Teaching and certification in dry stone walling.

Dry stone walling is taught the way it is built — hands on real stone, to a standard that has to stand on its own. Michael teaches and tests that standard through the craft’s certifying bodies.

It is the same standard that governs his commissions: every stone doing structural work, not merely looking right from the road.

Most of his teaching runs through The Stone Trust in Dummerston, Vermont — the main center for dry stone training and certification in the United States, and where his own certification was tested. The work there ranges from introductory workshops to the timed certification panels that examine a waller’s structure, not their style.

He has also taught and built through the Dry Stone Conservancy, including a restoration teaching program at Hopewell Furnace and the perimeter restoration at Camp Ripley. Teaching and restoration travel together: both demand that you explain why a wall stands, not merely that it does.

Certification is not a ribbon. A panel is built against the clock, then taken apart and graded on what the eye cannot see — the hearting, the ties, the bed of each stone. The same four rules govern a test panel and a paying commission: cover the joints, set the length into the wall, keep the courses level, pack the heart.

The Handbook on this site is the written half of the same effort — the rules and vocabulary set down so the work can be read as well as seen.

Upcoming workshops and certification dates are listed at The Stone Trust.