Instructor Training

Last week I was down in Dummerston Vermont visiting the Stone Trust dry stone walling training center. I took part in an instructors training course that was held over a couple of days and am now a certified dry stone walling instructor through the dry stone walling association of Great Britian. If you find yourself driving around the beautiful state of Vermont and in around the Dummerston area, drop into the Scott Farm where the stone trust center is located and have a look around. The Stone Trust is a registered not for profit organization and is run by some really great volunteers who work tirelessly to help educate the public in the craft of dry stone walling. Thanks again to the organizers for a great course. Looking forward to making it down again soon.

Mindfulness and Stone

 

I'm very excited to announce a  special 2 day course in dry stone walling and mindfulness meditation. A small group of us will be coming together to build a very special stone marker along one of the trails at the Ignatius Jesuit Center in Guelph On., while incorporating mindful meditation. We have limited space for this course so please contact myself (sd.stonework@gmail.com) or Christopher Emory-Moore ( cemorymoore@gmail.com ) for more info and to reserve a spot for the course.  

Balsam Lake's Dry Stone Walls

  

For the last 2 years I've had the great opportunity to spend a week up in Balsam Lake rebuilding sections of a historic wall. The walls were commissioned by George Laidlaw on his Fort Ranch property. Laidlaw was born in Scotland and emigrated to Toronto in 1855. He prospered as a grain merchant and wharf owner in the Gooderham & Worts Distillery District on the east side of downtown Toronto. Laidlaw was also a successful railroad barron advocating for narrow gauge railways building the Toronto Grey & Bruce Railway, The Toronto & Nippissing Railway, and the Credit Valley Railway. In 1871, Laidlaw purchased 6000 acres of land around the western shore of Balsam Lake and used the land to raise sheep and cattle. In 1880, Laidlaw hired a Scottish waller (Mr. Scott) to come and build the drystone walls that stretch around the property. Scott hired local labour to help construct the 3 miles of dry stone walls that still stand to this day. If you are ever in the Balsam Lake Ontario area, make sure you take a drive down Balsam Lake Dr. to see the walls. You feel like you are instantly transported to the UK once you turn towards the Laidlaw property. They are the longest stretch of dry stone walls in Canada. And with a large amount of them still standing, these walls are a great example of how properly constructed dry stone walls can last for over 100 years in our Canadian climate.

Three Generations

The past couple of days have been a really enjoyable weekend of walling. I had the great opportunity to lead the beginnings of a three generational walling project north of Waterloo on a family homestead. I always enjoy my time instructing. The enthusiasm of the students is always a great energy to be around. Sasha, Paul and Peter were a pleasure to work with and I'm looking forward to the next walling weekend. The past 2 days have been very productive and what started out as a 20 ton pile of limestone rubble has now turned Into the beginnings of a very tidy looking retaining wall. Great job guys! 

JB Stonecraft

John Bland of JB Stonecraft is a Canadian Waller/Designer based out of Montreal. He does some exceptional stonework as you can see above. His work with slate which you will see on his web page, is inspiring for me to continue working on my own designs. If you are in the Kingston area, more specifically the Amherst Island area, on the weekend of Sept 25th - 27th the Dry Stone Canada is holding their 3rd annual festival. John Bland is designing this years Main feature. The concept for the feature involves predicting the future by creating a solar alignment at a pre-determined time and space. The feature will be positioned and built without any prior observation. It will be something not to be missed!

Thinking With My Hands

The photo above is of an arch that was built by John Shaw-Rimmington in 2005. John has been a huge influence in Canada and worldwide in the realm of dry stone walling and stonework in general. I chose this particular arch that he built back in 2005 to talk about because it is one of the pieces that I saw back then that influenced my decision to pursue my path in walling. I was amazed in seeing that a random pile of stone in a field could be transformed into a free standing arch without the aid of mortar or any other adhesives. John and his family moved to my home town of Port Hope and to my luck just down the road from my parents. I was starting to switch career paths around the same time and was considering a path in Masonry. My younger brother recommend I talk with the 'stone guy at the end of the street'. So I offered to take John out for lunch to see if he could answer my questions and solidify my recent decision. Our conversation revolved around stone but our common interest in Jazz and 'thinking outside of the box' made me realize that maybe I'm on the right path.

 (My first foundation stones laid at the 2007 Dry Stone Festival)

 I started to immerse myself into the world of dry stone walls and took every opportunity I could to find a pile of stone to stack up. I would bombard John with pictures where he would give encouraging feedback and post some of my pics on his site. I started taking some of his courses that he offered and continued my push to a full time career in stone (photo above of my very first course). Over the years John's encouragement and enthusiasm was largely influential in my path and I know the same lies for a lot of wallers here in Canada. John has a blog 'Thinking with my hands' where he talks about a wide array of stone topics. If you're anything like me and are always looking for things to read about stone, this blog is not to be missed. There are years of archives that I recommend if your a stone enthusiast to go through. 

Future Aztek Designs

Aaron Hemeon from Tofino, BC., is an artist who creates custom hand crafted jewelery. I really like the organic feel of the copper around the selected stones. You can tell that the stone is almost dictating the form of the wire and once the seperate materials are entangled they become one cohesive piece. The 2 pics above are just a sample of his work. He has some other beautiful pieces that you can purchase on his Etsy Page Future Aztek

I asked Aaron to give some insight on his art and how the materials inspire the pieces. Here is his response.

"I started creating jewelry with a concern to acquire something concrete or more permanent from certain states of mind.  Many of us spend energy creating peace and joy in our lives.  It has been my aim that during the more desirable moments I could capture this outlook into a form of art.  This has lead to less prolific output, and a finicky motivation.  It has also increased my desire to attain the kind of attitude from which I work best.

Most of the pieces begin without a preconceived design.  I let the stone guide my hands; tending toward hesitations, never forcing any movements.  I have noticed that certain stones tend to encourage similar designs.  Every time I work with Amethyst the patterns lean toward ornate flourishes, whereas Tibetan black quartz usually comes out much more minimal.

While I appreciate "new age" books on stones and their "metaphysical properties," speculating on the healing potential of crystals is somewhere on my outskirts.  More than playing the role of healer, I see myself as a gatherer of power, offering it freely to those who are ready to carry new hope.  That being said, pride is a delicate subject for the men of North America.  Our fathers wear discount golf shirts, sensible pants and shuffle around their wood shops in well worn boat shoes.  The fashion genre of anti-fashion.  This is the individual who "doesn't wear jewelry." 

However, fashion has always contained an antithetical element within it which is usually at risk of been too odd and misunderstood or, on the other end, too trendy.  Beyond this infinite cycle of the "consumer," I think, awaits personal meaning.  That is to say, the particulars of one's dress are the touchstones, the sign posts that remind and mark the paths that lead to fuller understanding.  To adorn oneself in public is to have somehow acquired the confidence to do so.  There is a kind of permission for high dress.  In an ideal society individuality takes the place of simple identifications with genres (the surfer, the punk, the literary genius, the carpenter).

The challenges I now face and have struggled with since I began to create art have to do with the day to day interactions in business.  I beleive that the future of Canada has a lot to do with our ability to produce objects of worth out of raw materials.  Here in BC, we shipped a lot of wood overseas (to Japan) and didn't quite learn to create artifacts of the high skill level we find sold cheaply in our secondhand stores.  I am thinking about those hand carved bowls from Indonesia you can buy for a couple bucks at the salvation army.  When we the colonizers drop our financial hangups about whether "there's money in it," we get a chance to join the rest of the world cultures in telling our stories in priceless forms.  This, more than having an ideal household situation (a cabin in the woods, or a condo downtown) is what I see as the path that can glimpse a future for all of us a thousand years off - infinite work that brings us closer, not farther from nature."

Homemade Castle

The video above is of Valhalla Castle that was constructed by Ron Hall in New Milford, Pa., Susquehanna County. Ron started in 1978 and finished by 2006. About 125 tons of locally sourced  stone was used to build the Castle. Visitors are welcome. You can find it along route 848 in New Milford Township. it has a footprint of about 1450 sqft and reaches as high as 36 feet tall. There are three towers and of course a moat.

Dry Stone Walls - Ryan Stananought a.k.a Page Turner

 

My friend Ryan Stananought who is also a dry stone waller, who is also a singer songwriter, wrote this great ode to dry stone wallers the other day. Recorded live from 'In the truck' studios, click the above link and have a listen.

Quiet Nature

Quiet Nature is a great Landscaping company based out of Ayr On. They are a leader in the field of sustainable environmentally conscious landscapes. I've been lucky to take part and collaborate with QN over the last couple seasons on some really great projects. This past weekend I helped build a couple small seating walls For their booth at the KW home and garden show. We used some random materials found at their shop to show that any old pile of stone on your property can be transformed into a beautiful dry stone feature.  When visiting the show, it was almost like being transported to Cottage country when I stopped by the booth to chat with owner Derek Lippert. Please take a moment to visit their site (quietnature.ca) and see some of their award winning landscapes and don't forget to click the video above to learn about QN's amazing natural swim ponds. 

How the Arch Got It's Shape

This is a great little short film that talks about the strength in the shape of a catenary arch. The catenary arch is a representation of the gravity pulling down a length of chain between 2 points, flipped upside down. The geometry of the catenary arch is all around us in our modern construction and considered to be the strongest of all arch shapes. It is also a well recognized shape with the Gateway arch in St. Louis as well as the famous 'golden arches' of McDonalds.

Dry Stone Structures - Bengan Jonasson

Above is a great original song called 'Dry Stone Structures', from Swedish bass player Bengan Jonasson. He's playing an interesting instrument called a 'Chapman Stick'. It's part of the guitar family, but has 10 or 12 individually tuned strings that are usually played by 'finger tapping'.

Wassiac, NY

I found the photo above in a recent search on heritage dry stone structures in North America. The two structures above are charcoal kilns built in 1825 found along the Iron Heritage Trail near Wassiac, NY. Im not sure if they are dry laid but they are impressive still. A great example of corbelling roof structures and are a very similar structure to some dwellings found all over Europe. The purpose of the stone kilns were to replace a less efficient earth pit fire in creating the coal. These huts were introduced by Noah Gridley to produce coal at a more efficient rate for the Gridley Iron Furnace. Another pin point on the map to visit! watch the video below to see a quick tour of the kilns.

Arch Enemies

A friend of mine sent this to me. I thought it was pretty clever.

Stephen Kettle

Stacked slate statue of Alan Turing, 'The father of Computer Science' by Stephen Kettle

Stephen Kettle is an artist from the UK who stacks pieces of slate to create these hyper 'accurate' sculptures. His statue of R.J. Mitchel is the worlds first stacked statue and stands at the Science Museum in London. Please treat yourself to a click on his webpage and look through his gallery, it's just one amazing piece after another. Also in the video below you can see Stephen give a short Tedx talk, telling his story about how he fell into sculpting.

Dry Stone Courses

Dry Stone walling weekend courses are a great way to get together with a bunch of people and have a good time learning the basics of building a wall. I have had the opportunity over the past few years to instruct some of these courses and have taken part in multiple other ones.  There is always such a diverse group taking part from all walks of life. These hands on courses are held during the building season through private organizations and craft associations. It's a great way to meet some new people and learn the ancient craft of dry stone walling. The Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada has a couple great courses annually that people should try and take part in. What separates these courses from the others, is that you get to work on rebuilding sections of heritage walls. The Friends of Ferris provincial park put on a great course in conjunction with the DSWAC where you get to restore a section of 100 year old wall! There is close to 6km of wall in the park and some still in great shape. Please click the Friends of Ferris link to see the slideshow of last years course. I've had the great opportunity to instruct this course over the past couple years. I'm actually from the Northumberland area originally and used to hike the trails when I was in highschool. It was nice to be able to give back to the park in helping restore the walls to their former glory.

I'll be offering a special stone marker course this year in the Guelph area so please stay tuned for more info as we hammer out the details on that.  I can say that the weekend event will be focused on 'Mindfulness and Stone' and will have a guided meditation and talk by a Buddhist practitioner about the connection we have with stone. The second part will be the construction of a stone marker using the 'mindful' practices along with the basic building techniques of dry stone construction. I think this up coming season is going to be an exciting one!  

Dany the stone mason

"The most important thing is to good work in a beautiful place"

This is a great two part video series about Dany, a master stone mason in the Vaucluse, France. The first video shows some beautiful dry stone work that Dany has done, as well as some stone shaping techniques using simple tools.

In the second video you see a great example of the stone paving that is done locally. I really like the stone paving, it's a great way to use up stone and another great example to set your patio or walk way apart from the standard prefabricated paving bricks. I cant count how many times I have watched this, but it's a lot.

Amherst Island Dry Stone Fest 2015

 

This section of wall in the pic above is of a course I taught last year on Amherst Island, as a fist step in creating a connection between the Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada and the people of Amherst Island. It was a great weekend with a really enthusiastic group. The first day was a miserable day weather wise with rain but the group didn't skip a beat and pushed on unphased. This year there is a huge event going on in September which sounds like its going to be a good time with some interesting walling stuff going on. Please read the statement from the website below describing the upcoming event.

2015 Dry Stone Festival!September 25 - 27th on Amherst Island in Lake Ontario 2015 Dry Stone Festival!

This year we are collaborating with the Dry Stone Walling Association of Ireland to celebrate and commemorate Canada’s rich Irish cultural heritage. Amherst Island has one of Canada’s largest concentration of historic dry stone walls, some close to 200 years old, most built by original settlers from Ireland. Efforts are underway to have the site designated as a National Historic Site due to the significance of these cultural heritage structures. There will be a 2-day workshop on dry stone wall construction featuring various Irish dry stone wall techniques that will be incorporated into one permanent new wall.The wall will represent a wall that originally ran from the Village of Stella to the Village of Emerald on Amherst Island. The finished wall will include a time capsule installed by the Ambassador to Canada from Ireland, Ambassador Ray Bassett. We know you will fall in love with this Island, its history and connections to Ireland. This event is completely open to the public. We look forward to you joining us in this celebration.

The Old Dry Stone Wall

This is a great little film and poem I recently found by Ann Perrin. I like how she talks about how all of the local insects and animals use the wall. Its a neat little example showing how a dry stone wall can become it's own functioning ecosystem that works with nature.

Dodekalitten

"DODEKALITTEN" is a circle of 12 singing megaliths overlooking the sea. The musical sculpture project at Glentehøj, Lolland, is being created by sculptor Thomas Kadziola and composer Gunner Møller Pedersen.

The sculpture is a tribute to the ancestors of Lolland (fourth largest island in Denmark), the people who gave the island it's name. With the sculpture being a sound instillation as well, the circle will actually 'sing'. There is a song that was composed especially for the sculpture, that will play from the stones at intervals every day, all year around.

The series of videos are in Danish.  The first one of the series (above) is pretty neat. It's amazing what a drill, some shims, wedges and a hand mallet can accomplish.

Artist's Bracket

The Artists bracket is a polypore mushroom that grows on hardwood. It is part of the Ganoderma family which is related to the famous 'Reishi or Ling zhi' polypore mushroom that has been used in Chinese medicine for over 4000 years.  Like the other mushrooms in the Ganoderma family, the Artists Bracket is used by some for medicinal tea as it has positive effects on the fight against certain cancers and other health issues. The tea is bitter and not very pleasing to drink so another great use is using it to sketch on. The underside of the mushroom has a white bottom that when etched into with a metal pin or sharp tool stains brown. A lot of people tend to draw nature-scapes or wildlife, I of course had to sketch an old wall. This was a great specimen to find as it is almost 18" long. Keep an eye out for these if you like to sketch and draw while on your next nature hike. The characteristics of this mushroom aren't hard to miss. It's great fun and just another way to connect with nature.

Art vs Craft

I know some of the dry stone traditionalists out there don't really like being called artists and would rather be known as craftsmen, but I think the line is blurred and it's not cut and dry. Maybe just building a wall isn't considered 'fine art' by some, but I think its just misunderstood. No matter the geology that is popping out of the ground, a builder with a skilled hand in the 'craft' of dry stone walling would be able to create a strong and true structure. Some may think 'a wall isn't art', it's just a wall', but some may think the same way towards a clay bowl. A wall is a one of a kind sculpture that was built by an 'Artist' or 'Artisan' (another word they don't like). No 2 stones are the same but a wall with tight fitting contact, consistency in line, structure and strength will always come out in the end. That takes a creative mind to be able to do that well and I think the traditionalists are going to have to start facing reality and accept that you are all artists working within the craft of dry stone walling.

Bob the 'Dry stone wall' Builder

A great little feature on the kids show Bob the Builder

"Can he fix it???? yes he can"...

Swiss Construction

 

In the Swiss Alps along trails, railways, and roads, there are these huge dry stone walls that were built to block and support the forces from an avalanche. The stones are massive and you can see all of the through-stones poking through both sides. The dry stone construction techniques are still the same, but just at a larger scale.

    

The picture above shows Master Craftsman Norman Haddow and Swiss waller Dieter Schneider standing next to the same wall for scale. I 'eye-balled' a quick estimate of quantity of stone per linear foot from the pic to see what kind of mass is there. I came up with ballpark 6 tons of solid stone construction per linear foot. That's a good chunk of mass that should help in protecting the the established infrastructure throughout the Alps.

When looking at the batter of this retaining wall above, it looks to have the same 'swooping' batter that is similar to the style in Japan. I'm sure the scaffold and hoisting setup would of been pretty intense to be working around, hanging on the side of a mountain.

Another place I'll have to visit.

The face of the stone

Any and every stone has a good 'face' that you want to show on the wall when you're building. Sometimes it takes a few flips and turns of the stone or a trim with a hammer to get it to show. But all stones have a good face. There are days on the wall when you look at your stone pile and your eye is drawn directly to the stone you need next. It's like it jumps out at you. I think the sculptor Emmanuel Augier wasn't having difficulties seeing the 'face' in the stones for this piece. This sculpture sits at the entrance to a public park in Levens, France. Something I'll have to go see next time I travel to France.

Dry Stone Bar

You don't always have to have a wall if you want some dry stone work on your property.  Something as simple as this dry stone bar that I built a couple of years ago for Quiet Nature, can really set off your landscape and become a real prominent feature. It was part of a whole back yard make over that included a natural swim lounge along with the dry stone bar. I used 3 different types of limestone and built in a couple niches for potted plants and such. It was a fun project to be apart of.

Mathew Simmonds

 

I just came across the work of Mathew Simmonds who is a stone carver and sculptor from the UK. He combines his background in art and cathedral restoration into these stunning pieces of work. I really like his way of using the natural shape of the stone to create openings for light. His use of light and shadow really creates a real sense of space. Take the time to look through his portfolio, some pretty amazing stuff in there.

Dewar's True Story

I'm not usually one for advertisements, but this one is pretty good...

Block Party

With winter set in and time between jobs, I'm at home a lot more which gives me a chance to have some fun family time. While building wooden block towers with my 2 year old daughter, I started thinking about ways to push the construction of the castles with the block selection that was on hand. During her afternoon nap, I couldn't resist in attempting an 'extreme' wood block corbel, over an 18" span. I know the ridiculousness of doing something like this, but the picture makes me laugh. My daughter definitely brings out the kid in me.

Kingston Rebuild

In October of 2008 I was on a drive and came accross an 80 year old limestone wall that was in really bad shape. It was imploding into itself with the foundations spreading from roots and the section that was along the road side had toppled over. Passer-by's were starting to poach some of the fallen material that had fallen into the ditch and I felt I could help the homeowner bring it back to its previous glory.

I went up to the house, knocked on the door and handed them a card. I explained what I did and gave them a rough estimate. A couple days later I got the call to come and fix the wall! It was my first solo project since starting my business and I felt pretty lucky to have a 50' free-standing wall to build with a square pillar.

I moved the the wall away from it's original wall line as it was going down into the ditch where the stone thieves were pretty relentless. I kept the original shape with the curve at about half way and added the vertical coping for strength.

Being an old wall in Kingston, the local Kingston Limestone was the stone that the wall was built with. I love the look of this stone and how nice it was to work with. The original wall was made up of left over stone from the blasting that was done on the property to build the old stone house.

When rebuilding old walls more material is usually needed for hearting and some face stones. Luckily being in Kingston where stone is literally popping out of the ground, I was able to go into the forest on the property and hand pick any of the added materials i needed.

This wall will always be my favorite wall that I've worked on. Even though my craftsmanship has improved 10 fold since then, I still like to see my beginnings as a waller. I cant help myself that every time I am in the Kingston area I take a drive out to see the wall and how its aged. A friend of mine sends me pics every year. The pics above were from this past summer of 2014.

What is a Dry Stone Waller??

Stop!

Stop if you're about to pour gravel into a dry stone wall. Gravel is a horrible idea for filling a dry stone wall. You may think you're saving time and money but your wall will look like this picture above within a few years. If you have had a contractor claiming they can build you a properly constructed dry stone wall, ask what they use for wall material. If they mention filling with gravel, run away and find your local professional dry stone specialist.

If your existing wall that was constructed with gravel instead of using the proper construction techniques is bulging out like this, it needs to be repaired. If its a newer construction and it's already looking like this, it's not 'rustic', its a future costly disaster. 

One of the most common misconceptions with dry stone walling is that because there is the absence of mortar, you can just stack away with no rhyme or reason, backfill with gravel between the stones and call it a day. A dry stone wall, especially a dry stone retaining wall, is an arrangement of stone that creates a solid interlocking mass, that in theory should stand for a century. You achieve this by following building techniques that have been proven to be superior for thousands of years. Bringing in an old craft like dry stone walling into the modern landscape, there is a lot of educating involved. It's not part of our heritage here in Canada like it is in other parts of the world, where walls dominate the landscape. So it's new to a lot of people, and wallers like myself take the time to inform people on the importance of proper technique.

 

The above picture is one of the tallest walls I've had the pleasure of working on. The back retaining wall was almost 11' tall when finished. You can see the interior construction of the shorter 8' retaining wall. You can see that even though its a retaining wall, where you only see the front face of the wall, its still a double face construction (for any scale of wall). All of that stone, including the center rubble or 'hearting' material, is methodically hand placed keeping structure in mind. It is at the utmost importance when you are considering dry stone construction, to protect your investment and have a professional dry stone specialist build for you. Its our passion as craftsmen to build high quality structures to the best of our abilities and we could always use your support in our battle against the modern obsession with filling walls with gravel and glues. 

 

Kids Toy

Last winter I bought a penny whistle to help overcome the onset of Cabin Fever. I wanted to learn a traditional Irish penny whistle song and thought of the Irish Washerwoman. I've been 'practicing' on and off for the last year and I think I've got it up to speed!

When I bought the penny whistle, I went into it with low expectations on the capabilities of a 'kids toy'. I mostly bought it to play little kids melodies for my daughter. After sitting down and playing with it you find its a pretty versatile little pocket instrument. With my jazz background in trumpet I started to discover that you could play and improvise on some standards.

After a little research I found the video below with Les Lieber playing a jazz version of 'It Had To Be You'. Seeing this video again is enough to keep the whistle laying around for another year.

Dry Stone Seating

A dry stone seating area or bench is a great addition to any Landscape. I think if you're looking to have some dry stone work done on your property but budget may be a concern, think about a seating area or a bench. Design can accommodate budget and you'll still have a custom piece of decorative stone work on your property.

Above is a great piece of walling by Scottish waller Jason Hoffman. Jason has some great examples of dry stone seating on his website Stone Inspired. Be sure to look through the rest of his portfolio to see a great variety of work, using various types of stone and building styles.

Great Zimbabwe

Another one of my 'bucket list' destinations would be to visit the ruin city Great Zimbabwe. It was the capital of the kingdom of Zimbabwe during the late Iron age. The structures here are some of the oldest structures built in South Africa. Built using dry stone construction, some of the walls reach over 11 meters high. the city had at one point 18,000 occupants and was a large center for trade at the time.

 

The stone here is a granite which is really hard, and it's pretty amazing to see the effort that was made using basic tools to shape the blocks for the walls. The stonework here is beautifully coursed and is another great example on the argument between which is stronger, coursed stone work or random. In the picture above, you can see the chevron pattern at the top, which to me is a great example of how a small detail like that can elevate a coursed wall to another level of creative craftsmanship. There are some other great details throughout the ruins that are a fine example of the builders creative expression.

 

 The craftsmanship of the structures here is absolutely top notch.  Unfortunately the some of the structures have fallen into ruin and some where destroyed by 'Archaeologists' and 'Antiquarians'  excavating and taking any remaining gold and artifacts they could find over the last century. There were attempts in the 80's to reconstruct some of the damage, but they ended up doing more damage in the end. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site so hopefully no one can go in and start tearing things apart anymore. 

You can see in the photo below the importance of mass when building to such a large scale. All of the stone, including the center 'hearting' materials were methodically placed with structure in mind. There would be no way this beautiful stone work would be still around if they were just dumping gravel. The whole gravel issue is going to have to be its own post at some point soon.

DSWAGB Certification

In 2009 at a dry stone festival that was held in Grand Valley Ontario by the Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada, I tested for my level 2 (intermediate) certification through the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain. I had to strip out and rebuild a section of free standing wall with a proper 'wall end' in a days work. All this while being watched and marked by 2 examiners. I passed that day, becoming the 4th Canadian to achieve this level of certification.

Pushing for certification is a personal thing to me. Being a goal orientated person, I have always wanted to push myself to achieve my Master Craftsman (level 4) cert through the DSWAGB ever since I heard it existed. I like the fact that it gives you something to strive for and also one of the most valuable parts is having your work assessed by 2 Masters who give you constructive feedback to help you improve as a craftsman.  

There are a few schemes out there in the world of dry stone walling that people have the option to go through. The DSWAGB's scheme is the most recognized scheme known world wide for good reason. It's been around the longest and has been the base for other schemes to work off of using DSWAGB masters to help get established. I'm currently working through both the DSWAGB's scheme as well as the DSC's scheme in Kentucky.

In 2013, I went through for my Advanced certification(level 3) and passed becoming the 3rd Canadian (second in Ontario) to reach this level with the DSWAGB. This test was a lot more intense than anything Ive done before in the craft. There are 2 parts to this test. Part A, an un-timed section that involes building 2 of 4 specific features with one feature being a mandatory curve section.

My Part A test wall

The second section (Part B) is a tear down and rebuild of 54 sqft of existing retaining wall in a day. The examiners found a section of retaining wall for me to do my test on near the DSWAC festival that year in Alton Ontario. It was an existing feildstone retaining wall built from stone off of the property 40 years prior to the festival. The Scottish homeowner has been working away for years building a good amount of retaining walls and features, using stone from in and around the property.  The home owner, an artist and wood turner, Barry young, was very kind to let me take down his work and have a hand in the walls on his property.

 

Before

The day before my test I went into the nearby forest and hand picked some added materials that I needed to make sure I built a strong wall with the proper mass to hold back the bank. Using fieldstone was a touch out of my element at the time as I didn't have a huge amount of experience in using it. But it was the local material and the philosophy that I follow is, 'it's not the stone but the skill of the waller'. A true dry stone craftsman should be able to build with whatever material is thrown their way, match the existing local style, and create a seamless repair.

On the day of the timed test, it poured rain about 90% of the time and the site became a pretty muddy place to work. Once I started stripping out the old wall, I had to deal with the unstable bank behind that kept collapsing in and leaving a good deal of soil that needed to be dug out from the foundation. I had to deal with roots and used a pry-bar to dislodge some boulders from the base that Canada had a good grip on. Once strip-out was finished and marked, I was off to start constructing the retaining wall in the time remaining.  It was a gruling day but I just put my head down and concentrated on the center of the wall, making it as strong as I could.

 After

 I succeeded in passing my cert and am proud of the work I put into this test. There are options to take this level of certification at testing sites, where there are prefabricated walls for you to strip out and rebuild, but I feel what I did that day really honored the test to it's fullest. I was put into a 'real world' walling scenario, using local stone that came straight out of the ground, matching the existing style and building a strong section of wall. This all in a days work while being under the pressure of being watched and marked by 2 examiners. 

:)

This upcoming year Im considering starting my features for my Masters cert and will keep anyone out there who is following posted.