Stone River, by Landscape Architect and Stonemason Jon Piasecki

Stone River is a project by award wining landscape architect and stonemason, Jon Piasecki.

Jon Piasecki is a graduate of Harvard University (with a Masters in Landscape Architecture in 1995), and Cornell University (with a B.S. in forest ecology in 1989). In 2004, he received the Prince Charitable Trust Rome Prize awarded by the American Academy in Rome, and was in residence at the Academy in 2005.

Photos By John Dolan, 2009

For this project Jon was commissioned by prominent landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh to build a series of paths through the woods. For many people this task would be done using practicality and functionality, but for Jon, there is much more to it than that.

Jon at work, on Stone River

Jon Piasecki is a very interesting and philosophical man, with a strong personal and professional interest in ecology, and the cultural importance of the land.

In an interview with Orion Magazine, Jon tells of how his aim for this project was to ‘catch people’ coming into the woods, and by way of the stone paths, show them how to slow down a take in all the magic and beauty in the woods, something that many people, living life at 60mph ‘married to the materialistic world’ fail to see or do.

The stones in the path are almost fused together by Jon’s fantastic skill and passion for the project. He would spend hours meticulously shaping each stone until there is just a hairline crack between them.  

I highly recommend checking out this fantastic video by Orion Magazine, in which you can see Jon Piasecki working on the project, and listen to him talk about nature, the woods, and his multi-year stone works project in New York State — Stone River.  

Stone seats, the building process.

A few months back I wrote a post 'Stone Chairs. Some ancient some not so ancient…Yet….' in which I mentioned that one of my favorite things to build are stone seats. Well here is a stone seating area I have just completed and the process I used to create it.

So recently a lady in down in Co. Kildare asked me if I could transform this old area of her garden into one of my stone seating areas, so of course I was only too happy to oblige.

My delivery of stone.

So when the old material has been removed, the risers are built up.

For the top of the seats I often use big chunky slabs of stone like this (if I can get them). Depending on their weight, sometimes I need to get a mini digger to move them into place. However as there was a little movement in these ones, I decided to move them into place the old fashioned way, by using round timber stakes and leverage. It is hard going, but there is something very satisfying about doing it all by hand.

So when the seat tops are finished it is time to make the backs of the seats. This is the part that truly makes each seat unique.

When possible, I will actually go to the stone quarry and walk around and pick out the stone myself for a project. Unfortunately it has become increasingly difficult to find quarries that will let you loose in the quarry to go around picking out stone, as they are worried about getting sued.

So in this case I was unable to pick the stone myself, so I had to give a very detailed shopping list of exactly what I needed. This brought its own challenges, as you have to work with what you are given.

I try not to alter the stone too much, as I like to keep the natural edges of the stone. This way you keep all the stone's imperfections, keeping the whole thing looking more organic.

Laying the stone out on the ground I work out the layout for the backs of the seats. 

It is good to do this beforehand as once you get the stone in place, you really don't want to be moving it again.

Over the years you do learn some clever ways of moving large pieces of stone around without breaking your back. With pieces like this I walk them into place by rotating them on one corner, then doing the same with the other, slowly edging forward.

When all the main backing stones are in place, the smaller stones can be built up in between as can the stone around the back of the larger slabs.

And that's it, piece of cake really!

Well maybe not, it is hard work but it is also very rewarding work. Creating something unique and artistic like this can totally transform a garden and can be enjoyed for centuries to come!

Everglades Gardens at Leura

A few months ago, I was asked fellow garden blogger Britt Conley from the Photo Garden Bee to partake in a photo meme. For the post I chose a photo I took at the Everglades Gardens set in the Blue Mountains at Leura, Australia. Picking this photo (below) made me want to write a post about the gardens themselves, so that is what I am going to do now.

Everglades is one of Australia’s foremost heritage gardens. This treasure from the 1930s sits in twelve and a half acres of European-style gardens and native Australian bush with breathtaking views over the Jamison Valley in the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia.

View from lookout

 The site purchased by Henri Van de Velde in 1932 had been left to run wild since 1910, when Mrs Stonier’s eight acres of orchard were ravaged by bushfire. The site sloped steeply, with a one in two gradient in places. Beyond the orchard, a further five acres of natural bushland fell away with precipitous drops to the Jamison Valley and Gordon Falls far below.

The site was rocky, formed from Triassic sandstone rich in the iron oxide which coloured it with dark red and purple bands. Sandwiched between the ironstone, much softer layers of sandstone eroded at a faster rate over the millennia, leaving a rock face deeply etched with curving hollows and stripes. The earth was thin and sandy, poor in nutrients and full of ironstone fragments (resulting in fantastic rock formations like the photo from my photo meme and the one below).

Architect Paul Sorensen overcame the lack of fertile soil by hand digging areas for planting to a depth of 600-900mm. Soil excavated from what was to become the Grotto Pool was distributed to garden beds and enriched with humus. Ironstone was removed and graded according to quality and colour. The best pieces were used to create the massive, drystone walls which are a main feature of the garden, while those of a lesser quality were used for packing and filling.

The Grotto Pool

To make the site accessible and suitable for planting, Sorensen followed the European tradition of forming massive ‘platforms’ to civilise the landscape with a series of terraces formed and kept in place by the ironstone walls. The physical labour required to create the walls and planting areas was daunting. There was no heavy machinery available in those days, and few skilled tradesmen. Australia was, however, still in the grip of the Great Depression. There were plenty of able-bodied men who were glad of the opportunity for work

Fourteen stonemasons at a time were employed to construct the walls which snake along the lookout above the Gordon Falls and delineate the terraces. While stretches of wall may have been built using relatively unskilled labour, the hand of highly skilled stonemasons is evident in features such as the perfectly rounded, barrel-ended walls leading up from the Studio Terrace, and the neatly made weep-holes and apertures for taps seen on the Cherry Terrace.

Walls of the lookout

Besides all the wonderful stonework two other features that stand out in my mind, are the Garden Theatre and the many wood carvings around the gardens.

The Garden Theatre

The Garden Theatre at Everglades is recessed off the left side of the Studio Terrace looking towards the view. The golden pyrmont sandstone arch which forms the dramatic backdrop to the stage was originally the recessed entrance to the London Chartered Bank of Australia on Sydney’s George Street. The arch is flanked by tall hedges clipped formally to form the wings of the stage. The stage is a major focus for the cultural and community entertainments -including weddings -which bring many thousands of visitors to Everglades each year.

 Syrian born landscape architect, Fred Alwahan, created many sculptures for Everglades and a new life for the limbs of many dead trees.

Information and a few photos from the Everglades Gardens Website http://www.everglades.org.au/

Stone Chairs. Some ancient some not so ancient…Yet….

One of my favourite things to build is stone seats. There is something very special about sitting in a stone seat, it feels very grand, almost throne like. When building stone seats, a portion of my time is spent sitting, making sure that they are comfortable and positioned right. I must admit I have on occasion sat there wondering ‘will this seat still be here in a few hundred years. Will archaeologists be examining it to try and discover what kind of ceremonial uses it once had’ I like to think so!

(I often wonder the same thing about standing stones, Ireland is dotted with standing stones, and in recent years I have noticed it has become a very popular feature in new homes to have a standing stone in the front garden . What is to say that people weren’t doing this a few hundred years ago, maybe one day while building his mud hut, Séan decided to stick a big stone on its side as a nice garden ornament only to have archaeologists hundreds of years later declare it and sacred monument and document it in their books.)

This brings me to the other thing I love about stone seats. There is a rich history of stone seats in Ireland, dating back hundreds of years. Here are some of my favourites.



St Patrick’s Chair and Well

St Patrick’s Chair and Well (also known as the Druids Chair and Well or St Brigid’s Well or St Brigit’s Well) lies within Altadeven Wood, not far from the Ulster Way footpath. The chair is a huge 2m high stone block, shaped like a throne. The Well, which is said to never run dry is another rock, buth this one has a 25cm bullaun, or depression in it. This is filled with natural water. According to folklore, the water within such depressions or bullauns has healing powers and this well is supposed to be good at curing warts.

The Hag’s Chair

   

At the hill top cairns the Cailleach Bhéarra plays a prominent role with regards to stone chairs. In the north, where passage tombs occur, her seats would often stand in the vicinity of these Neolithic structures. A splendid rock chair of the Cailleach is the decorated kerbstone at the main cairn at Loughcrew, County Meath. In a place called ‘The Spellick’, not far from her home on Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, she has another stone seat. Until the early decades of the twentieth century, communal harvest gatherings took place at the Spellick on Bilberry Sunday, and people would sit in the chair as part of the festivites.

Áine's Rock Chairs aka The Mad Chair of Dunany

.. a great stone called "the chair of Aine, or the chair of the lunatics," was located, possibly still is, near Dunany, and the people generally believed that lunatics, actuated by some insuperable impulse, if at liberty, usually made their way to this stone, and seated themselves thrice upon it; and it was generally believed that after having performed that ceremony they became incurable. It was also considered a very dangerous act for persons of sane minds to sit upon this stone, lest they too might become subject to the power of Aine, that is, become affected with lunacy.

The human race were not the only beings supposed to have been affected by the mischievous Aine, since rabid dogs even were said to have come from many parts of the country and flocked around this stone, to the great danger of the neighbours and their cattle: when they remained around the lunatics' chair for some time, they then retired into the sea, as if compelled by some potent invisible power, and the people supposed that they were forced to visit the submarine dominions of Aine, since they were entirely under her subjection.

Stone Master, Lew French

When I first started working with stone back in my late teens, I quickly developed a passion for it. All of a sudden I started noticing stonework a lot more, every time I would see a stone wall or an old castle I would stop and take a moment to examine how it was built and image the work that went into building it. As a mason you definitely do appreciate quality stonework at a different level, as you have a pretty good idea at the amount of work that went into it. You also have a great respect for masters of the craft, who motivate and inspire you on a continues bases.

One such master of the craft is Lew French.

I have to admit I only discovered Lew’s work quite recently (you got to love the internet) but was immediately taken by it, and ordered a copy of his book ‘Stone by Design’ straight away.

Lew has been working with stone for a little over 30 years now, producing exceptionally crafted, one of a kind pieces of work, from all things in the landscape to the most amazing interiors and fireplaces.

Lew was born in the small farming town of Zumbrota, Minnesota. He started to work with stone when he was just nineteen years old. He moved to Martha's Vineyard over 25 years ago and has worked on his own stone designs exclusively since.

One of the great things about working with stone is, you are always learning. In Lew’s book he writes ‘I am still amazed at how much I do not know or understand about this simple and basic material called stone’

Lew rarely uses mortar, he believes that every stone has its natural place and fit, and that altering or modifying stone takes away from its natural beauty, this respect and treatment of the stone, is what makes his work stand out, and gives it a real natural and aged look.

Lew's  dry stacking technique, is similar to the one used to build the old walls. In a dry-stacked wall, the stones are laid one on top of each other without mortar, held in place by gravity. However, French's walls and dry-stacked mosaics have none of the gaps or disjointed pieces found in old stone walls. His stones fit tightly together, each fitting seamlessly into the ones around it.

The stones Lew uses are usually not shaped or altered in any way. As he builds a wall, he searches for just the right stone to fit in his designs, a process that can take months. He finds or buys stones and stores them in a field. Some of the stones have been waiting in the field for twenty years, in order to fit into a perfect pattern.

One of the reasons way I am such a fan of Lew and his work, is that I share much of the same respect and views of stone as him, and I can only hope that some day someone will want to pay me, what they are paying him to create a magnificent work of stone art, like these of this stone master that is Lew French.

Below is a video featured on Lew French from CBS News from 2007.
I would like to thank Lew for his inspiration, and for his kind permission to use photos and information from his website http://www.lewfrenchstone.com/

His wonderful book titled 'Stone by Design' that has more than 125 gorgeous photographs that showcase the beauty of his award-winning 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. French provides charming narration for each project: how an idea came to be; how a stone-splitting technique is executed; even how one of his most difficult pieces, a three-year-long project, was saved from ruin the day it was completed. With its contemporary hearths of rustic slate, sculptured walls of both great granite slabs as well as stacked and rounded fieldstones, "Stone By Design: The Artistry of Lew French" will inspire design lovers to incorporate this material in home interiors and exteriors, whether as an artful writer's studio, a playful fireplace, or a carefully crafted garden pathway. More than just a stunning tribute to the work of Lew French and his unique vision and craft, this book celebrates both the function and form of stone. It's the perfect inspiration for anyone interested in adding the beauty of stone to their home or landscape . Click here to buy this great addition to your stone library with free worldwide shipping.

Lew French's book Stone by Design. Click here to buy with free worldwide shipping