage, ordered the pieces (which were quickly quarried out by Ken Gillilan) trucked them to the building site, and installed them.

From the bucket of the loader, I slid a slab onto planks, got two fiberglass electric fence rods under them and rolled them across the passage opening, repeating the process four more times to complete the coverage.

On another day this past week I laid up 30 sq. ft. of curved retaining wall (indicated by the dust covered section in the foreground of photograph above).

Many thanks to Ken and AnnMarie of Jeffersonville Quarry and their sons, Keegan, Kaydan and Kaleb for a good lesson in family farming.

© All rights reserved Dan Snow In the Company of Stone

Gardening on Graniite

In late autumn of 2011 Gordon Hayward called to say that Teddy Berg had asked him to write a book about her gardens on Rice Mountain in Walpole, New Hampshire. He wanted to know if I’d care to contribute a few essays, and, of course, I said I’d be pleased and honored to do so. ‘Gardening on Granite’ is hot off the presses this month. It’s a large-format book packed with gorgeous photographs and a lovingly told, personal history of a very special place and time.    

Peter and Teddy’s mountain top home has been the subject of a previous book by Jeffery Simpson, titled, ‘The Accidental Architect.’ In that volume, the stories of the Peter’s many building escapades on the mountain were well chronicled. This new book is a companion piece, with Teddy’s stories of creating the gardens that grace the grounds around the home, guest houses and outbuildings.

Gordon and I became involved in the design, construction and planting of the gardens beginning in 1987. From practical terrace gardens of perennial flowers to fantastical folly gardens, wild with native shrubbery, the planting scheme and style of stonework evolved over the next twenty years. We were lucky to work with clients who encouraged and nurtured our creativity, and ultimately, became our dearest friends.

The book is currently not available at bookstores, please direct inquiries to:
Rice Mountain Publications
P. O. Box 566
Walpole, NH 03608


 © All rights reserved Dan Snow In the Company of Stone

Stone Eye, Hot and Dry

Clouds are banking in from the west, bringing the first significant precipitation to Vermont in months. April’s weather has felt positively ‘Southern Californian.’ Under intense sunshine, in powder dry conditions, I got started laying stone on the Stone Eye Project this past week.

This is my first experience working with stone from Mitchell Quarry. The Waits River phyllite is a medium to high grade schist.The parallelepipeds (ET’s term for prism shaped stones with six faces, all parallelograms) took some getting used to, especially their propensity to shatter along the bed-plane lines when any hammer-trimming is attempted.

By taking it as it comes, I’ve made friends with the material and can now appreciate its strengths. The stone is generally flat-bedded; allowing for even, level coursing and broad, solid surfaces to build upon.   

© All rights reserved Dan Snow In the Company of Stone