Info on on slate quarrying (WAS internet resources)

[Judy & Ted Buswick <jt.buswick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TO: Mike Davis (and others)

There is a very complete website on slate quarrying at Roger Williams University
(in RI), put together by students of Phillip C. Marshall, call Slated for
Preservation.  It's at http://gamma.rwu.edu/users/pcm/pub/slate/main.html

I've been using the Web for several years, but heavily for my book research in
the past four years.  It introduced me to artists around the world, I found
detailed essays and magazine reprints that explained sculpture terminology and
artists' theories of art.  The Tate Gallery and Barbara Hepworth Museum and
Sculpture Garen in St Ives and  the Isamu Noguchi Museum and Garden in Long
Island City, NY, both have sites about these internationally known artists who
worked with slate and many other stones.  Additionally, I could see examples of
work and had some idea of how these artists at a distance might fit into the
scope of the book.  After seeing their websites, I contacted the artists and
when possible, visited them for interviews.  As one example, I'd recommend Ivor
Richards' site in Wales:  http://www.Lmu.ac.uk/ces/axis/

My research showed that Arkansas did have enough slate for commercial quarries,
in the past.  But I didn't find much of modern industry and no artists from your
area. (Closest was a sculptor in Missouri and a jeweler in Kansas.)  I wonder if
you know people who use slate, either in sculpture or as a paint canvas or for
jewelry.  Your comment about finding your material free and as waste material is
a common one for slate artists.  But when people get doing large installations
or require specific sizes, they contact quarries and often wait months for the
right stone to become available.  I've been surprised at the variety of art
forms and decorative uses slate has been used for.  My book is due out in the
spring -- and I'll definitely let "Stone" readers know when it's published --
the publisher is in Wales, but has international distribution.

Good luck with your paper.  I hope I've been of help.  Others on this site have
been generous to me in the past.  People who work with stone are great!
Judy Buswick