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.