Dry stone waller - photo essay
- Thread starter sandbender
- Start date
That's like lego he's standing next to. That's easy peasy! I was a dyker for years and you worked with what you had, in Fife it was whin (the worst after riveer cobbles), Dundee it was greenstone, Endrick it was sandstone if you were lucky, and generally field rubble for all the rest. Masters ticket, what a load of cack. It means nothing. Building a dyke from any material means everything and thats what most farmers did. Anyone can build a dyke with lego stone, but building with field rubble requirres skill, patience and a lot of know how!
Incidently it was often napoleonic prisoners of war who did dykes up here in Scotland.
Incidently it was often napoleonic prisoners of war who did dykes up here in Scotland.
Scots_Charles_River
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Not trying to belittle him in any way shape or form but there's a fairly valid reason why most dry stone wallers don't have a "Masters certificate", its cos most of them get work by word of mouth and most farmers couldn't care less about the person having the right bits of paper as long as they can do the job.
I have two brothers who do it (one pretty much full time and the other does a few months a year and does housebuilding the rest) and my father used to build drystone walls during his golf coaching off season. Everyone walking past when they are working always claims its an art but realistically most of the time they would rather be working somewhere warm and dry.
The stone he has in those pictures does indeed look exceptionally good as well.
The ones that have the time to do competitions are usually the ones who are not dead busy which says something about their work but I'm not quite sure what.
I have two brothers who do it (one pretty much full time and the other does a few months a year and does housebuilding the rest) and my father used to build drystone walls during his golf coaching off season. Everyone walking past when they are working always claims its an art but realistically most of the time they would rather be working somewhere warm and dry.
The stone he has in those pictures does indeed look exceptionally good as well.
The ones that have the time to do competitions are usually the ones who are not dead busy which says something about their work but I'm not quite sure what.
Sandbender what I said was "Masters ticket, what a load of cack.", and that's a fairly common statement from many wallers like myself. It implies better, best or the best among all others and that simply is not true. Sure it's nice dyking but with stone that good, it's just like building a house with lego, anyone can do it and it's not difficult at all.
Show me a man or woman who can build a wall with any stone and make it stockproof as well as looking good then you'll find a very good dyker.
I'll post a picture of a very small walI I did in my garden out of hand picked stone. Every time I went for a walk I picked a stone up and put it in the boot of the car and in a year I had enough to build a patio dyke. My point is if you pick the stone and use the best then there's very little skill involved yet it claims the most accolade because it is appeasing. Seems a little unjust in my eyes.
As stated a back garden dyke I built. An example of how easy it is to build with good stone.
Lego in stone is for anyone to do
Lego in stone is for anyone to do
Woodsmoke that's a cool wee wall. I really liked the slideshow too. When I saw WS calling it a load of cack I thought that it must be some tarquin from art school who'd just discoverd that he had some marginal skill in a traditional working craft, and then goes on to proclaim what a great art and skill he/she has revived. Was pleasantly surprised that it was a real working dude. These walls should be listed and preserved really.
Woodsmoke that's a cool wee wall. I really liked the slideshow too. When I saw WS calling it a load of cack I thought that it must be some tarquin from art school who'd just discoverd that he had some marginal skill in atraditional working craft, and then goes on to proclaim what a great art and skill he/she has revived. Was pleasantly surprised that it was a real working dude. These walls should be listed and preserved really.
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