Visible mending is the thrifty tradition of repairing worn clothing with stitches and patches. The experience of extending the life of a worn, but much loved, object goes beyond simple utility. The completed task brings with it a gratification, unlike any other. 

Craft skills typically used for making something new are also practiced to repair something old. Many a waller have cut their teeth in the trade by rebuilding broken gaps in old fence lines. Mending a section of dilapidated, dry stone wall is a form of stitchery, too. When done with respect for what's been accomplished by others in the past, repairs can feel like a partnership that's taken place over centuries.

As a boy, the Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky was a plaster’s apprentice. His mentor instructed him to forcefully break open and enlarge any cracks before replastering a wall. It doesn’t pay to take a timid approach to any type of repair because if underlying weaknesses aren’t removed, the new work around and on top of it will likely suffer a fate similar to that of the original. In some cases, there’s nothing to be done but to completely tear down an old stone wall and start fresh. But even within such a necessity there can be a grateful nod to the previous wall builders because they collected the stones and brought them to the site; a job in itself. 

Salvaging and reusing the materials at hand to create a new wall is the path Joe Dinwiddie took with his United World College project in Las Vegas, New Mexico. In our growing consciousness of the carbon footprint we leave behind, to build primarily with on-site, existing materials makes for a lighter tread. Plus, it honors the value of placemaking by bringing pieces of history forward in time.

It was a pleasure to work with Joe and John Salvatierra this month under a brilliant blue Southwestern sky. For a New England boy, used to glacial till, employing the varied types of sandstone involved in the build was an education in itself!