#Stonework

'Fishers of knowledge'. Creative space

This project is funded by the Per Cent for Art scheme. This is a government initiative, first introduced in 1978, whereby 1% of the cost of any publicly funded capital, infrastructural and building development can be allocated to the commissioning of a work of art. Through a public tendering process, artist Sunny Wieler was awarded the commission to create an interactive sculpture based on the theme of St. Andrew. It was envisaged by the school that the outdoor space consist

Stone seating area Greystones

Here is a stone seating area I just finished for a garden in Greystones just outside Dublin City. The seating area was to go into a mature landscaped garden, in a space that once housed a kids garden shed. The seating area was take on a seating area that I built a few years ago which the client loved. This new seating area was built using the same Liscannor sandstone. The bench is curved to make the most of the evening sun. The dark sandstone slabs heat up during the day ke

An Outdoor Classroom

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 complet

The Gathering of Stones in the heart of Ireland

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

Miniature stoneworks. Giants amongst pebbles.

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 crumbl

The Family Tree Mosaic

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)

Happy New Year and reflecting back on 2012

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 mi

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

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. Every year this event seems to get bigger and bigger, as do

The colossal land art of Andrew Rogers

Andrew Rogers is a sculptor whose works may be found in many plazas and buildings around the world. He is a leading contemporary artist. Rogers is the creator of the world’s largest contemporary land art undertaking. Titled “Rhythms of Life,” the project commenced in 1998 and at present comprises 48 massive stone structures (Geoglyphs) across 13 countries in seven continents and has involved over 6,700 people. These Geoglyphs range in size up to 40,000 sq m/430,560 sq ft – an

True love is set in stone

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. 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

‘Temppeliaukio’ The Rock Church, Helsinki

Last September my wife had to go to a conference to Helsinki, Finland, so I decided to tag along and see what Helsinki is all about. On arriving I quickly noticed that much of the buildings and stone walls in Helsinki are made of a lovely pink granite. If you had a geologist to hand he would tell you the reason for this is because Helsinki sits on an indented Pegmatitic (pink) granite peninsula that makes up part of the Baltic shield. I did not have a geologist to hand, but w

Jeffrey Bale’s Mosaic Pilgrimage, a labour of love, a labour of pebbles!

Many of you may already be familiar with the work of Jeffery Bale, but for those of you who aren’t, I feel the need to share his work with you. I am a big fan of mosaics. One of my favourite city to visit is Barcelona, mainly because of all the wonderful mosaics of Gaudi that decorate much of the city. I have even ventured to make a few mosaics myself upon occasion (see my blog post on making mosaics) but nothing as large, detailed or impressive as the mosaics of Jeffery. For

Newgrange and the winter solstice.

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

Landscape Designer Mary Reynolds

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. Mary Reynolds, the first Irish winner of a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal for garden design, started her landscape de

Garden Designers Roundtable: Stone

I have kindly been invited to participate as a guest writer at the Garden Designers Roundtable to discuss the topic of stone. Being both a landscaper and a stonemason I think it is a fair assessment to say I have a passion for this subject. So here is my contribution to the decision. STONE Throughout the ages stone has been utilised by man for a variety of uses, ranging from the spiritual to the practical. It is one of mans oldest building materials, and yet its methods of co

More on Stone Benches

So I have talked about stone benches on a number of occasions, and now I am going to talk about them some more. I just had a lady asking me for more information on some of my stone benches, and while compiling the information for her I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone and write a blog post about it. So here it is! Stone Benches. Enrich your garden with one of Stone Arts trademark stone benches. Each one of these immensely popular benches is completely unique a

The amazing flowing stonework of Michael Eckerman

It’s not very difficult to see why Michael Eckerman and his stonework is loved by the surfing community, building stone features for many of the great surfers, and even getting featured in The Surfer’s Journal back in 2007. Bored with traditional stonework, Micheal’s creative nature has led him away from traditional design. Attracted by the flowing aspects of tectonic upheavals of lava flows that he observed in his travels, he began forming his own signature style of stonewor

Theater in the garden

Garden Theatres Although there are many grand Garden Theatres and huge impressive amphitheatres out there in the world, they are not something you find very often in normal residential garden design. They are however, something I like very much. So I will leave the many grand garden theatres and the huge impressive amphitheatres for another post for another day. Today I am going to talk about the intimate and sometimes modest (but just as effective) garden theatre. Growing up

Stone Woman, Thea Alvin

A while back while visiting Jan Johnsen landscape gardening blog ‘Serenity In The Garden‘ (a blog I highly recommend checking out if you don’t know it already) I saw this photo (derectally above ↑) and at first glance, thought it was a piece by Andy Goldsworthy. I quickly discovered that this fabulous piece of stone art was not the work of Goldsworthy but of Vermont Stonemason/ Artist Thea Alvin. Thea has been a professional stone mason for 25 years, and uses the dry stone st

The art of Stone Balancing

Real or Photoshopped? The first time I saw this photo I really didn’t know. I came across this photo a while back, it was posted on the web somewhere by someone, and a lot of the comments underneath it branded it a fake and put it down to photoshop trickery, as surely balancing stones like this is impossible? Well I wanted to believe it was real, but also needed some convincing. It was only after finding the creator of the photo Bill Dan and saw one of his You tube videos of