Stone Gathering

CC ALIFORNIAALIFORNIA A A ISEKIISEKI K K AIAI Volume 33, Issue 5 May 2015

If you are a new member and are just beginning to collecting stones I’d like to introduce you to the process of starting or expanding your collection. We are fortunate to have the ways and means to acquire viewing stones either by purchasing or traveling to rivers, deserts or along our coastline. Our group usually has two organized “hunts” a year; to the desert, for sure, and occasionally, to the Kern River. For the past several years we have hunted in the Yuha desert, since many of the early desert areas to our Northeast have been integrated into the Death Valley National Park and are now off limits for collecting.

Buying Stones We have two members who have large collections of incredible stones for sale. Their contact information can be found on page 12 of this newsletter. I just went on line using their information and they both have dozens of stones for sale. Freeman Wang has a shop in LA County and is online. Ken McLeod has a huge selection on his site. You may find stone vendors on the internet as well. I just googled “suiseki for sale” and found several vendors selling stones, although many were out dated. You will have an opportunity to buy stones at the end of October by visiting Golden State Bonsai Federation’s convention in Riverside. Go to: gsbfconvention.org for details. While there is a registration fee for events, the sales area is free and open to the public. There are usually two to three vendors selling stones. When you consider buying stones from these vendors note that many of them are in daiza, the wooden base carved to fit the bottom of the stone. Daiza are works of art, on their own, and I don’t think you can have one made by an expert carver, anywhere, for less than $200. So their prices are really good deals when comparing them to the cost of most collecting trips (hotel room, gasoline, meals). However, if you have the time and energy, collecting is the way to go. It’s fun. It’s an adventure.

For more on the experience of hunting for stones in the wild, see the March 2013 newsletter article on page 1, “What’s the difference”.

~Larry Ragle

May Program Kathy Boehme, premier ceramicist, will have 30 suiban for sale at our May meeting on the 27th. This is a rare opportunity to purchase suiban. The prices will range from $40 to $180 each (no sales tax). Note that Kathy prefers cash although she will accept your good check. She will not accept credit cards so please be prepared. Bill and Lois Hutchinson are moving to Pennsylvania in July. They have a few suiban that they will offer for sale as well. They will only accept cash or your good check. Al Nelson will have turntables for sale. Cash or check, please. This will not be a chance to use your dickering skills. If you want the suiban for the stated price, please buy it. If not, don’t. Be polite….. Once the sales are complete, we will have a short program on last month’s Korean Soosuk Show. Both Jim Greaves and Larry will share their photos.

Stone of the Month We will bring some sand to the meeting and using some of the suiban you will have purchased, we can display a variety of stones and discuss their placement. You will want to bring suiban suitable stones and that means landscape scenes. Please do not bring figure stones (with the exception of boats and huts). Look below: which of these placements do you prefer? If you do not like either one, why?

We would like to hear from you so email Larry at ragle@cox.net and tell him your preference. We will share the results at the meeting! This will be an interesting discussion. Let’s join the conversation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Welcome back Linda Gill. We missed seeing Hanne Povlsen because she is still recuperating but getting better every day. (It was nice to see Tom & Apinya, Mika and Richard Aguirre.)

The 1 inch wide inner m

argins are designed for use with a 3 hole punch.

VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI

STONE OF THE MONTH: (mountain shaped stones) Sizes are in inches, width x height x depth

PAGE 2

April Meeting Notes

Bruce McGinnis 10.5 x 6.5 x 7 Linda Gill 4.5 x 1 x 2

Phil Chang 8 x 4 x 3 Phil Chang 9 x 5 x 4

Janet Shimizu 6 x 2 x 3.5

Marty Hagbery 9 x 3 x 7 Al Nelson 9 x 3 x 7

Janet Shimizu 8 x 5 x 3

Buzz Barry 4.25 x 2.5 x 3

Bruce McGinnis 9 x 5 x 5.5

Linda Gill 6 x 5 x 2.5

Larry Ragle 10 x 2.5 x 3

Brad Hagbery 10 x 1.25 x 4

Emma Janza 8 x 5 x 4

Phil Chang 9.5 x 4 x 4

Larry Ragle presented a slide show on the 2nd Japanese Suiseki Exhibition 2/9-13, 2015 held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum by the Nippon Suiseki Association. The program began with slides of Kasaneyama, “Overlapping Mountains”, and everyone was thrilled to see the respect it garnered from the staff of the Eisei-Bunko Museum (where it is currently housed). This is the first time that "Overlapping Mountains" has been shown in a suiseki exhibit. It was displayed on a special brocade mat but in the catalog the stone is shown as a bonseki, an old style of display, with several other white stones and white sand in a black lacquer tray.

The tokonoma were less formal this year. White backgrounds were separated from each other by small triangles between the displays at the rear of the table. The photos of the tokonoma displays in the catalog were shot in a traditional tokonoma prior to the show and the rest of the stones were photographed without tables. Tiny stones were shown in a glass case. There were about 150 stones in the show. There were special entries, mostly famous stones. Most of the stones were river stones. Many of the tables, suiban and doban were antique and very valuable.

VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI

There were 22 entries from abroad in the show. Foreigners were invited to send pictures of stones to be judged. The pictures were reviewed and the association accepted certain ones. Eight of the selected stones were from Japan. These elegant displays were created by the association. By showing the stones in order Nina was able to follow with the catalog text and answer questions about where they were from and their size. Some of us noticed that almost every stone was “a landscape scene”, that there were just a few figure stones and very few pattern stones in particular. A couple of people thought a few of the stones could have come from the Eel River…. Everyone was delighted by and grateful for Wil’s English translations. (Thank you, Wil and Bill Valavanis for the use of these photos.)

PAGE 3

April Program Notes by Linda Gill

Dear Debra and David, As to seeking precedents, the Japanese have had no historical interest or inclusion of desert stones as suiseki and there appear to be no traditional roots for the current appreciation of desert stones in China where, only recently, they have been discovered and promoted as collectible viewing stones. We are on our own. If the statement that one should not water desert stones was made as an all encompassing imperative, it may sound authoritative, but pardon the pun, it does not hold water. First, however, we need to determine the basis upon which your admonisher proffers the prohibition: philosophical, aesthetic, physical or some combination thereof. Philosophically, some collectors may argue that since desert stones are from the desert – and as many of the finer ones have been formed by wind and sand, not flowing water – it is therefore unnatural to apply water to appreciate them. There is an immediate, appealing logic to this prohibition, but does it stand up to careful consideration? If, essentially, the prohibition is founded on the observation that the desert is a dry environment, having personally collected in desert drizzles and downpours, I can assure you that desert stones occasionally get very wet. (After writing this last sentence, I stopped to think about experiences of collecting in the rain in the desert and even surprised myself when I recalled doing so at Dumont Dunes, Lake Hill, Garnet Hill, the Yuha, and in the white snowy version at Pala Duro in Texas.) In truth, in the desert, as is the case on the bed of a river, a light rain is often an aid while collecting as it intensifies color. While one notes that in the desert, running water is seldom the significant creative, refining force that it becomes in rivers and streams where rocks are tumbled around and worn smooth, water may still play a critical role in the weathering of rock and reducing it to collectible sized stones. Water in the form of flash flooding moves rock down the talus slopes and across the flats. Water provides the medium for the chemical dissolution/leaching of surface minerals. Perhaps water’s most critical role in the weathering of our desert rock, though less obvious, is through the fragmentation caused when water that has penetrated into cracks freezes with its resulting expansion and physically

PAGE 4 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 MAY 2015

causing the rock to split into smaller chunks or their surfaces to exfoliate. To refrain from wetting a stone because of an a priori decision based on one’s personal experiences of the desert, and the general understanding that deserts and therefore desert stones are dry, is a tenable if somewhat arbitrary decision. But in referencing a source alone, it makes no more sense to insist that desert stones be kept dry as to insist that river stones be kept wet.

Observations on some characteristic desert stones: Having established that desert stones do occasionally get wet, let us quickly survey how some representative stones are visually affected. Rhyolite and Indian Blanket Stone from the old Saddle Peak Hills site (aka. Dumont Dunes) in the lower Death Valley – now included within Death Valley National Park and off-limits to collecting – may undergo drastic shifts in hue and intensity when the surface is wet: pale pastels

often change to intense reds, yellows, oranges and purples, while grays transform to sumie blacks.

Stones from Lake Hill in Panamint Valley – also now incorporated into Death Valley National Park and off limits for collecting – often have a subtle gray patina that transforms into deeper shades, even black, when wet. Thus a stone with a soft gray color that cap-tures the natural sense of the atmospheric diffusion and light scattering that one encounters in the desert will be

transformed, becoming bolder and more of an abstract representa-tion (black).

PAGE 4 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5

Ask GuyJim Dear GuyJim, On the most recent Yuha collecting trip it was mentioned that one should not water desert stones. Would you please explain why not?

Debra and David Melitz, Irvine, CA

CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI PAGE 5 VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5

While wetting stones often intensifies the color of the rhyolites and sandstones characteristic of the lower Death Valley, the effect of water is usually less obvious on stones from Garnet Hill outside of Palm Springs. Here, the most characteristic stone consists of fossilized oyster shell in a grayish concrete-like matrix;

the dark shell does not change in appearance when wet, while the matrix, as you might guess, looks just like dull wet concrete! Garnet Hill also has much granitic rock that undergoes virtually no change.

Similarly, many Yuha Desert stones have fine dense surfaces of volcanic origin that often appear dark and glossy and resist wetting; others may saturate with various degrees of darkening, but with marginal bene-fit, sometimes even a bit soggy looking. When wet, Yuha sandstones usually take on dull, muddy shading, seldom producing a more interesting, richer color shift that you sometime get with Dumont sandstone. Stones

from volcanic areas near Ludlow in the Mojave Desert (below) have finer, almost glass-like surfaces; others,

especially from the Panamint Valley, may develop a surface of ‘desert varnish’, a thin, often shiny layer resulting from a complex biological fixation of a chemical patina – while some of these surfaces will absorb water and darken, others may totally repel water!

Possible alteration of the stone surface: With that quick overview of how certain of our desert stones respond to wetting, we may begin to approach the question of should we wet desert stones once collected. Before proceeding we should take a moment to clarify what is meant by the terms watering or wetting. The terms share the physical phenomena associated with the application of water to the surface of a stone, but they are not interchangeable. We must recognize that what we are dealing with is not simply the wetting of a stone, but rather under what circumstances and for what duration. An occasional ‘wetting’, a misting or dunking to show a friend the color, is not the same as prolonged exposure to daily wetting with a garden hose or by lawn sprinklers. Setting aesthetics and taste aside, let us consider physical reasons that argue in support of the proscription against wetting. In all cases, the primary argument against watering desert stones is the possibility that doing so may eventually and permanently alter their physical surfaces, thus affecting the optical phenomena of absorption, reflection and diffraction that ultimately affect color. While the glassy surfaces of igneous rocks may form impervious barriers to water, Death Valley rhyolite ventifacts, for instance, have very delicate surfaces with a frosty bloom or blush. One suspects that this is micro pitting from sandblasting and/or an oxidation product that might be reduced or leached away by chemical reaction with water. (Here is a good place to remind everyone that these delicate surfaces will readily ‘stain’ from finger oil, one reason why you should not touch or handle another collector’s stones without permission.)

VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI PAGE 6

Protecting your desert stones from unintentional soaking in your yard or garden is sound advice. While on one hand we again face the potential of leaching of surface salts we may encounter the added problem of these salts migrating to pool and create fronts as they redeposit. Even more detrimental than the potential leaching of salts from the stone itself is the simple fact that our local water is heavily loaded with dissolved salts and as it evaporates it will leave

unsightly white deposits that can develop a remarkable thickness very quickly. Such deposits become nearly impossible to remove from even the hardest river stones and removing them from desert stones will often

remove surrounding patina and/or damage the underly-ing surface. It is worth noting that prolonged exposure to our polluted atmosphere itself, abetted by moisture – whether from the garden, occasional rain, fog or morning dew – will, as with the acid-rain that destroys building facades and outdoor sculpture, inexorably etch and degrade the more highly polished desert stone

surfaces found on many Dumont Dunes and Panamint Valley stones, leaving them with a chalky dry look rather than their original satiny, frosty look.

Interestingly, our biggest concern may not be the actual wetting so much as the cycle of repeated wetting and drying out of the stones, a process that accelerates leaching and salt deposit. In fact, if colorful desert stones were used to line a small pool and kept constantly covered with water, it is likely they would remain free of salt formation although perhaps still be subject to leaching. Here note that whatever your opinion regarding the Japanese practice of yoseki, wherein stones are watered frequently with the intent of improving the finish/patina of a recently found raw stone, in Southern California the question of thus treating desert stones is largely moot because the practice would likely have un-natural, even if striking, results (above, right).

Frequent, intermittent watering outdoors is likely far more detrimental than occasionally wetting a stone to appreciate it in hand or for a formal display. Although the application of any water has the potential to dissolve existing surface salts and cause them to migrate and deposit out in the form of a ‘front’ somewhere else on the stone, the temporary wetting of a desert stone with a spray of water would seem permissible, likely causing no more damage than a passing cloudburst. (To be extra safe, one can use distilled or deionized water to minimize the chance of unwanted mineral deposits.) A final caution: It should be noted that even without the addition of water or any oil or waxy substance, the simple act of dry rubbing or brushing the delicate surface of a desert stone could irreversibly alter its surface. Synthetic fabrics and bristles contain chemical compounds (many petroleum based) that will transfer to a stones surface thus in effect varnish it with an unnatural sheen. In summary, do be careful about prolonged exposure of desert stones to incidental watering in the yard and perhaps out of doors exposure altogether; don’t sweat the occasional spritz to bedazzle a friend. I personally have preferred to leave most desert finds in their natural state, not as a philosophical statement so much as a reflection of personal experiences and taste.

Next month the question of ‘to wet or not’ will be revisited from other perspectives, including ‘wetting’ the surface without water: alternate surface treatments.

GuyJim

The views expressed in this column are personal, perhaps irreverent, irrelevant or just plain wrong and do not reflect the consensual view of California Aiseki Kai. Send your viewing stone questions (or comments) for GuyJim to jimreaves@roadrunner.com or 1018 Pacific Street, Unit D, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or call (310) 452-3680

PAGE 7 VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI

Opening weekend will be fun, fun. I'll be doing an all day daiza carving demo, questions, and answers, viewing stone history and just gabbing stones with anybody who will listen. The first week-end in May is the P.S.B.A. Spring Show, Club trees, Museum trees and STONES... What could be sweeter ???

Mountain Stone: W 71/4"x H 3 3/4"x D 6" Sauk River, WA Patrick Metiva, founder, owner, daiza carver

" Sunken Treasure Galleon" Boat, Cave, Tunnel, Shelter Stone: W 8"x H 5"x D 3 3/4" Southeastern Alaska Rick Klauber, founder, owner, daiza carver

Mountain Stone: W10" x H 3 3/4"x D 4" Thomes Creek, CA Joel Schwarz, founder, owner, daiza carver

Arch Stone: W 71/2" x H 5" x D 2 1/2" Skagit County, WA Edd Kuehn, founder, owner, daiza carver

Stone Images Six: April 3rd - May 3rd by Edd Kuehn

Here are images of stones from the Northwest that are displayed in the P.S.B.A.'s viewing stone study groups sixth annual display "Stone Images Six" at the Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way, WA. Stones had to be from North America and not previously seen in our displays, a limit of ten stones or nine and a shelf display per person, and stones had to be in daiza, suiban, doban, or on a pillow. Judges, by invitation this year, were David Degroot, the new museum curator Aarin Packard, and Joel Schwarz, who did their job and selected 30 stones and two shelf displays for set-up a month away. Selected stones were collected and photo-graphed by me with the images passed on to catalog editor Rick Klauber. Members interested in catalogs can contact me: eddkuehn@aol.com Set up day Patrick Metiva and I, with the support of study group members, will have a blast putting it all together.

Thread waterfall: W 4 1/2” x H 9 1/4” x D 2 3/4” Nooksack River, WA, carved Mopani wood, Edd Kuehn

An exhibit of viewing stones from North America only was held at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum from February 20 through March 29, 2015. Put on by the Potomac Viewing Stone Group (PVSG), the exhibit was first thought of by Tom Elias after the release of his book North American Viewing Stones, A Contemporary Perspective, in 2014. Several PVSG members submitted photos for that book and twenty-eight images were accepted, plus five additional were accepted from the NB&P Museum collection. Not all were available to us, as three had moved with their owner to Colorado, while Tom Elias and Hiromi Nakaoji sent just three of their five stones included in the book. Tom and Hiromi are both members of PVSG. So we had twenty eight total stones to exhibit, and that seemed a very workable amount. PVSG has previously exhibited in the NB&P Museum Special Exhibits Wing venue, but in the past we always had a larger number of stones to pick and choose from, so it was interesting to see if we could be successful with just the twenty-eight chosen stones.

VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI

I hope you will think we were successful when you see the photos from Mike Colella in this article. We decided to name the exhibit with just a slight variation on Tom’s book title as “North American Viewing Stones, An Emerging Perspective”, to perhaps better express our clubs position. The Potomac Viewing Stone Group is an informal organization formed in 1999 with the objectives of educating people in all Asian and Western stone traditions, and encouraging further development of the art through interesting group meetings, exhibits and collecting trips. We are affiliated with the Potomac Bonsai Association but also encourage membership from outside the bonsai community. We meet six times per year, usually at the US National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. We often exhibit in the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s Special Exhibits Wing during the early spring months to allow its employees and volunteers addition time to perform its seasonal bonsai chores. You may contact PVSG through Glenn Reusch, PVSG Secretary, at Ghreusch@aol.com

PAGE 8

Potomac Viewing Stone Group Exhibit by Glenn Reusch

VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI PAGE 9

Quarry, Western MD, Michael Colella, 9 x 9 x 2

(L) See page 11 and (R) see page 10

Shenandoah River, VA, Michael Colella, 3 x 6 x 5

(L) Stillaguamish River, WA, U.S. Nat'l Arboretum, 6 x 12.3 x 5.3 (R) Shenandoah Valley, Boyce, VA, Chris Cochrane, 11 x 10 x 6

James River, VA, Chris Cochrane, 10.5 x 7.3 x 4.5

So CA desert, Hiromi Nakaoji, 3.5 x 8.5 x 3.6

(Sizes are in inches: H x W x D)

See below

PAGE 10 VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI

James River, VA, Chris Cochrane, 3.5 x 5.5 x 2.8

(L) Desert, So CA, Hiromi Nakaoji, 6.3 x 3 x 2.3 (R) Mores Creek, ID, Glenn Reusch, 6.5 x 8 x 4

Eel River, CA, U.S. Nat’l Arboretum, 8.5 x 21.5 x 12.75

Coastal British Columbia, Tom Elias, 4.2 x 8 x 4

PA., Robert Blankfield, 3.5 x 12.2 x 5.2

Location unknown, Michael Colella, 4 x 3 x 3

Programs: Larry Ragle 949.497.5626 crimescene@cox.net Treasury/Membership: Nina Ragle 949.497.5626 ragle@cox.net Annual Exhibit: Jim Greaves 310.452.3680 jimgreaves@roadrunner.com Exhibit Set Up: Marge Blasingame 626.579.0420 margeblasingame@att.net Refreshments: Janet Shimizu 310-645-7208 janet.shimizu46@gmail.com Historian: Ray Yeager 760.365.7897 ryeager890@aol.com Webmail: Bill Hutchinson 714.964.6973 hutch@aisekikai.com Newsletter: Larry and Nina Ragle 949.497.5626 ragle@cox.net

May Contributors: Edd Kuehn, Glenn Reusch, Linda Gill, Jim Greaves and Larry Ragle. Mailing: Flash Partch Editor: Nina Ragle

Contact People

PAGE 11 CALIFORNIA AISEKI KAI VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5

Newsletter Committee

We hope you will participate. Please send any submissions to ragle@cox.net no more than 10 days following our monthly meeting. Thank you!

California Aiseki Kai meets on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 7:30 pm at the Nakaoka Community Center located at 1670 W. 162nd St, Gardena, CA. Second floor. We do not meet in Nov-Dec.

Deer Creek, MD, Brian McCarthy, 16 x 23 x 10 Mojave Desert, CA, U.S. Nat’l Arboretum, 9.5 x 9 x 7.5

Ragle P.O. Box 4975 Laguna Beach CA 92652

Coming Events

Leaves no stone unturned

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

aisekikai.com

Thank you Phil Chang, Jesse Krong, Tom & Apinya Culton, Janet Shimizu, Mika Breyfogle, Marty Hagbery, Manny Martinez, and Jack Levy for the awesome April appetite appeasers! May munchies will be provided by CJ & Mark Levinstein, Emma Janza and Maria Atkison .

Stone Sales Ken McLeod 209-605-9386 or 209 586-2881

suisekistones.com

Freeman Wang 626-524-5021 Suiseki-Viewing Stone Sale

stores.ebay.com/thestoneking

CALIFORNIA SUISEKI SOCIETY 20th Annual Exhibit, June 13-14, Lakeside Garden Center on Lake Merritt, 666 Belleview Avenue, Oakland. 10-4 each day. Free. Sales. For more information contact: email Henry van der Voort, III at oldboar3@gmail.com

Refreshments

SANTA ANITA BONSAI SOCIETY 51st Annual Show, May 23-25, L.A. Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. 9:30-4:30. Demos at 1:00 each day. Sales. For more information: sabonsai.org

DESCANSO BONSAI SOCIETY 46th Annual Show, June 13-14, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada/ Flintridge. Sales. Admission to the exhibition is free with admission to Descanso Gardens.

GSBF CONVENTION 38 “Bonsai Fusion” October 29 – November 1 Riverside Convention Center, 3637 Fifth St. Riverside, CA. Viewing stone exhibit, hunt and critique. Bonsai demos and workshops. Seminars and raffles and vendors galore! gsbfconvention.org for more information.

NANPU KAI Annual Nisei Week Bonsai Exhibit, August 15-16, JACCC, 244 South San Pedro St., LA. 10-5 both days