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"...