Stone drawing by Jo Collinge/Stephen Moore at Farewell Spit, South Island, New Zealand. In 2005, friends from Hebden Bridge in land locked Yorkshire went to live for a few years in New Zealand. Their reaction to work seen in the UK and on the blog has inspired me to think about the potential of a world wide stone drawing project. I’ll leave it to Jo to explain:
‘We had already fallen in love with Sue’s stone drawings, and in a Christmas letter we tentatively broached with her that we were thinking of undertaking a family version of her project on a trip round the coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Given our children, at five and two, are keen on gathering, sorting and creating, it seemed like a great memory project for them. We were inspired and enthused by Sue’s reaction to this idea ‐ the start of a global coastal stone drawing project, which would link us by its origins to our turangawaewae (Maori – place of belonging) of Hebden Bridge whilst we are living here in New Zealand. Stephen has been the main architect of the project. He wrote to Sue: “I’m totally addicted to stones. I’d never noticed them before – only to swear at when stepping over them to get in the sea. Some of the beaches we’ve encountered had at least 17 different types of rock, some layered like exotic sponge cakes with pinks, blues and greens, indented with sparkling mica and deep red rust and worn down to perfect hand sized pebbles. The frustration at only having a lunch break to eat and select was tantalising and frustrating. The stones we have harvested are sitting patiently in neat ordered piles categorised through a complicated set of aesthetics involving place, size, colour, weather, shape and that unknown factor that makes you stop and pluck a single specimen from a whole beach of stones.”‘
Below is a selection made from some of the photographs they have sent. And I’m currently in discussion at the V&A about the nuts and bolts of this idea ‐ stone drawings made in situ (on the beach) by anybody, anywhere in the world and photographed. A global drawing project which would speak about time, place, geology and the human desire to make pattern. Watch this space. Your comments would be appreciated. 
