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 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.

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.

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   

Landscape Designer Mary Reynolds

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/

Stargazing in the garden

photo © 2011 Nigel Howe | more info (via: Wylio)

I have always been fascinated by the night sky, and can happily sit in the garden staring into the vastness of space till the crick in my neck becomes unbearable. I am also a sucker for all those National Geographic specials on all the amazing things happening around us in space. The expansion of space, the exploration of planets, the inevitable extinction of our own planet, all these things float around in my head as I stare up into the night sky.

Garden Telescope by Telescopes of Vermont

So you can image that when I came across these beautifully hand crafted garden telescopes by Telescopes of Vermont , I have been dreaming about having one ever since. What a wonderful addition this would make to a garden!

I also really like the story behind these amazing telescopes and the little family business that reproduces them.

Russell W Porter and his telescope

The garden telescope was the brainchild of a man called Russell W. Porter, also known as the father of amateur astronomy in America, and founder of the Springfield Telescope Makers and instructor at MIT. He designed the garden telescope in the 1920s. Little did he realise that his innovations in design would later also apply to the 200 inch Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory, an observatory he helped to design.

The Porter Garden Telescope was conceived as both a superb optical instrument and a beautiful example of Art Nouveau Design.  It is the clever and artistic reconfiguration of a reflecting telescope more familiarly housed in a tube with an eyepiece projecting from the top.

In the case of the Porter Garden Telescope, the tube has become a bronze ginger leaf which holds the exposed optics in place. The optics lift out in seconds, leaving a graceful installation which can reside outdoors permanently as a distinctive centrepiece to a garden.

With the optics removed, it is also a clever and unusual sundial. When the blade is pointed at the sun, the correct time is indicated on the hour ring. It is also a wonderful educational tool for demonstrating the relationship of time and solar position.

This masterpiece of design may easily have been forgotten about, as its designs sat for almost eighty years collecting dust in the attic of The Smithsonian Museum, only to be rediscovered by fellow Vermonter Fred Schleipman.

Fred Schleipman

Thirty-five years ago Fred Schleipman, engineer and avid amateur astronomer, photographed a solar eclipse in Mauritania with an expedition of like minded individuals. There he befriended Bert Willard, an optical engineer, fellow stargazing enthusiast and member of the venerable Springfield Telescope Makers of Springfield, Vermont. Prior to joining the club, Schleipman visited their museum where he saw their collection of antique telescopes and rare documents. Among the treasures was an original Porter Garden Telescope. Schleipman was instantly smitten, and so began the dream to reintroduce, from obscurity, a historic and beautiful instrument.


His crusade held many hurdles, the first of which was to find an original, from less than twenty, which he could borrow for patterning. The Springfield Telescope Makers had been approached in that regard many times, but staunchly non commercial, and covetous of Porter’s reputation and their own, had many times declined the request. They finally reversed that stance, convinced that with Schleipman came the assurance that an instrument worthy of their endorsement would result. An original procured; the more daunting technological hurdles loomed: engineering, patterning, casting and machining.

Schleipman commented that working with the castings, though they are new, is a bit like restoring a Rembrandt. He is reverential of the craftsmanship reflected in the bronze pieces, and is thankful to have found skilled artisans capable of such delicate work in an age when this calibre of artistry is disappearing.


The Porter Garden Telescope - featured on CBS

Currently there are twenty five of these telescopes in the world. An original resides in the Smithsonian Institution.
For now I will continue dreaming about having number twenty six.

In the meantime while I wait for my lottery winnings, I may take a leaf from Dan Snows book and build myself something like this little project he made for a client recently. He was asked to build a place where his clients could take their sheep skins and lie out and stargaze in their garden. Check out Dan’s post about this little project here.

"Copyright Dan Snow, In the Company of Stone, All Rights Reserved"

"Copyright Dan Snow, In the Company of Stone, All Rights Reserved"

Thanks to Russ Schleipman for sending me on the information and photographs for this post (may your business thrive, so you can continue to produce these masterpieces for generations to come.) Thanks also to Dan Snow for giving me permission to use the photos of his ‘sky watch’ bench.