The International Miniature Dry Stone Wall competition results are in!

September 29, 2021 9:12 AM

Miniature Walling Festival Brought to you by the Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland
posted by OHenryPacey (26 comments total)

How very awesome! I dig miniatures but have never heard of this iteration.
posted by davidmsc at 9:17 AM on September 29, 2021

"We work together", I told him from the heart,
"Whether we work together or apart."
posted by clew at 9:26 AM on September 29, 2021

How does a drystone wall qualify as minature?
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:31 AM on September 29, 2021

I was wondering the same thing.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:36 AM on September 29, 2021

I am here for this, as I've built the back-breaking, finger-crushing full-sized thing.
posted by scruss at 9:43 AM on September 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

Some strong showings from Canada!
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:53 AM on September 29, 2021

You wouldn't bother with a miniature wall made of full-sized stone, because then you could be done with it in one go.

I don't know if they have a specific size criteria or if they just count on the judges to give marks on smallness.

Has anyone tried to cheat by using a life-size Doctor Who statue?
posted by RobotHero at 9:53 AM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

The fruit arch by Ken and Nell got robbed. The use of ice cream as a temporary scaffold is a delicious innovation.
posted by Nelson at 9:56 AM on September 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

How does a drystone wall qualify as minature?

By being very smol.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:03 AM on September 29, 2021 [20 favorites]

The "best use of non stone materials " - is that referring to the wine bottle at the right, or are the cobbles making up most of the wall not stones in the walling sense?
posted by clew at 10:06 AM on September 29, 2021

You all know Pam Ayres' poem, right?

I am a drystone waller,
All day I drystone wall,
Of all appalling callings,
Drystone walling's worst of all.
posted by niicholas at 10:40 AM on September 29, 2021 [8 favorites]

It's a shame there doesn't seem to be a category for this truck my neighbor built.
But nice walls.
posted by MtDewd at 10:44 AM on September 29, 2021 [7 favorites]

...the non-stone materials winner, is that a wall made of *wombat poop*?
posted by tavella at 10:47 AM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

“It’s a small wall, after all 🎵
It’s a small wall, after all 🎵
It’s a small wall, after all 🎵
It’s a small small wall! 🎵”
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:56 AM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

The "best use of non stone materials " - is that referring to the wine bottle at the right

Jameson, judging by the other picture. The lesson here is that the best use of non-stone materials is to build your little wall out of stone and then drink a bottle of whiskey.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:17 AM on September 29, 2021

Whether miniature or full size, I have a problem with those walls that prominently include vertically-set slabs of stone that formed horizontally in nature. It goes against the nature of the stone and is jarring. You can look at all of Frank Lloyd Wright's stone walls and will never find him doing that. (I'll make an exception for arches.)
posted by beagle at 12:26 PM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

The vertical stones are definitely used in some traditions. I think it's sort of like the way barbed wire is used on fences; it makes it harder to jump over. I agree they don't look right (or Wright.)
posted by bitslayer at 12:47 PM on September 29, 2021

It’s a small wall, after all

Dammit GenjiandProust, now I'm gonna have to listen to some Pink Floyd to get that song out of my head!
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:17 PM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

> Has anyone tried to cheat by using a life-size Doctor Who statue?

Hold that thought.

tutorial.
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:38 PM on September 29, 2021

> It goes against the nature of the stone and is jarring

Opine all you want, but if you're getting paid to keep the bloody sheep in, you build it like you're told. A FLW building would dissolve in about 25 minutes in Scottish rain.

Coping (the stones on top) are very regionally distinctive. Some areas do jaggedy, others smooth. It's all about the local stone and what you're meaning to enclose or exclose.
posted by scruss at 1:56 PM on September 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

Wombat poop! I hope so!

Past scruss' practical point, sedimentary rocks do loop-the-loops in much of the world, they’ve left the liquid level long behind.
posted by clew at 2:16 PM on September 29, 2021

I don't know if they have a specific size criteria or if they just count on the judges to give marks on smallness.

One might, technically, argue that silicon wafers are stone. Or maybe released thin-film silicon dioxide bricks. (Certainly sapphire wafers count. . . though that's a pain in the neck.) I can't decide whether an entry with micron scale bricks would be in keeping with the spirit of the thing. But, it is tempting. Perhaps the right way to go small is to gather mica fragments from sand. Is it cheating to give them an electrostatic charge? (This is neat. Thanks!)
posted by eotvos at 4:32 PM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh! A chance to share my favorite video about rock walls! A totally fascinating talk given years ago at a VT library. The speaker also builds a small rock wall.
posted by ruetheday at 6:41 PM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

> ... those walls that prominently include vertically-set slabs of stone ...

Well, your aesthetic response depends on what you're used to. I'm most familiar with the styles of dry-stone walling in the upland areas of northern England (Cumbria, Yorkshire, Derbyshire), and those all use stones in flat/upright combinations. So when I see some of the Irish styles of walling with stones on a slant, it looks really weird and jarring, for example this one https://www.dswai.ie/miniature-walling-festival?pgid=kfgs6mim-55e6fa59-94f0-4a92-8aac-aef47c3554b1
posted by vincebowdren at 3:49 AM on September 30, 2021

...the non-stone materials winner, is that a wall made of *wombat poop*?

The individual entry pages have file names/titles: Kevin Hart Wombat poo wall Tasmainia.jpg
posted by zamboni at 6:59 AM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

I thought I recognized those little cubic deposits!
posted by tavella at 2:03 PM on October 2, 2021