Devin Devine, Stone Artist, Cairn Builder
devin@devineescapes.com
I led a small group of people in a collaborative Earth Art Cairn Building Workshop
–as foretold.
In Jim Thorpe earlier this week:
On day 1 I was lucky to be joined by a follow dry stone waller, a fellow land artist and a stone masonry apprentice.
More people showed up on day 2, to help us get it all finished–including 3 very helpful and enthusiastic children. Everyone involved had a memorable experience. We built something coo too.
*note we did not do proper dry stone craft, stone masonry nor walling here. rules that I usually follow as a professional were broken. But our collective knowledge and experience of these trades helped us build a stable structure in record fast time.
RELATED: I also teach how to build flagstone patios
We completed this Earth Art in record time
Related video content:
I wanted to build a planter unto the top of it–and so we did! My Fiance gathered aliums and vinca from our customer’s property to plant it.
The ferns and moss along the sides of it are just packed into gaps within the stone work. We plan to put the ferns back into the ground soon and replace them with native sedum. Sedum is more likely to survive in between stone crags like this. It did rain the next 3 days after the Earth Art workshop….so probably the ferns are still doing alright.
My team and I built this on privately owned land…It’s just downhill from the Switch Back Trail, and just uphill from the Mauch Chunk Opera House. Visible from the trail if you look down, or from the road below if you look up.
We did this at the Mauch Chunk Hanging Gardens Gallery Project. A hillside that was historically terraced and gardened, and now the new land owner has been looking to turn the place into an outdoor art gallery. He and his partner also own the most lovely bnb ever.
Related: dry stone sphere cairns by Devin Devine
Me and my friends and workshop attendees had fine accommodations.
I climbed inside the cairn as soon as it had a doorway completed.
Bandaged thumb, of course.
No scaffold involved….I just designed the thing with footholds. One must think like a goat in times like this. It helps.
The eyes are of course my mason’s mark…one of my signatures. But one of my workshop attendees drew the hand with the spiral in the middle of it. Note the photos which I took earlier in the day of my hand, in the middle of the A framed Lintel. I don’t believe he saw me taking those photos….but of course, it’s universal symbolism. Like the cave paintings–I’ll have to make another post about cave art, soon.
I was helped by such wonderful people. I couldn’t have asked for it all to come together any better than it did.
Thank You
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