I was very excited to receive in the mail my package of seeds from the Cottage Gardener this spring. Mary and Dan Brittain, the owners of this wonderful organic seed company, are one of the sponsors of the 100 mile ART Project. They had very kindly shipped me 360 woad seeds! Woad (Isatis tinctoria) makes … Read more
Visiting the LaFarge Quarry in Dundas is quite an experience. The quarry opens it’s gates twice a year to rock-hounders and, because I’m a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Gem and Mineral Club, I was able to attend. Everyone met on a side road, and when I arrived and saw the seventy odd cars already there … Read more
The town of Paris is a beautiful place to collect. The whole town seems to have the right mixture of straight, hard stone lines and soft curving hills, but I had a special interest beyond that in my desire to find the gypsum I needed for making the icon’s gesso. I had always assumed that … Read more
I knew that the village of Limehouse is located in an especially beautiful area before my son and I traveled up there to hike. My grandfather built his house on the edge of Limehouse (and Stewardtown) because he liked the area so much and as a boy this meant that I took many day-long excursions exploring the local geography. … Read more
This article is a series of journal entries from the 100 mile ART project, a project completed while artist-in-residence for the City of Cambridge in 2008. The goal of the project was to create a painting using only materials found or farmed within a 100-mile radius of Cambridge, Ont. Galena The last sample provided by Reiner … Read more
Here’s another sample provided by Reiner Mielke from the Dundas quarry; it is a mineral called Sphalerite. Sphalerite is a native form of zinc sulfide and, according to my research, can be ‘white’, to ‘honey-yellow’, to ‘brown or reddish’. My own powdered form is light brown in colour but I have yet to see if … Read more
In May, the LaFarge Quarry in Dundas will be open for a field trip to collectors associated with local gem and mineral clubs. I plan on attending this rock hounding opportunity, but Reiner has been good enough to provide me with some samples beforehand so that I can test certain minerals found at this location for their use as … Read more
As the water has continued to recede from the Conestoga River I have continued to explore the different strata that become exposed. Since these layers are best visible from the river, this weekend I ventured to climb into the river itself and get the best vantage I possible could for collecting my rocks. The spring-time water is … Read more
Since the rocks I collected from the Don Valley Brickworks were all mud-covered I really only had a very rough idea of what I had collected on my trip. So, with some toothbrushes in hand, my children and I began to clean these little treasures. Some of the rocks really don’t have any merit as … Read more
I recently visited the old Don Valley Brickworks in search of some unique minerals. The brickworks was created in 1889 by three brothers John, William and George Taylor. Their work was creative, using the different materials present at this site to create a variety of brick types. They were also prolific and by 1907 they … Read more