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Feile na gCloch (Festival of Stone) 2012 Inis Oírr Island

October 6, 2012, 7:22 am
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On the fourth weekend of September I once again headed off to Inis Oirr (Inisheer) on the Aran Islands for this year's Feile na gCloch (Festival of Stone). 
The festival is organised and run by the country's most knowledgeable and experienced drystone waller, Patrick McAfee, in conjunction with the wonderful Marie Mannion, Heritage Officer of Galway County Council and Paddy Crowe, manager of the Inis Oirr Cooperative.  
Group photo courtesy of Karl Kennedy 
Every year this event seems to get bigger and bigger, as does the list of international experts and speakers at the event. This year saw John Shaw-Rimmington of Dry Stone Walls Across Canada, Tomas Lipps of the Stone Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Alexandra Morosco of Stonefest, Seattle, and Scott Hackney of Marenakos Stone, Seattle and co-director of Stonefest share their knowledge as well as giving inspirational presentations on some of the amazing things happening with stone in many different parts of the world.  

There were many other international people in attendance at the stone festival, including people from France, Switzerland, Australia, Netherlands, Ukraine, England ,Finland and the USA. 
Also in attendance was seven of the eight person committee of the Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland (Ken Curran, Sunny Wieler, Tom Pollard, Alex Panteleyenko, Rory Noone, Noel O'Shaughnassey and Francis Coady) who briefly explained their plans and aspirations for the association, which was met with a positive response. The eight member of the committee (Malachy Sheehan) was unable to attend this years Feile.   
This years build was a large vertical stitch retaining wall (at least 150 tonnes)up to 12 feet (3.6Metres) high on one end. This wall style was traditional to the island, and the most effective method of building retaining walls.


Looking down at the retaining wall it is very easy to see why drystone retaining walls don't need any drainage pipes or gravel, as the entire structure is free draining (one of the many benefits of building in the dry stone method) 
Because of the large number of participants this year,  Nick Aitken and George Gunn, both well seasoned wallers and instructors from Scotland, very kindly took separate groups of people to train at walls beside the cooperative and near the harbour. 
After three days of building one massive new retaining wall was completed, two free standing walls were rebuilt and a large quantity of Guinness and soup were consumed. But most importantly, new friendships were made, and the passion and respect for the traditional craft of dry stone walling continued to grow and be cared for in this country.    
One of my favourite things to do when out on the island is to go off on a solitary wander, either early in the morning or late in the evening, to enjoy the spectacular scenery as well as the abundance of outstanding drystone walls the island has to offer..  
St.Gobnait church 'Cill Ghobnait' one of my two favourite buildings on the island (the second being Tigh Ned's pub)

Old stone cairns

traditional stone gate


Like all the other regular attendants of Feile na gCloch, I am already looking forward to next years Feile. If you would like to see my post on last years event click here. I also recommend checking out Louise Price of Limewinow's blog post on this years event. If you would like to keep up to date with Dry stone walling in Ireland or wish to find out about next years event, check out The Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland web page http://dswaireland.ning.com/ and feel free to sign up as a member too.

And finally     

Sorry for my absence from my blog over the past few months. I have been very busy working on my new big Stone Art project. I will share more about this when I have it completed. I still have plenty of interesting things to write about and will try to get posting more often again.  

Busy working with stone instead of my computer







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Happy New Year and reflecting back on 2012

January 6, 2013, 2:14 pm
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Detail from the 'Family Tree' mosaic I am working on for an outdoor classroom
Happy New Year everyone. I feel the need to write a new blog post as I have been neglecting to do so over the past six months or so. Looking back at 2012 it has been a mixed year. While battling our way though a severe recession I reflected on some of the positives of 2012.

Although I had a long and quiet winter and spring, 2012 did bring along a few projects that I am very happy with. I did get to make a stone mosaic panel that I had been wanting to make for some time. My mind is full of many, many ideas. Some just plain crazy, some incredibly ambitious and some that just require an enthusiastic client to make them become a reality.
Fortunately I got one of these enthusiastic clients this year that let me create this mosaic panel as a focal point in a garden makeover I was doing for him at the time.
Gerry's Town Garden. More photos of this garden here
For this panel I used some Golden brown Quartzite from Co. Donegal that I had left over from building the garden, with some Liscannor sandstone from Co. Clare I had laying around in the studio. These two stones make a striking contrast to each other and the mirror reflects fragmented colours and light from around the garden.   
Natural stone mosaic in Gerry's Town Garden. More photos of this garden here
In early 2012 I also took in the position on Chairman of The Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland and although this has taken up much of my free time (time usually spent writing blog posts) it has been great working with like minded people that share a passion for stone and Ireland's rich stone heritage.
One of Ireland's stunning dry stone walls. 
Working on a section of dry stone wall at the Liscannor quarry with members of the DSWAI, more about this here 
During the summer I was asked by friend and fellow DSWAI member Tom Pollard to help with a public art project he had organised at Electric Picnic, the country's premium music and arts festival. 
Dry-stone public art project at Electric Picnic 
Tom had devised a sculpture that would only use materials that could be salvaged from the grounds of the estate that the festival is held on and also show off the craft of dry-stone construction. The cantilevered seats made the piece interactive and gave people the opportunity to take a rest.
The team. DSWAI members Tom Pollard, Alex Panteleyenko, Sunny Wieler and Julia Gebel
The beautifully carved cap stone was carved by Julia from an old piece of cut stone that lay on the ground not 10m from where it now sits. 
  The rest of the structure was built from reclaimed limestone and slates from the roof of the estate that had recently been replaced. Even the timber for the seats came from a damaged tree that was cut down on the estate the year before.

2012 also saw some of my stone projects included in a internationally distributed book on stone features. I was honoured to be featured alongside many wonderful stone artists from around the globe.

2012 also saw me return to the Aran Islands for another Feile na gCloch (Festival of Stone), a wonderful weekend of Stone, Stout and banter among fellow wallers and stone enthusiasts. This is a weekend I thoroughly recommend and one I will look forward to returning to next September. More about this event in my blog post here
Feile na gCloch 2012
The rest of 2012 has been taken up working on a wonderful outdoor classroom I am building for a school in Dublin. This is still very much under construction but I will share more about this with you all once it has been completed. For now I will leave you with a sneak preview of the classroom as it looks now from one of the two entrances.
Under construction. Outdoor classroom for a school near Dublin.
 Wishing you all much success and happiness in 2013. Regards, Sunny Wieler
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Can tradespeople be artists? Lets ask Johnny Clasper.

January 22, 2013, 2:35 pm
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Stone mosaic by Johnny Clasper
Can tradespeople be artists?
An interesting question which is being explored by a new Irish series on TG4 at the moment called 'Dullamullóg'


Launched last Sunday 13th January, the show follows six tradespeople who take on the challenge of creating a piece of critically acclaimed art.
Each tradesperson is paired up with a professional artist who helps them with their work. The final piece is then put in amongst professional art works which are all scrutinised by art critic Ciaran Bennett who then has to decide which piece is made by the tradesperson.

Art Critic Ciaran Bennet
The show features renowned Irish artists Cliodna Cussen, Peadar Lamb and Turner nominated Liam de Frinse. The first episode follows Eamonn O'Neill, a Tree Surgeon from Shankill, Co. Dublin paired with professional sculptor Séighean Ó'Draoi.
Episode two pairs plasterer and bricky Gearóid Ó Ceannabhái, from Dublin, with the great Irish stone sculptor Cliodna Cussen.

Bricky Gearoid on the show.
An interesting show, worth checking out. Screens at 8.30pm on TG4. Repeated the following Tuesday at 11.30pm. The series will run for six weeks. Can also be played back on the TG4 websitewatch it here.
I will look forward to seeing the next episode. 


This show reminded me of a great tradesperson cum stone artist that I have been meaning to highlight for a while now.
This person being Johnny Clasper.

Artist Johnny Clasper sitting on front of one of his flowing stonework art pieces.
Before becoming obsessed with stone, Johnny started off as a bricky. In fact from an early age his weekends were spent working with his father (a builder) as a labourer on building sites. Johnny quickly got promoted from broom and wheelbarrow to trowel and hammer. Johnny said that something happened when he was handed that rusty old trowel and heavy split handled lump hammer in his hands, a magic feeling inside. "With these tools I can build (a feeling I still get today when I pick up certain tools). A short while after I saved up and bought myself some decent tools. I was one proud 16 year old lad!"
Detail from another stone mosaic by Jonny Clasper
A fast learner and keen to learn anything he could, Johnny put himself into college to study brickwork "At last something I really wanted to learn and really enjoyed doing".
Johnny became top of the class and earned the student of the year award 1997. "College taught me all about the modern ways of building while my time at work I learned many traditional techniques of laying stone, at the time I was always drawn to stone.. so many ways to lay it as opposed to bricks."

Stunning stone wall by Johnny Clasper. I do love this wall.
The next 5 years or so Johnny worked on many stone houses, extensions and barn conversions before going self employed. Years passed doing the same things, that is until he started to read up and practice drystone walling. 
"This changed everything, without the mortar separating the stone, i became more in-tune and aware of the stone, studying the grain, natural shape and textures, different results and finishes were possible, everything was now falling into place or was it?
it was always my dream and goal to build something that hadn't been done before, but everything seemed to have already been done by someone..
I had thoughts of somehow bringing stone to life but how?
a wall will always be a wall or will it?"
Drystone sculpture 'the seed' by Johnny Clasper
In 2010 Johnny decided to rent a small studio where he hoped to create something that wasn't bound by the rules of building or drystone walling “both seem to contradict each other”
He started by making a seed sculpture with leftover roof slate, the pinnacle moment and the start of his creative journey.
“But the seed sculpture wasn't quite what I had in mind” explains Johnny.“I wanted movement in the stone somehow”.
Johnny's stone scorpion sculpture
"I had an image of an attacking scorpion in my mind made with jagged stacked slate and polished black limestone, materials I had kept from previous jobs.
against all advice from my sculptor friends, family and my own instinct telling me not to do it, I decided to create the scorpion (or the illusion I saw in my mind)
the scorpion was an instant success and the door to my creative part of my mind blew wide open!"
Dry stone stream by Johnny Clasper
From here Johnny started experimenting with flow. “If stone can be brought to life maybe it could become fluidic and flow like water would?”.
"Any chance I got I would arrange pebbles or shards of slate into flowing patterns or drains, mimicking the flow of water spiralling away."
Johnny's swirly pebble path in the gold winning garden at the 2012 Harrogate Spring Flower Show  
Last year Johnny was involved in the construction of a gold awarded show garden at the 2012 Harrogate Spring Flower Show. Part of Johnny’s design brief was to lay a stone slab and pebble path. Most people, if not pretty much everybody else would have been content with pebbles neatly spread between the flagstones. But Johnny being Johnny felt compelled to spend what should have been a five minute job into a nine hour labour of love, transforming what (in my opinion) was otherwise a nice ordinary show garden into an extraordinary gold winning one.    
Johnny's wishing well
Johnny has lots more great work on his website www.johnnyclasper.co.uk but he is also a great man for the facebook so be sure to give his facebook page a like and keep up to date with all his work. 
More flowing pebbles by Johnny Clasper

Can tradespeople be artists? Hell yeah!
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The Family Tree Mosaic

February 5, 2013, 12:45 pm
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As part of the sculptural outdoor classroom that I am working on at the moment for a school here in Dublin, I was asked to incorporate a tree somewhere into the design to represent the 'Family Tree'. The 'Family Tree' is a song which has come to symbolise the 'Croí na Scoile' (The heart of the school).
I was also asked to give the students a chance to have some input into the outdoor classroom so that they can make it their own (a very important part of the process for sure) 


My solution to this was to create a large stone mosaic of the tree into the wall of the structure and to then let the students paint the leaves of the tree on precut tiles.
Past pupils, staff, board and PTA members (past and present) received a leaf to design and paint.
Almost 100 leaf tiles were painted as well as another 70 square tiles that make up the border around the mosaic.
It was great to spend some time in the classroom with students and see the excitement about creating their very own piece of art that will remain part of the outdoor classroom for years to come.

Painting the leaf tiles in class

The finished leaf tiles painted by the students


Many many hours went into the making of the stone part of the mosaic, far more than anyone will ever know, but now that it is finished I know that it was all worth it. 
The roots of the tree

The border tiles that surround the mosaic spell out 'All different all equal' as well as its Irish translation 'Gach duine atá difriúil ach freisin cothrom'  
There is still lots to do before the outdoor classroom is complete with lots more exciting features and student involvement also, so I will get back to work now, and will post more about the outdoor classroom once it is completed.

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An invatation to The Gathering of Stones

February 10, 2013, 3:36 pm
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For the past number of months The Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland in collaboration with The International Stone Foundation have been working hard behind the scenes on creating a big dry stone walling event to join in the nation wide celebrations of The Gathering Ireland 2013 that is running throughout the year.

The Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland (DSWAI) and the Stone Foundation based in the USA have come together with a vision to invite this international community ‘home’ for a Gathering of Stones in the geographical centre of Ireland. In association with Bord na Mona, The Gathering of Stones will be an event where wallers and masons from all over the world as well as people with an interest in Irish dry stone walls will come together. Under the instruction and guidance of the DSWAI they will build an attractive communal stone installation that will act as a permanent monument to all events and gatherings that will take place during The Gathering 2013.

Set in the grounds of the beautiful Lough Boora Parklands in County Offaly, the event will take place over the course of four days, during which we will build our dry stone gathering point.
All four provinces in Ireland will be represented in the sculpture by using a particular stone type and style from each province.
Bring a stone home to Lough Boora
 Attendees are invited to “Bring a stone home to Lough Boora. These stones will be incorporated into the final installation. You are welcome to bring a rock, but a pebble will be more practical, something that will fit in your pocket will do just fine. A few larger rocks will also be making the trip to Ireland. A small number of granite blocks from the old Immigrant Docks near Battery Park in New York have been offered to the project. Millions of emigrants walked over these stones after registering at Ellis Island, including nearly everyone from Ireland during the famine years and after.  RJW–Gem Campbell Stonemasons Inc. in Canada who have obtained these blocks have offered to donate a number of these to be incorporated into the sculpture.



Please come and joins us for this unique celebration of Irish dry stone heritage.
For more information log onto the DSWAI website http://dswaireland.ning.com
Bookings for this event as well as a detailed information pack for people planning on joining us for this event will be available on the DSWAI website within the next week so be sure to book your spot quick before the event fills up. 

Very excited about this event. Look forward to seeing some of you there. 
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Miniature stoneworks. Giants amongst pebbles.

March 19, 2013, 12:47 am
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'The inner circle' by land artist Jaime Filipe
Miniature stoneworks may look like the real deal close up, but they are in fact far more complicated to build and also cannot withstand the same abuse as large scale stonework. In general stonework can take a lot of abuse , only really taking damage by human error when being hit by a vehicle or if poorly built. Miniature stoneworks are a lot more fragile, a dangling sleeve,a strong gust of wind or even  placing a stone with too much conviction can bring the whole thing crumbling down. This is why I think I will stick to the big stuff and leave the miniature stuff to the real pros,
Below are a few examples of some great miniature stoneworks and a bit about a few of the artists as well.

American environmental artist Sally J. Smith builds these wonderful fairy houses below, and shares with me a little about her stone fairy houses.
 Emerald Mossy Fairy House by artist Sally J. Smith
The Emerald Mossy Fairy House was a relatively large construction built on a woodlands trail. It took a week to build... 2 of those days were spent gathering the stones and bringing them in to the site. The large mossy boulder-cliff already looked like a house in Sally's eyes..."it just needed a little encouraging to bring it out!" A Weeping Willow twig branch was twisted and woven to make the large window. A shelf fungus was found nearby and used as an awning to protect the entrance-way. A small dormer room was added later. The stone walling portion is approx 30 inches high.
Building sequence of Emerald Mossy Fairy House
Side view of Emerald Mossy Fairy House
Riverstone tower by  Sally J. Smith 
This was one of  Sally's first stone sculptures. Finding all different colours of stone  along the river, Sally  tried to graduate the shading as she built the tower up from a very special pothole which was now exposed along the bank due to the low water of mid-summer. "The tower took many pleasant days to build. I found a few very special stones that looked like fanciful gargoyles so I saved them to line the access bridge". Moss was brought in as were some ferns and wildflowers. The house had a special visitor one day...can you spot it? The tower was enjoyed by a lot of people who saw it. "After it had been up for about 2 weeks, we had a flash flood. I rushed to the river and took one final image because I knew the river was going to flood over night. I came back the next morning and it was all down and deep underwater. A week later I came back to a pothole full of small stones. I cleared out the shards and distributed them along the banks....grateful for the experience"

Detail of riverstone tower
Rock Garden Stone Cottage by  Sally J. Smith
"A sweet little Stone cottage to grace a rock garden. When I made it I had installed one window design, but eventually I figured out how to bend a Weeping Willow branch into a Celtic-styled window so I installed that one instead. A grey slate heart made by the wave actions of the nearby lake forms the back of the wee stone bench in the Faerie-sized garden out back. The "Standing Stone" is an homage to Scotland and the lovely stones I was able to meet on my many trips there. The last photo is mainly for fun and to also give a sense of scale...sometimes it is hard to know what the scale is on these houses...that is part of the fun! This house lasted for several years. Eventually the weight of an especially snowy winter killed off the moss and a cat landing on the roof went thru the moss and the house was not repairable...so the stones are waiting in a basket for another day"
Door detail of  Rock Garden Stone Cottage
Rock Garden Stone Cottage with a cat thrown in for scale
The Shire House by Sally J. Smith
 The Shire House was built along a mountain stream. There was a trail nearby used by hikers and campers. The house took several days to complete. While it was under construction Sally left a small sign asking folks to please respect the artwork. One day Sally came to work and found a message written in pebbles under the mossy bank. ~"That was fun!" Several days later Sally returned to see how the house was doing....sadly, a wild animal had ripped it apart. "There were some VERY large canine tracks in the sandy beach...another message this time, not so nice. I suspect it was either a large wolf-coyote hybrid or just a hikers large dog. I took all the stones and put them back in the river and cleaned up the moss. It was sad to see it go but the river gives and takes all the time."
The Shire House with a message left by a fan.
The Shire House under construction
These fairy houses are only a small part of some of the gorgeous work Sally does so be sure to check out her website www.greenspiritarts.com to see some of her other work. She also takes commissions if you want a fairy house of your own or just order on of her lovely calenders that have prints of the ones she already has created.

UK based landscaper/ artist David Wood of Wood Landscapes has recently started making these wonderfully accurate miniature stonework. The detail in these is just astounding.
Miniature stone bridge by David Wood 
See more pictures of these as well as his latest works on his facebook page WoodLandscapes and while you are at it check out his other facebook page too Inspired.
The Miniature Barn by David Wood 
The Miniature Barn by David Wood

Slightly more abstract German land artist and stone balancer extraordinaire Volker Paul creates these unavailable miniature stoneworks. It is hard to even comprehend the hours and patience it must take to create these, as well as deal with all the failed attempts. 
Beautifully delicate land art by Volker Paul
Land art by Volker Paul
Land art by Volker Paul
Land art by Volker Paul
Land art by Volker Paul
If you are into stone balancing (see my post on stone balancing here) I highly recommend checking out some of his other work as he is one of the most impressive balancing artist I have ever come across. (I called him a balancing artist rather than a stone balancer as some of the things he balances are truly mind bending!) Photos of his work can be found on his facebook page here
Land art by Volker Paul
North Carolina based stonemason Michael Stephens custom builds these great little stone buildings for clients. Micheal began building miniature stone houses more than twenty years ago after visiting a miniature replica tourist attraction in Canada. Constructed dry-stack style with reinforced concrete, they are weather hardy and very durable. They can be used in a model railroad, terrarium, aquarium, fairy garden, miniature zen garden and in homes as a conversation piece or gardens for accent.
If you wish to see more of his work or wish to order your very own one you can contact him through his website http://stoneworkbystephens.com/miniatures
Miniature stoneworks by Michael Stephens

Miniature stoneworks by Michael Stephens

Miniature stoneworks by Michael Stephens

Miniature stoneworks by Michael Stephens
For the traditionalists out there I have come across many miniature drystone walls also. Many of these built by dry stone wallers trying to pass the time during long winter nights.

Dry Stone Wall built by Ashley Meadows. Photo curtsy of Rocking Walls.com
The stone wall above was spotted my Mark Jurus of Rocking Walls.  On his way back down from Vermont he stopped in to see his good friends from the DSC doing a workshop in PA. Mark spotted this great miniature Dry Stone Wall built by Ashley Meadows from KY. The size of this is about 5 inches high by 12 inches long.

Miniature stonewall landscape by David Wood
Miniature dry stone walls by artist/musician Tony Wright 
When not in his printing press or rocking it out with his Bradford based band Terrorvision Tony Wright makes these great little miniature dry stone walls, complete with traditional features.
Miniature dry stone walls by artist/musician Tony Wright 

Miniature dry stone walls by artist/musician Tony Wright 

Miniature dry stone wall by land artist  Ian Rennie. See more of his lovely land art in his flickr set here
I have even come across a miniature dry stone walling course. The Yorkshire Dry Stone Walling Academy in the UK offer a mini dry stone walling training course that is aimed a junior groups, such as Cubs and Scouts. The half day training courses show the attendees how to build a dry stone wall and using the specially prepared kits that allow each attendee to construct their own replica dry stone wall to take away using the same materials and principles of walling construction to produce a 1:24 replica of a dry stone wall. Find out more about these courses here. 
I thought that I could not end the post without representing some of Ireland's unique dry stone walls, so I had a go at building a few miniature walls of my own.
My first miniature wall is single stone wall common in Donegal and Down where large rocks are stacked and wedged together leaving large gaps between the stones.
The second wall I attempted was one of Ireland's iconic dry stone walls, a feidín wall, usually found in the Burren in Co. Clare and on the Aran Islands. A 'feidín wall' has the smaller stones on the bottom with the big stones on top. This type of wall is made up of a double sided wall on the bottom with a large single stone wall on top. The double sided wall at the bottom is often made up of a series of large upright stones called mother stones, that run the full depth of the wall. The space between them is built up with smaller stones known as daughter stones. The upper part of the wall is then built using large stones only a single stone wide. The result is a extremely strong wall with a dense base to shelter animals and protect the soil from the strong prevailing winds, while the cracks and holes in the top of the wall let wind filter through. The light that shines through the cracks makes the wall look unstable, deterring animals from jumping on it.
This wall is also quite difficult to build in miniature, the hardest part being trying to 'heart' the wall. (back pinning the stones in the centre of the wall) Thirsty work too. And anyone who has been to Feile na gCloch  will be able to tell you, you can't build a feidín wall with out a pint of Stout (or maybe that's just me)


Thanks to all the artists above for kindly giving me permission to share their photos with you. 
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The Gathering of Stones in the heart of Ireland

July 14, 2013, 8:40 am
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After months of anticipation, stones, masons and dry-stone enthusiasts from the four corners of Ireland as well as the rest of the world came to a head in the center of Ireland.  
June 20th 2013 marked the beginning of The Gathering of Stones.
Stories were shared, songs were sung (and written) and monuments were built.
  
Just like the cross marked the spot in the posters, the 'Emigrant Stones' mark the centre of our dry stone monument.

From the beginning.

Last summer after Feile na gCloch on Inis Oírr, Tomas Lipps, director of The Stone Foundation stayed with me while doing fieldwork for his publication Stonexus magazine. Over a few pints of the black stuff one night we discussed the possibility of the DSWAI and The Stone Foundation collaborating on a event in Ireland. At almost exactly the same time Nick Aitken of the DSWA in Scotland contacted the us suggesting that this being the year of The Gathering Ireland, we should build a monument in the center of Ireland to commemorate this in a way that also celebrates the craft we all love so much.
It was these early conversations that sowed the seeds for what would become 'The Gathering of Stones 2013'
The concept for our monument.
Our primary idea was to create a gathering point for people to congregate, a circle seemed the most appropriate shape to begin with.  
The bi-vallate  (twin walled) enclosure also reflects Ireland's built heritage.  The ringfort is the most common archaeological site to be seen in the Irish landscape. The status of a ring fort is not only evident by its diameter but more significantly through the number of rings it contains.  Therefore, a bi-vallate enclosure would often be the seat of the local lord or the central focal place for a network of ring forts which formed a community.
The outer wall symbolises the 4 provinces.  Thus the Island of Ireland and all its people, with its many varying ways and vernacular styles, forms a comforting embrace around the 5th province. That fifth province once had a physical existence here in the Iron Age and was known as Breifne.  However, the King of Breifne (Michael McMurtaigh) was driven from Ireland after attempting to unite the country under a single monarch.  In addition, in this structure the fifth province also represents the individual, creativity, imagination and the Diaspora.
The structure represents the country of Ireland and a welcome home to the people who left and never returned.  The outer walls embrace the creative mind, the millions of souls and talents who left our shores and spread their skills far and wide. 
It becomes entirely appropriate that the 'Emigrant Stones should be laid in cruciform shape at the centre of the sculpture embracing people from all corners of the world       


A crest for each province.

The monument includes the crest of the four provinces (60x 60cm). Four DSWAI members who are also stone carvers donated these carvings to the monument. 
Alex Panteleyenko working on the Ulster crest, with a bit of help from Christian Helling

Victor Daly's carving of the three crowns of Munster was carved in Valletta Slate. Alex's red hand of Ulster was carved in Donegal Sandstone. Julia's Harp of Leinster is carved in Tipperary blue limestone and the Connacht Crest of arms was carved by Christian in Liscannor sandstone.   
The four finished crests. (from left, Victor Daly (Munster), Alex Panteleyenko (Ulster), Julia Gebel (Leinster), Christian Helling (Connacht) 
To build a dry stone monument, you need a hell of a lot of stone!

The completed structure will consume an estimated 300 tonnes of stone. As you can imagine, the logistics of getting 300 tonnes of stone from the four corners of Ireland and beyond to our central location is no mean feat. Trying to do this without any funding seemed like an impossible task. After the crushing news that the review board for 'The Gathering' in County Offaly refused to pass our application to be funded as a 'Flagship event', the outlook for our event looked very bleak. However the DSWAI decided to take a leap of faith and call on the people of Ireland to help us make this event happen.

A call for stone was made, and the proud farmers and quarrymen of Ireland answered.

Thomas Egan, Rodger Degan, Mick Connelly and Padraig Larkin  (missing from  photo Don O’Boyle) collecting local Boora limestone donated to the project by  Joe Molloy. Photo Ken Curran. More about this stone here
Quarryman Brian Kerrigan & haulier Padraig Meehan loading Brian’s donation of a truckload of Drumkeelan stone from Donegal. Photo Louise Price. More about this in Louise's blog post here 
Stones from the four corners of the world.


As part of the event, attendees and the public were invited to bring a stone home to Lough Boora, to become part of the monument. It was wonderful to see how the public took to the project, bringing stones and stories with them. Many people have connections with stones and many of us have taken a stone with us from a place we have made a connection with, be it a pebble from a beach or a stone from a mountaintop. It is these connections with stones that made the whole event emotionally charged and it is only as these stones and stories began to collect on site that the importance of this monument really started to sink in with those building it.
Katherine with her stone from Coolanarney, Blueball, Co.Offaly. "Katherine – who brings a stone from her old home place, now a tumbled memory.  As a child she ploughed and thatched alongside her father, and carried stones to pile atop of walls of ancient fields.  It means everything – her stone" Photo and quote from Louise Price's blog Limewindow
    Stones from New York and Wales

There are also a number of historically significant stones have made long journeys over land and sea to be incorporated into the monument. The most poignant of all is the four 'Emigrant stones' from Battery Park in New York. For millions of emigrants, their first steps in the New World would have been onto these stones after registering at Ellis Island, including nearly everyone from Ireland during the famine years and after.  These stones seemed to really capture the public's imagination, with a constant stream of visitors throughout the four days having their photos taken standing on them.

These stones had a long journey, starting back in the early 1800's when they were quarried in various parts of New England to become part of the emigrant docks at Battery park that date back to the 1700's.
Removal of  the 'Emigrant stones' from Battery park in 2002
The arrival of the 'Emigrant Stones' from New York at Irish Shipping and Transport's depot in Dublin.
Read more about the arrival of the 'Emigrant Stones' here 
Here they lay on the rivers edge until their removal by RJW Campbell during the reconstruction of Battery Park in 2001. When the president of RJW Campbell, Bobby Watt  heard about the event, he immediately offered these stones to the project. Bobby, a Scottish stonemason and Stone Foundation Member based in Canada is also a fine songwriter and singer. In the video below he tells the story of the stones and also signs the poignant "Whispering Stones" a song he composed after being inspired by the event. This song brought a tear to many an eye when first played at "Stories and Stones" and again when reprised by Rónán Crehan at the conclusion of the 4 day event.


Stones from the DSWA UK Wales branch

Sean Adcock setting the Welsh
sleeper stone in the central feature. 
We were also lucky enough to have Sean Adcock join us for the event.  Sean is a DSWAUK master Dry Stone Waller and Secretary of the North Wales Branch of the DSWA. He has prolifically produced books and papers on the craft of dry stone waling and standards in the profession over the years. Sean is the editor of Stonechat magazine amongst many other contributions to the world of dry stone building. He also oversaw the building of the central feature over the course of the event. In the months leading up to the event Sean helped behind the scenes with working out the structural details of the inner structure.

The DSWA also wanted to donate a stone to the project, Sean was also involved in the organisation and transportation of two stones from Wales to Lough Boora.
Originally Sean was working on getting a boulder from the birthplace of Saint Patrick in Banwen (near Neath, South Wales) but when the logistics of this became impossible, he managed to find two other historic Welsh stones with an Irish connection to bring with him. These were a sleeper stone from the Ffestiniog Railway and a stone from the old Breakwater Quarry.

The Ffestiniog Railway stone
Fred Howes, Chairman of Ffestiniog Railway Heritage Group at the Railway's Minffordd Yard alongside the granite sleeper stone donated to the event. Photo Sean Adcock
The Ffestiniog Railway started life as a gravity/horse drawn tramway built in the 1830s, to provide a transport route from the Slate quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog to the port at Porthmadog, a distance of over 13 miles.The creation of the tramway was made possible largely through Irish investment. The original tramway rails were secured to stone blocks, with around 4000 to a mile.  When the tramway became a narrow gauge steam railway in the 1860s - the world's first narrow gauge railway built to haul over a longer distance than just short shunting.  At this point much of the track-bed was widened and the a new rail/sleeper system introduced.  Many of the stone blocks were incorporated into the new trackside walls.  One of the original granite blocks has been donated to the Gathering of Stones by The Ffestiniog Railway. Read more about these stone in Sean Adcocks article here
The Ffestiniog sleeper stone built into the inner structure of the monument.
 The Breakwater Quarry Stone
View of the breakwater from Holyhead Mountain and extracting the stone to bring to Lough Boora. Photos courtesy of Sean Adcock
Holyhead is the main port in North Wales and provides a direct link with Dublin via the Stena Line and Irish Ferries.  At 1.7 miles in length, Holyhead breakwater is the longest in the UK. Started in 1845, it took 28 years to complete and consumed over 7 million tonnes of stone quarried from nearby Holyhead Mountain.  These quarries now form part of Breakwater Country Park.
 The last blasted rockfall remains alongside one quarry face  and a stone from alongside this has been donated to the gathering of Stones by Breakwater Country Park/Isle of Anglesey County Council with the permission of RSPB and NRW. Read more about these stone in Sean Adcocks article here 

The founding members of the DSWAI Fran Coady, Ken Curran and Waldemar Wower move the Welsh Breakwater stone into place in the center of the Munster wall during the Gathering of Stones. Photo Louise Price
Building the Gathering of Stones
Pinpointing the center of the monument. Canadian Stone Foundation member Tom Parkin with three of the GoS organisers, Nick Aitken, Sunny Wieler and Ken Curran. Photo Fran Coady.    
Not only was there a great mix of sunshine and showers over the weekend, there was also a great mix of professional stonemasons/drystone wallers and amateur stone enthusiasts. The public too became very captivated by the event with a constant stream of spectators arriving over the weekend, many bringing a stone with them to be incorporated into the monument. This vibrant atmosphere around the site quickly warded off any threatening rain clouds, and kept the morale on site high.
Project manager Ken Curran points with resolution as project managers do so well.
Work begins on the Ulster wall
Donegal DSWAI member Rónán Crehan leading works on the Ulster wall

Scottish master craftsman Nick Aitken chats with
Helmut Schieder from Austria,
Tom Parkin of Canada and Irish man Damian Williams

Looking through one of the entrances. Ulster wall on the left, Connaught on the right.
John Lyons of Irish Shipping and Transport standing on one of the 'Emigrant Stones' he helped get across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Lough Boora.   
Work progressing well on the boulder wall of Leinster in the foreground
A great weekends work. Will post more when we return to finish the structure in the coming weeks.

A wonderful weekend. Thanks to all those who came and gathered stones with us for the weekend.  
A BIG Thank you from the DSWAI
 'The Gathering of Stones' as the first major event of DSWAI was a real success with much being achieved.
One thing which was important to the committee was that the participants enjoyed the experience and went away with a sense of having achieved something. We feel that this goal was achieved and feedback from all the folk who took part has so far been very positive, with quite a few itching to get back to help put the finishing touches to the sculpture.
The Gathering of Stones is a concept far bigger than the collecting of rocks to build a sculpture. It is as much about people as it is about anything else.
Perhaps, even more so?
This was quite evident during the course of the 4 days during which the event took place with the arrival of many people from around the country to place a stone at the site or within the walls.
The imagination of people has been captured by the project.
I believe one of the reasons for this is because 'real' people have been involved in the development of the project from day one.

Thanks to all those who contributed by investing their ideas, time, stone, resources, money and belief in the project. We give you all our assurance that we will bring the project to completion soon.

With the appeal out of the way there are many many people the association wishes to thank from deep in our hearts.

Those people are:
  • The builders;
Padraig Larkin, Christian Helling, Ronan Crehan, Louise Price, Oisin Price, Eddie Farrelly, Nick Aitken, Sean Adcock, Sunny Wieler, Ken Curran, Joanna Williams, Lucy Warmington, Barry & Jacob Noyce, Frank Gleeson, Eamonn Carthy, Thomas Donnelly, Cait Fealty, Caitriona Fealty, Tom Parkin, Michele Carini, Richard Schrade, Victor Daly, Waldemar Wower, Fran Coady, Damian Williams, Karl Kennedy, Sandro Cafolla, Dariusz Jurkiewicz, Seamus May, Mark O’Loughlin, Malachy Sheehan, Helmut Schneider, Alex Panteleyenko, Charlie McFadden, Scott Hyslop, Shaun McFadden, Anne Holland, Simon Hickey, Lynne Hoare, Herbert O’Toole, Liam Friel and Liam Walsh
  • The organising committee of;
Nick Aitken, Tomas Lipps, Sunny Wieler, Eddie Farrelly, Ronan Crehan, Alex Panteleyenko, Ken Curran and Francis Coady

  • For contributing the Emigrant Stones and writing Whispering Stones Bobby Watt (RJW Cambell). You gave the boys a real lift.

  • For making sure the Emigrant Stones got to Montreal from Ottawa Danny Brennan and Pat Kelly.

  • For getting the Emigrant Stones across the Atlantic.
     John Lyons (Irish Shipping and Transport)


To the carvers for producing the four wonderful provincial crests:

To all those who donated stone to the project:
  • DSWAI members would like to thank DSWA Wales Branches members for donating the quartzite boulder from the breakwater quarry at Holyhead and the railway sleeper block from the Festiniog Railway, delivered by hand through Sean Adcock.
  • Mick Kelly (a proud Connacht man from Roscommon living in nearby Kilcormac) for the many tons of Connacht limestone he hand-picked and delivered to us.
  • Rodger Deegan for the hours and hours of work he has (and continues to) put in to the project, plus the huge volumes of stone he donated. We could not have done it without him. 
  • Niall and Michael at McKeon Stone in Stradbally for the beautiful dimension stone which will form part of the arches and building stone in the central feature as well as to be used in seating areas.
  • McMonagles  from Mountcharles in Donegal. For supplying the quartzite used in the Ulster wall.
  • For donating a truck load of Sandstone for the Ulster wall Drimkeelin Sandstone from Donegal.
  • David O'Connor of Liscannor Flagstone for donating building stone and those wonderful slabs of Liscannor to be used as further seating areas.
  • Joe Molloy (local farmer) for donating the fine Boora limestone from his farm.
  • The Sculpture Parklands staff, Thomas Egan, Rodger Deegan, Don O’Boyle, PJ and Mick Connelly. For believing in the concept, for their continuing support and enthusiasm through the grounds staff. For preparing the site so well and providing facilities for people over the weekend. Also, for excavating so many tons of lovely blue limestone used throughout the project.
  • Don O’Boyle for making the profiles and scaffolding and any other steel works we required.
  • Pat Dooley for hunting high and low in search of stone for the project. Many thanks Pat.
  • Tony Maher of Maher Stone Stradbally for donating (and delivering) the bags of lovely green Sandstone.
  • Kilkenny Blue limestone for giving us a small bit of their waste off-cuts.


Local Boora stone being
delivered. Photo Ken Curran
To those who helped with transport:
  • Thank you to Sean Fox for transporting the Emigrant Stones from Irish Shipping's depot in Coolock to Lough Boora.
  • Thanks to Donal from Roscrea Express for moving stone for the association free of charge.
  • Thanks to Pauric and Enda Meehan of Meehan Brothers for hauling all that stone down from Donegal (close to 50 tons!).
  • Rodge Deegan and Mick Connolly of Bord na Mona for hauling all that stone from Cadamstown to the site.
  • To Bord na Mona themselves for moving the Boora stone from Jo Molloy’s farm and from various locations including McKeons in Stradbally as well other places locally to the site.

To those in the media who helped with promoting the event:
  • Karen O’Grady from the Midland Tribune
  • Katriona McFadden, Fergus, Derek, and all on RTE Radio 1’s The Mooney Show.
  • Rebecca Kelly and the Irish Hospice Foundation for inviting us to be a part of their book on gathering events.
  • Jim Finn at Tipp Fm for having us on the show
  • Thanks to Paul and all at Brix Workwear for donating our safety gear.
  • Thanks to Banagher Concrete for saving our lives with the heavy gauge re-inforcing bars to make our profiles for the inner valette.
  • To Kitty Curran for all her help with sending out endless press releases, letters and for her continuing help behind the scenes.

  • Many thanks to Tom Parkin, Tori and Christine for running the shop, meeting the public and being the information point for people.

  • Thanks a million for Tori for looking after the catering.

  • Thanks to Barry Bryan for cooking and serving the lunches.
  • A big thanks to Sean Corrigan (Corrigan’s Bar, Ferbane) for bringing us water, drinks, snacks and lots of delph and cutlery for serving the food onto.
  • Thank you to Dooleys' Hotel and The Maltings B&B, both in Birr, for looking after our participants very well and offering them generous discounts on accommodation and food.
  • A big thank you to all those who donate money or came down to the site and offered us words of encouragement or contributed a stone.
  • The organizing committee would like to thank very much their spouses, partners and family members for the support, patience and encouragement during the planning and delivery of the event. We love you all very much
Stones bearing names of loved ones.

It should be noted that it is far from too late to be involved with this project.
Whether it’s:
donating stone for building
helping with transport
getting involved in the building
or even digging into your pocket to make a financial contribution.
We still do not have funding and every little bit (really! anything! even as little as €5) will help to push this forward.
Get involved, be a part of it.
Don’t look back and regret not having contributed something to this ground-breaking moment for Irish dry stone construction.
It is pretty amazing what has been achieved considering that we have had ZERO financial backing for this event. Funding is something that we do desperately need so please consider donating what ever you can. 


We also have a small number of the hugely popular Gathering of Stones Tshirts available for purchase. These limited edition Tshirts cost €20 plus postage and packaging. All proceeds of the Tshirts go to funding the Gathering of Stones event.

Tshirt with Postage and Packing
Size


If you wish to visit the monument, it can be found in the Lough Boora Sculpture Park between Tullamore and Birr in County Offaly. View The Gathering of Stones, Lough Boora Parklands in Google maps (GPS Coordinates +53° 13' 5.59", -7° 43' 34.37"
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Feile na gCloch (Festival of Stone) 2013 Inis Oírr Island

September 30, 2013, 11:28 pm
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So two weekends ago I made my annual retreat to Inis Oirr, the smallest of the three islands that make up the Arran Islands in Galway bay. Although this was only my third year attending Feile na gCloch (Festival of Stone) it feels like I have been coming here for many years. Despite the fact that I was born and raised in west Cork, arriving on the island I get an relaxed feeling of familiarity and a sense of coming home. 
This is the effect this island has on you. It is a world of its own. You won't find any road rage here, no 'zombies' walking into each other as they seem to be unable to lift their heads out of their smart phones, no news flashes of our pending doom. Here modern life dissolves and becomes insignificant. If you want to go somewhere here, you walk. If you pass someone on the road, you look into their eyes and say a friendly hello. And if you want to know the news you go to the pub for a chat.    

My annual visit to Inis Oirr is of course not just to bask in the exuberance of island life. It is also to attend the Feile na gCloch (Festival of Stone). 
The festival is organised and run by the country's most knowledgeable and experienced drystone waller, Patrick McAfee, in conjunction with the wonderful Marie Mannion, Heritage Officer of Galway County Council and Paddy Crowe, manager of the Inis Oirr Cooperative.  

Under the instruction of Pat McAfee and Scottish master craftsman George Gunn, this years participants constructed a 130 feet section of wall in just two days. The style of wall built was a Feidín wall, a wall unique to Ireland and this part of the country in particular.  
A mix of both armature and professional stonemasons working on the wall. 

Scott Hackney co-director of Stonefest in Seattle also returning for another Feile na gCloch   

George Gunn and Donegal DSWAI member Rónán Crehan smile for the camera (well Rónán dose at least)
Capping off the double wall with a large single course

In just two days the 130 foot long Feidín wall is complete 


This year's Feile na gCloch was bigger than ever, with the addition for the first time ever of a stone sculpting and letter carving workshop run by two master carvers from America Alexandra Morosco and Karin Sprague
Alexandra giving Rory a few pointers on a block of native island stone. 

Artist and regular Feile na gCloch goer, Louise Price swaps the paint brushes for  hammers and chisels for the weekend



Karin and Aexandrea also got to leave their own mark on the island by creating this stunning memorial for the islanders to commemorate all those who lost their lives at sea.
Photo courtesy of Karin Sprague
Literally working on top of each other, they managed to transform this local coastal boulder into a moving tribute in just three weeks.

The stone depicts a traditional Irish boat a 'Currach' being engulfed by waves.

The stone now sits just meters from where it lay, on the north west  side of the island.
"Maireann a gcuimhne fos i m' aigne""We will always remember them in our mind." Photo courtesy of Karin Sprague


The wall built during the festival was already completed on the Saturday, which gave people the opportunity to go on a guided walk with Pat McAfee to explore some of the wonderful wall styles on the Island. In fact it is believed that almost every style of wall can be found here including countless unclassified ones.  


I tend to spend a lot of time walking around the island when I'm here. This year I was taking particular attention to some of the amazing textures and patterns in the walls.

Maybe it was the Guinness from the night before, but stare at some of these walls long enough and they almost seem to move and become fluid. 

Textures in stone

And thus, Feile na gCloch 2013 comes to an end , and with a heavy heart and a heavy back pack (as a result of the new Throw and Holden 'Stone buster' hammer I acquired over the weekend) I leave the island with one final panoramic view form our little seven seater plane back to the mainland. 

Touching down at Connemara Airport after our six minute flight, reality sets back in, and I get back into my motorised vehicle and propel myself back to the city. 
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Landscape Designer Mary Reynolds

November 16, 2011, 11:17 am
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Mary's Gold winning Garden at Chelsea 2002, Tearmann sí – A celtic sanctuary
So this post is a first for Stone Art's Blog: throughout the past two years or so that I have been writing this blog I have highlighted many artisans and stonemasons. However this post is the first time I have highlighted a landscape designer. And who better to begin with than one of my favourite Irish designers, award winning landscape designer Mary Reynolds.

Landscape Designer Mary Reynolds

Mary Reynolds, the first Irish winner of a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal for garden design, started her landscape design company in 1997, where she began her professional career designing gardens in and around  Dublin city. However over time she began to feel that city life was suppressing her creativity so she moved out of the city to the “wild west “of the Wicklow Mountains. As soon as she got back into the wilderness, not only did she feel inspired for the first time, but she aslo knew where it was that she wanted to bring her skills.

Mary felt the gardens she had been designing in the city were lacking, because they did not have that depth of soul that exists everywhere in wild places. Being once again surrounded by wilderness, Mary realized that this beautiful natural wilderness that is of such great inspiration to her as well as others was disappearing fast because people had become disconnected from it and had forgotten the importance of that connection, so she took it upon herself to create gardens that would bring this connection back into peoples lives.
Tearmann sí – A celtic sanctuary
In 2002 at just 28 years of age, Mary entered the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with her garden ‘Tearmann sí – A Celtic Sanctuary’. Inspired by the Wicklow countryside and her love for Irish mythology, Mary’s garden consisted of a circular stone moon gate lead over a stone path to the inner circle, where the elements of earth, air, fire and water combine. Surrounding the central circle was a grass mound carpeted with bluebell, inspired by Tara Hill in County Meath. Hawthorn and elder, two trees that feature in Celtic lore, formed a protective circle around the very edge of the garden. Enclosing the garden was a traditional dry stone wall, planted with native Irish plants, such as yarrow, thrift, hart's tongue, maidenhair and spleenwort.

Mary's Garden at Kew Gardens
As a result of her Chelsea victory in 2002, the British Government commissioned Mary to design a garden for the world-famous Botanical Gardens at Kew in London.
The garden is based on the imagery and atmosphere of the poem "The Stolen Child" by Irish poet W.B. Yeats.
Mary's Garden at Kew Gardens
Mary was also commissioned to design Brigit’s Gardens in Galway. Brigit’s gardens consists of four interlinked gardens, based on the Celtic festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa that provide beautiful and tranquil reflective places and are a celebration of nature and the cycle of life.

Imbolc Spring Garden at Brigit's Garden
She had started on the project before her Chelsea win and completed the design later in 2002.
Samhain Winter Garden at Brigit's Gardens
I visited these wonderful gardens a few months ago, but there is so much going on at these gardens I am going to write a separate post about them at a later stage, so that I can write about this magical place in more detail now.
Bealtaine Summer Garden at Brigit's Garden
Lughnasa Autumn Garden at Brigit's Garden 
Some Mary’s favourite materials and structures to incorporate in her designs include stone, sculpted earth shapes, mosaic, living willow structures and cob structures. She also likes to incorporate native planting and Irish mythology.  It is all these qualities that make her one of my favourite Irish designers. I also love that she often includes stone seats. As well as being one of my favourite things to build from stone I have also written about stone seats and their importance in Irish folklore on a number of occasions. 

Here are a few other gardens by Mary that I find inspiering.

The Glenstal garden
Stone seating in The Glenstal garden
Cornwall seaside garden
Cornwall seaside garden
 
Cornwall seaside garden
Photographs courtesy of Mary’s website with her kind permission. Be sure to check out her website for more information and photos of her work on  http://www.maryreynoldsdesigns.com/
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Newgrange and the winter solstice.

December 18, 2011, 6:38 am
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One of the exterior walls of Newgrange
As the winter solstice is coming up, I thought it would be an appropriate time to talk about one of Ireland's oldest and most impressive stone structures.
I am talking of course about Newgrange in County Meath. (County Meath  is well known as Ireland’s Heritage Capital)
According to the most reliable Carbon 14 dates available from archaeology, it is believed that Newgrange (or Sí an Bhrú as it is know in Irish) was constructed over 5,000 years ago, around 3200BC. This makes it more than 600 years older than the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, and 1,000 years more ancient than Stonehenge in the UK. It was built during the Neolithic or New Stone Age by a farming community that prospered on the rich lands of the Boyne Valley. Knowth and Dowth are similar mounds nearby that together with Newgrange have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.



Archaeologists classified Newgrange as a passage tomb, however it is now recognised to be much more than a passage tomb. Ancient Temple is a more fitting classification, a place of astrological, spiritual, religious and ceremonial importance, much as present day cathedrals are places of prestige and worship where dignitaries may be laid to rest. The Mound or Cairn at Newgrange is about 300 feet in diameter covering an area of over one acre, and has 97 Kerbstones at the base of the cairn, some of which are richly decorated with megalithic art. The 19 metre long inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber with a corbelled roof. The amount of time and labour invested in construction of Newgrange suggests a well-organised society with specialised groups responsible for different aspects of construction. 
 
Newgrange through one of the native Hawthorn hedges that surround the site


The entrance into Newgrange with the famous entrance stone, kerbstone 1
To gain entry to the tomb, it would have been necessary to climb over the highly decorated kerb stone and then slide the heavy stone door that closed the entrance to the passage (now visible bolted to the right of the entrance.)
Newgrange is an incredibly popular tourist attraction, and is a particularly popular place to visit at this time of the year because of its alignment with the winter solstice.
Immediately above the entrance to the passage is a small opening known as a roof-box, which is in alignment with the Sun at the winter solstice and allows the Suns rays to penetrate the tomb and light up the central chamber during this period (December 19th to 23rd).
 
Short National Geographic Video about Newgrange


The inner passage of Newgrange (image from Wikipedia)


Looking down the inner passage (photo from Boyne Valley Tours)

Inside the chamber of Newgrange (photo by OPW)
Megalithic art carved on the roof stone of the east recess off the main chamber inside the mound at Newgrange.  (photo from Boyne Valley Tours)

Building Newgrange

The white quartz facade of Newgrange
As a stonemason what I find most fascinating about Newgrange is its construction.
Many of these stone slabs, 550 in number, were collected from where they had been lying in the landscape. Because many of the stones were found to be weathered, it is believed they were not quarried, so there would have been a huge logistical task in finding suitable boulders dotted throughout the landscape.

Some of the large kerbstones at the rear of the structure
Great effort and time was needed for the planning, gathering of materials and construction of these monuments. This is clearly evident from the vast distances the builders travelled to acquire the particular stone types. The majority of structural stones in the Boyne Valley tombs are greywacke. This stone type was quarried in the Clogherhead area, north of Drogheda, and shipped along sea and river, then finally log-rolled from a docking point on the Boyne up to the construction area at Newgrange.
The white quartz facade of Newgrange
The facade at Newgrange consists of white quartz, which has its origins in the Wicklow Mountains to the South of the site.
The interspersed granite boulders were collected from the North shore of Dundalk Bay. The long distances involved suggest a similar sea-faring route may have been a more practical choice than travelling across land. The majority of the cairn consists of a river rolled stone acquired from the banks and terraces of the river Boyne around 1km below the monument. It is estimated that some 200,000 tonnes of material are present in the cairn. It is not known for certain the exact building practices used by this Neolithic Culture. Archaeologists have suggested various theories. It is most likely that log-rolling, the erection of wooden scaffolding and earthen ramps were employed to shift the large boulders.
Michael J. O'Kelly, who excavated Newgrange, felt that the workforce involved in building Newgrange would have been divided up into about six gangs or teams, each with its own set of tasks and area of expertise.

Kerbstone 52 on the North-western side of the mound
There is no doubt that the people in charge of Newgrange's construction, from the master builder and architect down to the team foremen, were "intelligent and experienced", according to O'Kelly.
The corbelled roof  from inside the main chamber of Newgrange (photo from Boyne Valley Tours)
The passage and chamber orthostats (large stones set upright) would have been put in place before construction of the cairn itself actually began, and it is probable the kerb would have been marked out at this stage too. The addition of grooves onto the top surface of the passage roof stones shows that the builders were aware of the need to redirect water seepage from the cairn, and therefore keep the passage water-proofed.
The corbelled vault of the chamber is one of the finest of its kind in Western Europe today, standing intact without conservation or repair of any kind exactly as it did when first erected 5000 years ago. All of the orthostats (standing stones) in the chamber are used to support the corbelled roof. Some have leaned inwards over time due to the weight of the cairn material pressing down on the chamber. The tomb builders filled the gaps between the roof stones in the passage with sea sand and burned soil to keep the passage dry. The corbelled roof was constructed of horizontally laid courses of large slabs, each course partly resting on the one below it and partly oversailing it so that with each course the diameter of the roof diminished, until finally the vault was closed by a single capstone six metres above the floor. The outer ends of the corbels were buried in the cairn and were tilted slightly downward; this served to throw off the rainwater percolating through the cairn. It was a most effective weather-proofing and kept the chamber dry even in prolonged bad weather except in a few spots, now cured.

It is known that the white quartz, which was found on the ground in front of Newgrange during excavations, was not originally placed there by the builders. Some of the kerbstones which had fallen forward some time after the construction of the monument were found to be directly in contact with the subsoil, with no quartz beneath them. The reconstructed façade of Newgrange is controversial - many people feel that it is only an educated guess as to what the original tomb looked like. The reconstruction also cut away some of the mound so that visitors can walk around the carved kerbstone, rather than having to climb over it.
Professor Frank Mitchell suggested that the monument could have been built within a space of five years, basing his estimation upon the likely number of local inhabitants during the Neolithic and the amount of time they would have devoted to building it rather than farming. This estimate was however criticised by M.J. O’Kelly and his archaeological team, who believed that it would have taken thirty years to build at the very least.

Stonehenge buit 1000 years after Newgrang
e (photo by Gareth Wiscombe)
In the later centuries following the initial construction and use of the passage toumb at Newgrange, ritual practices changed but the site remained an important ritual focus. As elsewhere in Ireland and Britain, rituals shifted from the enclosed spaces of megalithic tombs to large open air enclosures called ‘henges’. Henges derived their name from the ultimate henge – Stonehenge – but were more typically formed from circular earthen banks, circles of pits, circles of upright timbers, or circles of upright stones (without the famous horizontal lintels that Stonehenge possesses.)   
The entrance to Newgrange as it looked when it was redescovered
The passage tomb was rediscovered in 1699 when material was being taken for a road building project, a local landowner, Charles Campbell, ordered some of his farm labourers to dig up a part of Newgrange, which then had the appearance of a large mound of earth, so that he could collect stone from within it. The labourers soon discovered the entrance to the tomb within the mound.


I must admit, I have been living in Dublin for over two years now, and I have only recently made the 45minute trip by car to Newgrange. I would definitely recommended making the trip if you are in the area, or even just visiting Dublin.
Admission to the chamber of Newgrange for the Winter Solstice sunrise is by lottery. Application forms are available at the reception desk in the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre, where there is a special post box for completed application forms. There were 31,531 applications submitted for the 2011 Winter Solstice Draw. Application forms are now available for the 2012 Solstice Lottery Draw which will take place on September 28th 2012.
For more information on tours check out http://www.boynevalleytours.com/
For more informtion on Newgrange check out http://www.newgrange.com/
Thanks to Michael Fox from Boyne Vally Tours for the use of the photos from his website for this post.
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Once upon a fairytale garden

January 2, 2012, 4:47 am
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So it is a new year, and for many people 2012 is looking pretty bleak indeed. That is why I am re-posting this old post I did last year. This story can help remind us that even from the ashes of devastation and despair, life and prosperity will once again flourish.

Wishing everyone a very happy new year, and I hope 2012 brings you all good health, wealth, and happiness.  


Once upon a time in the hills of the great dividing range of Victoria on the edge of a town called Marysville there was a magical garden. In this magical garden mermaids rested on the sun baked rocks on the edge of cool stream’s while fairy’s and pixies danced in-between the trees as wise old men sat at the base of wise old trees.

Unfortunately for Bruno Torfs and the rest of us this is where the fairy tail ended as on the 7th of February 2009 a bushfire raged through the township, decimating everything in its path without mercy and sadly claimed the lives of many people. Bruno was extremely lucky to survive and the rest of the family are safe and well.
Bruno's home and art gallery were unfortunately completely destroyed in the blaze. The main attraction, the sculpture garden, was also damaged, but around sixty percent of the sculptures have survived.
The pictures of the aftermath show a very eerie looking place. The ghostly looking remains of sculptures look almost shell-shocked and traumatised, as from a seen from a town devastated by war.
Bruno has chosen to stay in Marysville to rebuild his home and restore the gardens. His passion to share his love of art and the story of life with the world has not been damaged by the fires, in fact you would almost say it has been forged anew by the flames that nearly took it all away.
But as with all good fairytales, this story two has a happy ending.
Bruno has been working tirelessly to restore the sculptures and the gardens to their former glory and after months of hard work he declared the gardens reopen on the 29th of November 2009.

Bruno's words: "The bushfires deeply touched us all in many ways. It allowed me to see that people had a heart for each other, that when things really got dark, the best in us comes out. We have lost a lot, but life also provides us opportunities to gain a new vision, lots of new friends and a blank canvas to play. In the meantime, nature is already regenerating itself. The green is slowly returning and the rivers are flowing, finding new ways".


All photos are from Bruno Torfs website

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An Outdoor Classroom

November 29, 2013, 10:30 am
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Having this sculptural outdoor classroom project for a school as my first large public work was both challenging and rewarding. Following a site visit with the arts committee of the school I created a concept that would be distinctive of the schools ethos and beliefs, while also creating a visually stimulating space that would be a slice of earthiness and nature in an urban area largely dominated by concrete and steel.
It took almost a year, and 100 tonnes of stone to complete, but I think the before and after shots below shows how successful the project has been.
My new favorite before and after photo

Tom Pollard acting out a scene on our theatre stage.
Working in the middle of a school yard, the site often felt like a theatre stage, with students and parents alike curious to see what was happening and eager to see how the structure developed. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to share some knowledge of the craft I am so passionate about. I would sometimes find myself performing for my audiences, overly dressing a piece of stone so that the ping of hammer and chisel rings out over the school yard to the delight of the spectators.
There are almost 500 students in this school. So if you multiply 500 students by 1 million questions each, it equals some pretty amusing questions. I have been asked "Are you building a church?""When will the castle be finished?""Why are you hammering the bricks?""Why are you doing that""Why do you have a hole in your jacket", but the most common question and response I would get from students and parents alike went as follows:
"What are you building??.......An outdoor classroom!............(long pause).........."Will it have a roof on it?"....No it is an outdoor classroom!.......(another long pause)......."oh"...

I was delighted to be able to create a space that visually demonstrates the schools ethos and sparks excitement and curiosity in the process. It is a wonderful feeling to leave the space behind knowing that it will continue to excite and intrigue minds young and old for generations to come, also knowing that the structure will only improve with age as the stonework weathers and the planting evolves.

click on the video to see the building process from start to finish. Get yourself a cup of tea 'cos it's seven minutes long, but then again it did take a long time to build.

The Concept

The outdoor classroom consists of a walled garden type structure. The walls are comprised of dry faced stonework, inspired by the ancient traditional dry stone walls found throughout the country. The stone is Lacken sandstone from Co. Mayo.
Taking inspiration from the four strands of the learning spiral from the school ethos, the centre of the structure is a large spiral incorporated into the floor and walls. The first strand of the spiral is already visible as you walk towards the classroom. It spirals first along the ground, then into the wall, before curling up to create the arched entrance into the classroom. Similarly, another of the strands runs into the wall, curling up to form the border of the family tree mosaic. Yet another strand finishes at the teachers stone chair, with the fourth strand of the spiral turning into the path of the exit from the classroom.

Entrance into the outdoor classroom
The concept is to have a structure that is visually inspiring from both the outside and the inside, a place for children to get excited about being in the great outdoors as well as learning about it.
The stone structure sits in between sculpted grass mounds that help create a wilderness setting. These mounds fill with colour in the early spring with a dense mixture of spring bulbs. This explosion of colour is continued on into the late autumn by the blend of native Irish wildflowers which will also encourage wildlife into the area.  The planting inside the structure is composed of various colourful seasonal flowers the children can both plant and admire throughout the year.
Planted inside the stone structure, behind the stone teachers chair is a native‘Fairy Tree’, or Hawthorn. The Hawthorn, with its beautiful spring blossoms, is a tree embedded deep in Irish myths and folklore and will make for many a great tale on a sunny day in the classroom.

One feature in the structure I was very much looking forward to building was the spiralling moongate. I had this feature in my head for some time and was waiting for the right opportunity to build one. Building this moongate involved  a lot of head scratching and even more stone cutting. In order to build it in a way that it would be structurally sound and withstand the heavy traffic it is likely to endure, a lot of cleaver cutting had to be done.  The most difficult and time consuming part was building the lower left (as seen below) section where the spiral coils back into itself. These skinny pieces are in some cases three time the thickness of what is visible, they have been chamfered back into the larger stone below to give them strength and weight.  

Another complex feature that I was excited to build was the stone tree mosaic. I have already written about this feature in a separate blog post that can be read here
The roots of the family tree mosaic
Student participation.
students painting leaf tiles for the family tree mosaic

The design brief called for the students to be involved in the project in some way so that they could put their own stamp on the project. The design allowed for a number of projects for the kids to get involved in.  The natural stone 'Family Tree' mosaic that is incorporated in the walls has leaf shaped tiles which the kids got to paint in class along with the border tiles that surround the mosaic. Read more about the family tree mosaic in the blog post I did about that here

The family tree mosaic
The four large tables in the classroom have also been mosaiced. A competition was held in the school to design the table tops. The students were asked to design the table tops to represent the four strands of the schools ‘Learn Together’ Curriculum, these being Equality and Justice, Ethics and The Environment, Belief Systems, and Moral and Spiritual Development.
Every student in the school (almost 500 in total) got the opportunity to be part of the mosaicing process 
The completed tables
Ethics and The Environment table
Students were involved in planting some of the 3000 daffodil bulbs into the mounds that surround the outside of the classroom. They will be involved on an annual basis in planting of flowers in the raised planting bed inside the classroom walls. Two past students, now in transition year in the neighbouring secondary school also got the opportunity to work with the artist for a number of weeks gaining valuable experience in stonemasonry through the building of the stone walls of the structure.
First of the spring bulbs
Summer wildflowers



The teachers chair (well most of the time)
I will leave the final words to the school who wrote this lovely testimonial for me.

Testimonial from the School

Awarded the project after successfully competing in a public tender process, Sunny Wieler from Stone Art was commissioned by the school to create an outdoor classroom. From the very start it was clear that Sunny had fully embraced the ethos of the school both in his presentation and his daily work.

Sunny has been working at the school for the last year, practical in his approach, he has been very flexible working around school yard time/ PE etc. He has worked  in close contact with our caretakers/gardeners in order to maintain a strong link with any changes happening during the school day he needs to be aware of and has always been enthusiastic in answering the children's many questions. Starting on site early each morning he has built a rapport with the parents as they drop their children to school.

He has contributed positively to all our committee meetings, embracing changes and answering all our queries, helping us shape our thoughts as the project developed. Sunny has consistently been eager to include the children, staff and parents and indeed the wider community in the project. Each have been involved in creating many of the mosaic pieces and planting around the classroom.

Sunny is meticulous in his approach to his craft. Both in the original design consideration and in his daily approach to his work. He certainly never 'cuts corners', his attention to detail in many elements of the design have been remarkable. The almost soothing sound of him chipping away at one of our native stones will be truly missed when he completes the project.

It has been an honour to have Sunny create for us a lasting piece of art that, in a rapidly changing world, is both a beautiful testament to our history and a practical outdoor space we hope will be used and appreciated by many future generations.

Finally a quote from one of our caretakers, “Sunny has the patience of a saint, he quietly works away, it sometimes feels like he isn't here at all, that the classroom just grew out of the ground” I hope this indicates how much he has become part of our school community, how his craft is quietly appreciated everyday and how successful our 'Outdoor Classroom' project has been.


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'The tree that ate the church' and other stone hungry Irish trees

March 3, 2014, 7:07 am
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Around this time every year I try and do a special tree themed blog post especially for National Tree Week which this year runs from 2nd March to 8th March.

Reading through this wonderful new book by Aubrey Fennell about the Heritage Trees of Ireland I got inspired to do a blog post on some of the stone hungry trees of Ireland.

This book is full of wonderful photos, stories and information and I thoroughly recommend getting a copy. Below are two stories from the book that I have been permitted by the publishers to share with you. They are the story of The Tree That Ate the Church in Co. Offaly and the story of Castle One Tree in Co. Cavan written in the words of the author.

Heritage Trees of Ireland By Aubrey Fennell. Click here to buy with free worldwide shipping
I have always been fascinated by the folklore surrounding many of Ireland's trees. Many of these trees are also often closely tied to stone I find. Unfortunately though the same trees are also often the slow killers of the same stone structures as was the case below.
The Tree that Ate the Church. Co. Offaly. (Photo from Heritage Trees of Ireland book with the publishers kind permission)

The Tree That Ate the Church, Tihilly Church, Laughaun, Coleraine, County Offaly 
"I have been as guilty as anyone in rushing through the countryside on our improved road network, and not seeing some of the wonders of our beautiful island. The road between Tullamore and Clara was one I had often travelled, when a beam of sunshine illuminated a pair of ash trees I had not noticed before. They are two fields in, behind a farmyard, and after getting permission from the farmer I approached them with growing anticipation.
Surface roots of the first ash seemed ready to grab my ankles and pull me into if gaping cavity. The gargantuan tree did not look benign and, if I did not know better, appeared to be ‘Old Man Willow’ exiled from Tolkien’s Middle-earth. 
It stands on a mound of stones which are the remains of Tihilly church. Moss-covered stones and bark merge to create a trunk 7.6m in girth, a new Irish champion at the turn of the millennium. Since then its
cavity has become a cave, which has shrunk its girth to 7.18m. It supports a respectable storm-damaged crown, and at over 300 years old, is living on borrowed time. It probably started life as an opportunist seedling on the walls of the church, when it was abandoned in medieval times. Two walls remain standing beyond its grasping roots.
The second ash stands proudly clear of all this carnage, and is in the prime of life, ready to guard this religious site when the old brute is gone. It shelters a standing High Cross made from sandstone, which depicts scenes from the Bible, along with geometric and animal interlacing. St Fintan founded a monastery here in the seventh century. The last abbot served here in 936, while the church we see now was built from the stones of previous churches.
Ash trees have a special place in Irish folklore, and massive old trees have been venerated down through the ages. After the hawthorn, it is the tree most likely to be found at holy wells and sites of special significance.
Here we have a tree to rival those of the past and I hope to revisit it before it returns to Middle-earth."

Castle One Tree. Bawnboy, County Cavan
Castle One Tree
(Photo from Heritage Trees of Ireland book with the publishers kind permission)


Castle One Tree
(Photo from Heritage Trees of Ireland book
with the publishers kind permission)
‘Castle One Tree’ is a recently coined name given to an incredible old ash tree which is gorging on what remains of Lissanover Castle between Bawnboy and Templeport. Lissanover translates from Irish as the ‘Fort of Pride’, and the story goes that one of its occupants had a priest murdered at the altar because he had started Mass without him. In medieval times the castle was a stronghold of the ruling McGovern clan, and commanded views of the Barony of Templeport from Fermanagh to the Shannon basin as it fed into Lough Allen. 
Another account translates Lissanover as ‘Fort of Extravagance’; in this version a Baron McGovern was building the castle and had his tenants drive their cows to be milked at the castle every day, and the produce was used instead of water to make the mortar. BuIlocks’ blood was also used, and if anyone refused, the Baron had them hanged.
The McGoverns’ despotic rule did not survive the Elizabethan plantation, and the castle stone was recycled into the construction of Lissanover House in the 18th century. 
By the early 20th century, the mansion had suffered the same fate as the castle, and its stone was reused in the building of local farmers’ homes after the estate was divided up by the Land Commission.
Permission to view the tree from Martin Donohoe on whose land the tree stands is essential, as the grazing bullocks may have an ancestral memory of what happened to their forebears. Climb the hill until it levels off, and only bumps and hollows remain of the fort, except for the stout ash on its pedestal of stone. The trunk is over 7m in girth although it is not a conventional trunk, as many roots drop down from the original height of the wall where the ash seeded itself some 300 years ago. The tree’s height and spread is over 18m, and it is obviously thriving on its diet of blood and milk. It is clear why this tree was left well alone, for who knows what malevolent spirit might be released if it is interfered with? The McGoverns had the habit of imprisoning their opponents in wooden barrels with nails driven in and rolling them down the hill from this castle.

Below are two other trees that are stone bound which I have long admired. The first is an old crab apple growing out of a sold rock (an old mass rock I believe) close to my family home in West Cork.

Crab Apple tree, Mealagh Valley, West Cork. (Rock not very visible from this angle as grass has creped up over the rock on this side.) 
 The tree below is a lovely old Hawthorn growing through the wall at the 12th century St Doulagh's Well, in the outskirts of Dublin city. I love how the wall around the Hawthorn tree has carefully been maintained and repaired over the years to allow the tree to grow freely through the wall. It was actually visiting this site that  inspired me to incorporate the Hawthorn 'fairy tree' into the outdoor classroom project I created for the school in Donabate.

Hawthorn growing through the wall at the 12th century St Doulagh's Well

Planting the fairy tree in the outdoor classroom. 
The Fairy Tree in place

In regards to other Stone Hungry Trees, I also like this photo by Ken Curran of vines consuming a dry stone wall in Co. Tipparary

Vines consuming a dry stone wall in Co. Tipperary (Photo by Ken Curran of Earthstone)

Grave Yards are also great places to see stone eating trees.
Stone Hungry trees in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin

If you want to see some funny hungry trees from around the world, you should check out this link http://hungrytrees.com/


You can see my previous posts for National Tree Week here.


There are plenty of events on around the country this week for National Tree Week. To find out what is happening in your area or to advertise your own event, check out the Tree Council of Ireland website http://www.treecouncil.ie/initiatives/treeweek2014.html

Thanks again to Collins Press  for allowing me to share the stories from their book. The Book Depository has the wonderful  Heritage Trees of Ireland book on sale at the moment with 39% off plus free worldwide shipping so click here to get yourself a copy 
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Bloom 2013

March 22, 2014, 3:07 pm
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Almost a year late, but here is the story of my involvement in Bloom in the Park garden show last year.
Tim Austen's Gold winning garden at bloom

Outdoor classroom under
construction during spring 2013 
Picking up icy cold stones in January of 2013 as the winter was slowly easing its grip on the country, I powered on through the cold in a bid to get my outdoor classroom project completed for my May deadline.
It was during this time that I was contacted by renowned Irish landscape designer Tim Austen. A regular medal winner at Bloom, Tim was designing a large garden for the competition and was wondering if I would be interested in creating one of my mosaic panels as a centre piece for his garden.   

Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Black Barlow’ standing proud in front of my mosaic panel.  
Being a fan of Tim's previous show gardens, I was delighted to be a part of his latest garden.
Tim Austen's Giardino della mostra 
As Tim explains on his website  Giardino della mostra, translating generally from the Italian as “exhibition garden” or “garden of exhibits,” is a garden that encourages you to design your own garden to a strong theme whilst referring to the fact that a good garden is formed from the sum of its parts. The concept and layout are, in part, inspired by Ireland’s only permanent exhibition of show gardens at Gardenworld, Kilquade (the National Garden Exhibition Centre), Co. Wicklow. Here a wonderful collection of individual gardens, arranged around the central avenue, collectively inspire and encourage gardeners at all levels to follow a design in their own gardens. The central avenue, with water features and arches are the main elements that are referenced in Giardino della mostra, along with beech hedging that forms a soft backdrop to the garden. Moving through the garden, areas of differing character are also seen.
Tim Austen's Giardino della Mostra
Unfortunately for me the garden show was on the weekend before the completion date for my outdoor classroom project so this meant that I would be spending many weekends over the next few months in the studio.

When making mosaic panels (as well as other stone art pieces) I try and see if the client has any connection with any particular stone. In this case, as Tim is a proud Wicklow man, and golden granite being the stone of Wicklow, we decided to incorporate granite into the mosaic.
So my first task was breaking up chunks of granite into usable pieces for the mosaic.
At work in the studio with help from my lovely wife. 
As the workload started to mount up, working on both the outdoor classroom and the show garden, I called in reinforcements to help. Help with the mosaic came from my wonderful supportive wife Christine who came and helped out with completing the mosaic work.
Christine cleaning the mirror

Back on site, work was commencing with the garden. There was some friendly rivalry between designers on site, and they were often seen walking the grounds checking out the competition. It was for this reason that Tim wanted to keep the mosaic secret only to be installed for the big reveal at the end. The framework for the mosaic did have to be installed earlier in the build, so to keep people guessing 'flatscreen TV here' was written on the framework to throw the rivals off.
Installing the mosaic. Photo Tim Austen
   Tim had a really great crew working with him on the garden, and it took most of them to help me get the mosaic into place. Made of natural stone and cement, it weighed well over 200kg. 
The finished piece. 220cmx 120cm granite, Liscannor sandstone and mirror mosaic panel by Stone Art
Tim was also keen for me to be involved in two of the other stone features in the garden, the old forest-like dry stone wall and one of the water features. As I was short on time I thought this would be a great opportunity for some of The Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland to get involved in the project. Two good friends of mine from the DSWAI Ken Curran and Alex Panteleyenko  took over the responsibility for this from me and did a really wonderful job of making a dry stone wall look like it has been sitting there for decades. 
Dry stone wall built by DSWAI members Ken Curran and Alex Panteleyenko. Photo Ken Curran
Finished wall surrounded with woodland shade planting and a bronze sculpture by Eamonn Ceannt  
Limestone pebble water feature by Stone Art
Unlike the mosaic panel, the water feature had to be made on site. Tim was inspired by the free flowing pebble work of UK artist Johnny Clasper and wanted something similar. I first contacted Johnny to see if he wanted to come over to do it but unfortunately he was busy with show gardens in the UK at the same time. So I decided to do it myself. So I would spend the next three days on my knees in the garden building the water feature, and it would have been even longer had Alex Panteleyenko not stuck around for an extra day after finishing the dry stone wall to help get me started with the water feature.
Myself and Alex setting the first stones in the water feature. Photo Tim Austen
Slow progress.
The finished piece.
I was delighted to see Tim win Gold for the garden. It was wonderful to be part of the whole process and look forward to future involvement in the show. It was great to see the reactions to the garden over the festival weekend. Tim's garden proved to be a big hit with many of the 110,000+ visitors who attended the show over the four days of the event.
Some of the 110,000+ people who visited Bloom in the Park last year 
The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins and his wife chilling out by my mosaic.
Delicate blue flowers of Camassia cusickii (Cussick's camas)


Mosaic reflected on wet tiles on Tim Austen's Giardino della Mostra
Evening shot of the water features. Photo courtesy of Tim Austen
For more information about the garden and its designer check out Tim Austen's Website http://www.timaustengardendesigns.com/
If you have time check out this great short film about Tim's road to Bloom and the building of the show garden. Well worth a watch. 



Thanks again to Tim Austen for letting me be involved in the wonderful garden. I would also like to make a very special thanks to Alex who after Bloom was over came and helped me for a day to finish off the outdoor classroom which I am pleased to say also got finished on time.

Also of note. I custom make these mosaic panels in all shapes and sizes so be sure to contact me with your enquiries should you want one for your garden.
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StoneFest 2014 and the Irish connection

May 25, 2014, 8:15 am
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So after a number of years of procrastination and dreaming about going to StoneFest, this year I finally made it over to Seattle to attend the event. Procrastination was of course not the only factor in making the 14,623 km round trip to the event, finances and situation also played a big factor. If it were not for Alexandra and Scott of StoneFest and the work they are doing with the 'OnTrack' scholarship, dreams and procrastination would still be my only memories of StoneFest.


About StoneFest

StoneFest came to be after Scott Hackney (partner of Marenakos Rock Center), Alexandra Morosco (sculptor, and Trow & Holden Field Representative at the time) and Randy Potter (Trow and Holden Tool Co.) had a short tool demo day at Marenakos. It was such a great experience they visualized, bringing together carvers and masons and working together for several days. As director, Morosco planned a four day event in 2004 through the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association which was a total success! Sculptors were exposed to the vibrant stone mason, Bobby Watt and learned about function, gravity and basic building principles. Masons got to blow off all their corners and make a square stone round or curvy. They had so much fun, It was clear this needed to happen again.

Marenakos Rock Center adopted the role of sponsoring this most extraordinary event in the Pacific Northwest and called it StoneFest. StoneFest is now the annual gathering for those who LOVE STONE. This educational event offers something that is a unique experience for the stonemason, the carver, architect, landscape designer, or simply those who want to further their connection with stone.


The story of this years StoneFest however, starts much closer to home at a stone festival far more familiar to me, Feile na gCloch on Inis Oirr. I have written about it many times, and it is a place special to many of us here in the stone world in Ireland. It has also become precious to Scott and Alexandra who have been coming to Inis Oirr for the past few years and will be back again this year.
Inspired by their recent experiences in Ireland as well as the large number of Irish and Scots attending, Scott and Alexandra went with a very strong Irish theme for StoneFest 2014.


Renowned Irish stonemason / author Patrick McAfee is a regular instructor at StoneFest and has brought a regular Irish influence into the projects at StoneFest (note the Clochán in the photo at the top of this post that they built during the 2010 StoneFest)
For this years festival Patrick designed two very special Irish inspired structures.

The Early Irish Christian Church 


This replica of an Early Irish Christian Church was built using local granite rubble and earth mortar and is only slightly smaller than the similar ones found in Ireland.
Tomas Lipps cuts quoins for the church as building continues in the background
Stone busting under the watchful eyes of instructors Pat McAfee and Bobby Watt 
The church site-a hive of activity.
The church rises out of the ground.
Stonework nearing completion. 
Pat McAfee having a well earned drink upon completion of the stonework. 
Stonework complete and ready for its timber roof. 
The dry stone 'Krak'

Newtown Castle
The dry stone project was inspired by the unique Newtown castle in Co. Clare (Unique because unlike most other tower houses in Ireland, Newtown Castle is round but rises from a square pyramidal base).
Inspired by this Pat designed a scaled down version of a 13th century defensive structure known as a 'Krak'.
This type of defensive structure has the same type of complex shapes as Newtown Castle, with round turrets emerging from the steep sloping defensive walls. The turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position for archers, allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall. The steep slope (or batter) of the wall prevents attackers hiding at the base of the wall but also allowed people inside the fort to throw rocks and other projectiles down that would bounce off the sloping wall and into the faces of the attackers. (as demonstrated by Nick and myself below)
Defending the keep with arrow and stone.
The Krak was built last week under the instruction of Nick Aitken, with the help of Ken Curran, Sunny Wieler, Eric Landman, Russ Beardsley, and Alan Ash to name but a few. 
This scaled down Krak is a complex looking structure, but when broken down into individual elements it was essentially an L shaped wall (plum on one side, 1: 2 batter on the other) with round pillars on the corners.
Building of the Krak begins
The part that had everyone stumped for a while was the quoin stones, and how to get the cylindrical shape to emerge from the pyramidal shape wall. After much head scratching they managed to carve the cylindrical shape into the unforgiving Pennsylvania blue stone. This stone only wants to break perpendicular to the grain so trying to achieve  a 1:2 batter into a 6" bed took up a lot of time.
Some much needed shade in an unusually sunny week in Seattle 
 Fortunately the guys at Marenakos guillotined the limestone blocks into pie shapes for the turrets and so sped up the process and got everyone back on track.
The turrets begin to rise
Ken Curran breaking stones
Alan Ash enjoying some stone pies
Ken and Russ's lovely round caps are placed under the watchful eye of Nick 
The builders had hoped to go higher with the towers but the lack of time and stone gave everyone an excuse to come back. All said and done, it did make for an attractive structure. It was also great for wallers from Ireland, America, Canada and Scotland to come together to play with stones.
Fortress completed

Ken Curran and Rory Noone enjoy some fortification inside the Krak
Sunny propping up the outer turret 
King of the castle. Scott Hackney enjoys the new addition to the stone village at Marenakos yard

Milestones 
Under the instruction of some of the finest stone carvers and letter cutters around (including Nicholas Fairplay, Keith Phillips, Karin Sprague, Tracy Mahaffey and Richard Rhodes)
The theme for this years workshops was Milestones.

 Most commonly, Milestones are known as a stone by the side of a road that shows the distance in miles to a specified place. Metaphorically, they have also become known as an important point in the progress or development of something, a very important event or advance. Students were given the opportunity to explore all the venues of StoneFest: Build a milestone into a wall, carve one for a personal achievement or celebration in ones life and bring it home.
Karin Sprague surrounded by eager students.
Learning from each other. President of the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association Carl Nelson takes some pointers from instructor Tracy Mahaffey
Randy Potter in the Trow and Holden tool shop
Rory Noone
Instructor Nicholas Fairplay giving some guidance
Neil Rippingale of The Dry Stone Conservancy getting a taste for letter carving
One of the things I love about events like this is seeing people getting their first taste of stone and instantly becoming hooked. Whether its someone like Neil above who has decades of experience working with dry stone, who has only now discovered his passion and talent for letter carving, or someone like Daniel Poisson (below) who before StoneFest had never touched chisel and stone before.
Daniel Poisson and his first ever stone carving
Daniel Poisson is a graphic artist but this was his first ever carving. I am also delighted to hear that not only has he sold his first stone sculpture, he has already begun work on his first commissioned piece. You can read about Daniel's experience at StoneFest on his blog here. 
It is a wonderful feeling making that first connection with stone and thinking 'HELL YAAA' and being hooked evermore. 

Mike Schroeder works with a group using Portland cement based masonry
This is one of the things I love about StoneFest, it is a convergence of all the disciplines of stone. There is no cliquey groups here, no hierarchy or prejudice, just people brought together in a collective celebration of all things STONE.


     Another highlight of the week was the big StoneFest Feast on the Thursday. The spectacle put on by the hosts in honour of the Celtic themed festival was nothing short of jaw dropping, with a night filled with festivity, music, food and a few pints!
The opening of the StoneFest Feast (Photo Tomas Lipps of The Stone Foundation)
  It is important to note that the StoneFest Feast was also a fundraiser for the wonderful 'OnTrack' Scholarship which made it possible for people like myself, Ken Curran and Rory Noone to attend. You can read more about this Scholarship program here as well as information about becoming a sponsor of this wonderful program. 
The Lords of StoneFest Scott Hackney (in the white blazer) and to his right Alexandra Morosco (Photo Tomas Lipps of The Stone Foundation)
And so ended StoneFest 2014. With a heavy heart I packed my bags and started the long trek back home. Arriving back home in Ireland I felt jet-lagged but yet strangely invigorated at the same time. Convergences like this are important, I feel, the energy and enthusiasm here is infectious. Just as important is the exchange of stories, knowledge, and the lessons learned with people in the same industry, which is hugely beneficial. 
I cannot thank Alexandra and Scott enough for what they are doing on both a personal and professional level. It was so wonderful to see people connect with stone and indeed explore stone in new ways.
To my knowledge there is nothing else like Stonefest that brings together all the disciplines of stone and celebrates them equally together. There is a great scene of passion and inclusiveness here that was evident in all the smiling faces I saw there all week.  
I must admit that the past few months leading up to Stonefest I had been doubting my future with stone due to the sheer lack of opportunities here in Ireland. But as I had hoped it would, spending some time with like- minded people during and around StoneFest has given me the inspiration and focus to carry on. 
         

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Book Competition and my new website

May 29, 2014, 4:59 am
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I am delighted to announce I have a brand new website that I have been working on over the past few months. I would love to hear your feedback and comments.
To celebrate the new site I am running a competition packed full of stone related books. The prize also includes a hardback book about the Outdoor Classroom project I designed and built. This book is a very limited edition and not available to buy.  The competition is open to overseas visitors as well as all those in Ireland of course :)

So please check out the site and enter the competition using the instructions below.
(Sorry in advance for the question, you will need to put on your glasses for this one)

To win all these prizes


Log on to Stone Art's brand new website
www.stoneart.ie

Look for the button below hidden somewhere in the website.


Click on the button to go to the competition.
Answer the question in the answer box and you're in the draw to win the entire prize pack. 

Draw will be held on the 24th of August 2014


Prize includes:
  • Gathering of Stones Tshirt
  • A few Stonexus Magazines
  • Stone Mad by Seamus Murphy
  • Irish Stone Walls by Pat McAfee
  • The Stone Walls of Ireland by A. MacWeeney and R. Conniff
  • An Outdoor Classroom by Stone Art ( A signed, limited edition hardback book about the outdoor classroom project designed and built by Sunny Wieler)
  •  'The Gathering – Reflections on Ireland' Hardback
(More prizes may be added over the course of the competition) 

Terms and Conditions

Only one entry per person will be accepted. Your contact details will only be used for the purpose of this competition and will not be passed on to any third parties. The winning entrant will be notified by email and your prize will be sent out upon receipt of your postal address. 
Only entrants with correct answers and with real names will be entered into the draw. 
Family members of Stone Art may not enter. 
The winning entrant must be willing to send us a picture of themselves with the prize that we can post on our social media. All correct answers will go into a hat and one name will be pulled out of the hat at random on the 24th of August.   

Good Luck!



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True love is set in stone

April 11, 2012, 12:20 am
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There is something very special about creating a piece of art in stone to celebrate a loved ones life. Probably the most unique and moving example of this is the recently completed Kerry Landman Memorial.
Kerry Landman Memorial Tree 

The wall is situated at Island Lake Conservation Area on Hurontario Street South and is open to the public seven days a week. The Memorial Forest Trail runs through part of the conservation area and takes you through the 'Dods and McNair Memorial Forest' where the dry stone tree can be seen on the south side at a high point on the trail. While people have been encouraged to plant trees in memory of loved ones, Eric got permission from Dods and McNair and the Credit Valley Conservation Authority to build a dry stone wall in memory of his wife Kerry instead.

This fantastic dry stone structure was build by Dry stone waller Eric Landman with the help of his eldest son Jordan, as well as many other friends and family, to commemorate the life of his beloved wife who sadly passed away last year. I cannot think of a more  fitting and beautiful way to commemorate the life of a loved one than by getting together with friends and family and building a piece of stone art together in their honour. All those involved found working on the project a great help with dealing with their grief as well as showing their love for a wonderful lady.    
The concept drawing
Ironically, it was actually Kerry who helped give Eric his dry stone walling start. For many years, the family had a dairy farm in Grand Valley, and Kerry operated Brewed Awakenings coffee shop after buying it in 2004.One day Kerry asked a regular customer at the coffee shop, Greg Wildeboer, owner of Whispering Pines Landscaping, if he needed anybody to work for him. At first, Wildeboer was unsure, until finding out it was Eric she was talking about. “She came home and told me I had a job. I said, ‘I don’t need a job.’ She said, ‘You need a change’,” Eric said, noting he enjoyed landscaping at home. “(Wildeboer) just got me into doing odd jobs for them.”
That work piqued Eric’s interest in the trade. He learned more about the Dry Stone Walling Across Canada, formerly the Dry Stone Wall Association of Canada, began taking courses and things took off from there. Since then he has done numerous walls, water features, and structures. He also has participated in festivals with the DSWAC building various structures, including the Black house on his home farm. As of 2010 Eric became the field director of the DSWAC. He is now working full time dry stone walling and continues to farm in his spare time.


 

While the main wall is made of Limestone, Eric used local rounded granite fieldstones that were found on site to represent the leaves. A lot of them had green moss on them that added to the effect of the stones looking like foliage.

Photos of the Kerry Landman Memorial courtesy of Eric Landman
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Another sculptural stone memorial I was very moved by is this piece by Australian sculptor Peter Schipperheyn titled "Asleep" Located at Mt Macedon Cemetery, Mt Macedon, Victoria, Australia.
According to Peter, this sculpure came about as a result of knowing a remarkable individual who in many ways changed his life. In 1981 I he met an extraordinary individual: Laurie Matheson, who  purchased the largest work I Peter had made by that stage. From here Peter went on to make Mr Matheson a number of other sculptures, and in the process develop a close relationship with him.
Sadly some years later Laurie became ill and passed away. 
Following his death in 1987 Peter was asked by Laurie Matheson's widow Christina to carve a figure called "Asleep" in Carrara marble as his gravestone.   
"Asleep" by Peter Schipperheyn  photo via funpic.hu 
The sculpture depicts Christina laying on her husband's grave. This wonderful sculpture is the perfect embodiment of one’s deepest emotions after the passing away of a loved one, to be there with them, to desperately hold on and to never let go.

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The Lovers Bench by Stone Art
This is a stone bench I made for a guy in Limerick who asked me to build him a stone bench with the words 'true love is set in stone' engraved in it. Built from local field limestone, the bench was a gift for his wife, as an expression of his love. Very sweet.
The Lovers Bench by Stone Art   

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The birth of a new Stone Festival in Donegal

June 25, 2014, 10:09 am
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Last Thursday I packed my bags and pointed my car north for Donegal. I have been wanting to get to Donegal for some time but for some reason Donegal always seems so far away. But now I had a good excuse to free up some time (as if you need a good reason to go to Donegal)  
Mountcharles Sandstone Pier, Mountcharles, Co. Donegal
Turns out the trip up is not so bad at all, I even had time to stop off along the way at Loughcrew in County Meath to find the ancient stone seat known as The Hag's Chair a massive engraved kerbstone on the north side of Cairn T, at Loughcrew. I have mentioned this seat in a blog post before which you can read here. 
The Hag's Chair, Loughcrew, Co. Meath
After a good stretch of the legs and a crawl into the centre of Cairn T (a similar structure to Newgrange)  I got back in the car to finish my journey to Donegal. There were many other stone sites along my route which I wanted to visit, but I knew that this was going to be the first of what will become an annual pilgrimage to Donegal, and there would be plenty of opportunities to see these great sites down the line.
"So how's about getting to the point and tell us why you're going to Donegal" you are surely saying by now. 
Well as the title of the post suggests, my trip to Donegal was to be part of an exciting new stone festival that is to be an annual event in Donegal.
Organised by the Donegal branch of The Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland  (DSWAI) with the support of the Donegal County Council and the ETB  the festival included dry stone wall building, stone letter cutting and carving, talks by master masons and sculptors and topped off with a tour of the local sandstone mine.

Dry Stone Walling 
The dry stone project was set in a picturesque setting along the Donegal coastline on the Wild Atlantic Way by the historic sandstone pier of Mountcharles. This area's rich stone heritage is ever evident, from the walls that line the coastline to the huge local sandstone blocks that form the beautiful Mountcharles Pier, from where the stone from the local quarries was shipped off to build many grand halls and churches around the country and abroad.
Mountcharles Pier
The task for the dry stone walling project was to rebuild a large section of wall that was washed away during a massive storm which left stones scattered over a large area of land it had once protected.

The footprint of the original wall
A pep talk by Rónán Crehan gets the building under way
Scottish Master Craftsman Nick Aitken keeping an eye over the footings  
A dry stone waller in the making
Stonemason Michael Mc Groarty splits and shapes stone to create gate posts
Stones plunged and feathered 
Placing the gate posts
Master Craftsman Sean Adcock from the North Wales branch of DSWA UK keeps local man Donagh O Callaghan and Canadian Jacob Murray on their toes  
The wall builders of day one

Nick Aitken and DSWAI treasurer Louise Price set copping stones 
An old Irish penny from 1941 found in the wall
There is an age old tradition of putting a time capsule in a wall as you build. This is often in the form of a bottle or a coin. I found this old penny from 1941 in between the stones of the original wall footings. I too regularly throw a few coins into a wall (the amount depending on how plush I am feeling at the time) I made sure to throw a few euros into this wall as well for some other mason to find down the line in another 100 years or so.
Rónán Crehan posing in 'stile'
Built using stone from the original wall and recycled stone from a old cottage, all of the stone used is the local sandstone. Over the course of two days over 45 yards of wall was built by a team of about 40 participants per day.  
The finished wall

Stone Carving and Letter cutting Workshop with Brendan McGloin
Located just 500 meters from Mountcharles pier is the lovely Salthill Gardens, the courtyard of which was the location of our stone carving workshops. As you walk towards the gardens from the pier, the soft tapping sounds of hammer on chisel can be heard coming over the high stone walls of the gardens that protect the lush and delicate garden inside from the harsh salty sea air.
Carving at Salthill Gardens
Up to 12 students per day got to try their hand at letter cutting and stone carving

 Kieran Keeney sharpening chisels
Landscape architect Dave Ryan feels at home, surrounded by plants and stone as he carves


The carving workshops were run by sculptor Brendan Mc Gloin who has been working with stone for over 25 years. His legacy to date includes an incredible full scale replica of the high cross of the scriptures at Clonmacnoise. The cross took almost three years to complete and is an incredible site to behold. The finished cross now sits on the summit of Mt Calvary, Portland Oregon, USA. Brendan also gave a fascinating talk and media presentation over the weekend that gave a wonderful insight into the enormity of the project. Click here to see a short 6min film about this work.    
Brendan and his recreation of the cross (Image copyright of Brendan Mc Gloin)
Nick and Louise look in wonder at Brendan McGloin's model of the Clonmacnoise High Cross of which Brendan carved a stunning full scale replica over a 3 year period. 
One of Brendan's carvings on display at Salthill Gardens


A trip to the mines
One of the highlights of the festival was a tour of the sandstone mines of Drumkeelan just a mile northwest of Mountcharles. 

The entrance to the mine
Rónán giving a description on the surface quarry.
Arriving at the quarry entrance
We are met at the entrance of the mine by local historian Eamonn Monaghan, who also gave a fascinating talk at the festival the day before about the history of the stone industry in the area.
Around 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period Donegal Bay was much larger than in the present day.  It stretched from Killybegs in the west, through Lough Eske in the centre, to Laghy in the east. The Carboniferous rivers were eroding the same hills as we see today (although these would have been much higher and less rounded) carrying sediment into the bay to form the sandstones which occur around Drumkeelan and upon which the stonemasonry industry in the area is based.
In the townland of Drumkeelan, northwest of Mountcharles, is a rock outcrop known as Drumkeelan mine. This site has a very long history of stone mining, back to at least the late 12th century. It provided high quality stone suitable for monumental work and masonry. Some important public buildings, such as the National Museum of Ireland, the National Library, Leinster House (the Dail) and Sligo Town Hall used Drumkeelan stone in their construction. The mine was active up till the 1950's

The effort put into the tour was outstanding. The entire mine shaft was lit up using candles and lamps, just like it would have been during the times it was in use.

One of the original miners oil lamps
Peter, Deirdre and family explore the mines
Sandstone is much softer when it is first taken out of the ground, as it is exposed to the elements the silts wash out of it and it becomes much harder to work. For this reason it was more economical to mine the stone rather than opencast it.
In the mine a weak layer of silt material above the sandstone was removed first making a small space, allowing blocks of stone to be wedged up from their beds and removed. They would then be moved through the mines shaft with the aid of rollers and bars.  As the stone was extracted,  the roof would be supported mainly by a pack of waste stone stacked to the sides like dense dry stone walls. The Abbey Assaroe was built in 1180, so it is known that quarrying started around this time. A carved sandstone lamp found in the mine suggests mining could have already started in the middle ages. Locally the stone was used to build the Killybegs Coastguard Station, the Provincial Bank in Ballyshannon, the Town Hall in Sligo and St Eunan and St Columba Cathedral in Letterkenny
Arriving at a larger chamber, Eamonn stops to sing us a song he wrote about the mine to commemorate the miners who worked there. Click on the video below to hear his song.
For those of you who want to sing along here are the words.

'The Ballad of the Drumkeelan Mines' by local historian Eamonn Monaghan which commemorates the miners:

Deep underneath Drumkeelan, there in the freestone mines each day,
With miners' lamps to light us, we work the hours away,
We punch the holes along the line, in each we place a wedge,
And when they're right & ready, we give each one the sledge,
CHORUS
So swing the hammers high and swing the hammers low,
We must get these blocks out, today before we go,
The stone cutters are all waiting, for these are busy times,
In the Valley of Drumkeelan, where we're working in the Mines.

The stone it is above us, the stone is all around,
Our block is on the rollers, our crowbars on the ground,
We lever it so slowly, along the smooth mine floor,
And when we have it outside, sure we must go back for more,

There's a big Cathedral rising in Letterkenny Town,
They need stone for schools & halls, from here to Co. Down,
For Halls in Derry City and Sligo banks as well,
Sure, we cannot mine it fast enough, the truth to you I'll tell,

Mulreany comes from Drumnalost, here to his work each day,
The Brogans & the Harkins from Drumconnor make their way,
The Hegartys & Harveys & the Bogles come along,
With Wards from Drumagearah they make a jolly throng,

They walk it every morning, from miles & miles around,
To share their skills & ancient crafts and toil beneath the ground,
Like the monks of good St Bernard in far off distant times,
Who worked & prayed for God & Man within these very Mines,

Hearing this song sung deep in the mines was quite special. Encouraged by our applause, Eamonn went on to recite a poem he also wrote about the mines (see video below) 
When researching the mines, Eamonn wanted to get a real sense what it would have been like in there for the workers. He once spent a full week in the mines sleeping on the mine floor absorbing the complete stillness within the shafts. 
The great thing about this mine is that unlike limestone caves and mines, it is not exposed to the same kind of erosion. There are no stalactites to obscure the views. These sandstone mines are completely sterile and are exactly the same as they were in the 1950’s. Down here, I am reminded of my trip to the salt mines in Poland (read about that trip here)
Returning to the surface, evidence can be seen of how modern quarrying is destroying the mines. In the picture below, old mine shafts are hidden behind the heaps of rubble. The rock that would have been the mine roof is broken down into smaller building stone mainly used for building walls and cladding houses. (a 20 ton truck load of this stone was also donated to The Gathering of Stones project as you might remember) 
Today there is only two of the mine shafts remaining. There is talk of preserving the last two so that the history of these mines will live on and that more people will be able to come and experience these wonderful tours. Let us hope the powers that be step up and help preserve this unique piece of our heritage before it is too late. One ponders on what a wonderful unique tourist attraction this could make!    
Rónán and Jacob modelling the festival Tshirts. You can order your festival Tshirt through the DSWAI website here 

And so with the end of the tour, so too came an end to our festival. And with one last step through the 'stile' I said my farewells to Donegal and its fine people, hoping to return again soon. Now in the knowledge that I am only a comfortable 3 hour drive away I am sure I will be back a lot sooner than the next Tirconnell Stone Festival. 

From left DSWAI Chairman Sunny Wieler, festival organiser Louise Price, Canadian Jacob Murray and festival organiser Rónán Crehan  

Finnaly I would like to say a big thanks to everyone involved in making this event happen. From the quarry men to the admin people, to the tea lady and stone gatherers and of course the different organisations and local councillors who helped make it happen. 
Here in Donegal I felt a great sense of pride of county and of its stone heritage that I have not experienced to the same level in other counties. This festival is a credit to the craft and the people of Donegal. Let the dry stone revolution continue.....  
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Sculpture in Context 2014

September 1, 2014, 12:08 pm
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Sculpture in Context 2014 in The National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin.
4th September to 17th October 2014

Sculpture in Context 2014 returns once again to the National Botanic Gardens, showcasing the work of Irish and international artists. It is the largest and most prestigious outdoor sculpture exhibition in Ireland.
Sculpture in Context was established in 1985 to raise the profile of sculpture and provide a platform for artists outside the normal gallery context. It is a not for profit organisation run by sculptors. The exhibition was founded by Cliodna Cussen, Colm Brennan and Gerard Cox and originated in Fernhill Gardens where it ran for 10 years. Since then it has been hosted in the Conrad Hotel, Malahide Castle, Kilmainham Gaol, the Irish Management Institute, Dublin Castle, Farmleigh House and since 2002 has been held in the magnificent National Botanic Gardens.

Sculpture in Context promotes artists and creates opportunities for practicing artists to exhibit their works in a wider public arena.  The organisation has provided much needed opportunities for Irish and non-Irish sculptors in Ireland.
In total there will be 150 pieces on display this year (including a number of small pieces in the gallery above the cafe). This is a wonderful opportunity to explore the stunning botanic gardens and discover dozens of art works placed all around the gardens and within the glasshouses. 
These photo collages are just a little taste of what will be on view for the duration of the exhibition.  

I am delighted to announce I have a piece in this years exhibition. 
This natural stone and mirror mosaic piece consists of golden granite and iconic Liscannor sandstone from Co. Clare (I visited this quarry a while back with the DSWAI. Read more about this iconic stone here) 
I have made a number of square and rectangular mosaics for gardens before but, to the delight of my steel fabricator (note hint of sarcasm) I decided to go with a more organic shape this time   



Its funny, when I'm working away on a piece in the studio it always looks so much duller. Endless hours painstakingly splitting down pieces of stone with grinder and chisel, wondering if it will all come together.
Thankfully, as always, my uncertainties are put to rest when the piece is cleaned up and put out in its garden setting. That moment when the sun comes out and the piece begins to glisten, reflecting back the lush garden greens and the ever changing sky, that is when I fold my arms and give it the nod of approval.       

Sculpture in context officially opens to the public on Thursday the 4th September and will run to 17th October 2014 so plenty of time to come see all these great pieces on display. And if you're in the market for buying a unique piece of  art be sure to bring your cheque book as most of the pieces on display will also be for sale.
The gardens are open Monday to Friday 9 am - 5 pm and Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays 10 am - 6 pm. Be sure to call into reception and get yourself a catalogue so you don't miss any of the pieces waiting to be discovered around the gardens.  

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Stone books for Christmas

December 1, 2014, 3:31 am
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Stone related books make great presents for your stone mad friends. Here are a few stone related books I recommend checking out if you are looking for some great christmas presents. Just remember if your planning on ordering your books online, get ordering soon to be sure you receive them before Christmas.
Most of the links provided have free worldwide shipping. Some of the books need to be ordered from the artists direct but I have added these links also. The prices I have shown are correct as of time of writing this post.
So in no particular order here are my recommendations for Christmas 2014:

A Legacy in Stone… The Artistry of Andreas Kunert

Andreas Kunert is a stone artist based in Victoria, Canada. He has a substantial and impressive portfolio of work. Much of his work has gone completely viral on the internet, popping up all over the place.
This book is a lovely catalogue of much of his work and a great addition to your bookshelf.
Also keep an eye out on my blog as I am planning a post on his work soon. 

Order this book here through the artists website 

Price $45.00 plus P&P




The Andy Goldsworthy Project

Andy Goldsworthys beautiful ephemeral artworks have been rendered timeless in numerous photographic records. This book deals with Goldsworthy's work in nearly twenty years, and underscores the artists permanent output since 1984.
Many of his great stone creations are in this book.
A lovely chunky coffee table book. 

Click on the link below to buy with free worldwide shipping.
Price: €34.90 (including shipping and 20% off via the link below)







Stone by Design: The Artistry of Lew French

More than 125 gorgeous photographs showcase the beauty of award-winning stonemason Lew French's work in eight different homes, illustrating how rounded fieldstone, gray slate, rough granite, and even curvy driftwood can be incorporated into stunning pieces of functional art. 
I did a blog post on his work a while back which you can read here.

Click on the link below to buy with free worldwide shipping.
Price: €26.35 (including shipping and 16% off via the link below)




Dan Snow: Listening to Stone
Listening to Stone is Dan Snows follow up to his first book  In the Company of Stone. In this second book Dan once again proves that he is not just one of America's premier artisans, but also one of our most articulate voices on the natural world and our relationship to it. Peter Mauss's tactile photographs of Snow's artistry are matched by the artisan's quietly compelling prose.

Click on the link below to buy with free worldwide shipping.
Price: €18.97 (including shipping and 11% off via the link below)





The Gardens of Jeffrey Bale
Jeffrey Bale's amazing pebble mosaics have featured on stone art's blog before (read here). 
This book is a collection of photos of his work as a builder of gardens and pebble mosaics, 25 years in the making.

A true master of the pebble mosaic.

You can order this book direct from the artist via the link below

Price: Starting at €47.14 plus P&P



Improvisations in Stone: John Shaw-Rimmington
A third 54-page hardcover book with high quality colour photographs of various features and collaborations involving John's designs and personal work has been now been produced and is available for order.
The book covers the period 2009— 2012 and includes seminars, festivals, public installations, stone ballancing and private work (walls, bridges, and features).

This book as well as his other three books can be purchased from the artist direct via link below.
Price: $70 plus P&P


Below are some practical stone related books.

Irish Stone Walls: History, Building, Conservation by Pat McAfee
A unique history and 'how to' book on one of Ireland's most distinctive landscape features - the stone wall. The Irish countryside is a patchwork of over 250,000 miles of stone wall.
A great little book on Irish stone walls. By the great Irish waller Pat McAfee.

The Book depositary have a great 21% off deal on this book at the moment so its under €15 with free worldwide shipping. See link below








Dry Stone Walling. A Practical Guide
Dry Stone Walling. A Practical Guide
by Alan Brooks and Sean Adcock (Elizabeth Agate ed.) 
159 pages 
A4 paperback, wiro-bound 
391 illustrations, by Linda Francis and Elizabeth Agate
 Dry stone walling is one of the most ancient building techniques, used worldwide where stone outcrops at the earth's surface. Britain's varied geology has produced a wide range of building styles, which demonstrate the waller's skill in making the best use of the locally available stone.

Price: £11.95 plus P&P via the link below


The Art of the Stonemason
A fifth-generation stonemason discusses how to choose stone, build a wall on sloping ground, circular walls, windowsills, fireplaces, stairs, arches and hunchbacked bridges. 
A great practical guide to building stone features for anyone with some experience in stone building.

Click on the link below to buy with free shipping.
Price: €18.29 (including shipping via the link below)









Europe’s field boundaries
Written in two volumes 
Georg Muller has written a most wonderful book called 'Europe's Field Boundaries in 2 volumes. Georg basically spent the last 30 years traveling around Europe surveying dry stone walls, hedged banks etc in most European countries (Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Greece etc etc)
The books have almost 1300 pages and 5000 colour images. 

The books are beautifully bound with gold leaf and are a very special collection indeed, they are a real investment and highly recomendable. 
I am currently working on a review of this book which I will share here on the blog also once im finished.

Information on how to order the books in the link below
Price for the two volumes together is €289 plus P&P


This is just a few of the great stone related books that are out there. I have lots more book recommendations in the book recommendations section of my blog here. 
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