Bergen, Norway · walking since 2019
I find them
myself.
— trips this year and — stones came home in the boot. I drive out to the road cuts my grandfather used to slow down for, and the tidelines after a storm, and I stay until there is something worth the fuel. Then I wash it all, leave it out under whatever the sky is doing, and keep it in a drawer until it feels finished.
— are still here. They go one at a time, to one person each — there is only ever one of any of them, because I only found it once.
Where they came from
Every one has an address
Not to scale, drawn from memory. One mark per trip, not per stone. Hover a number to see the drive out from Bergen.
The trips
What is still here
By trip, newest first — because I do not drive eleven hours for one pebble. Each one is written out in full, and whatever came back from it is laid out underneath.
Not yet
The next one
Gone
The archive
Trips that sold out, by year. They stay on the page — they happened, and I would rather you saw the whole run. Open one to read it and see what came back.
What I do with them
Four things, in order
I am not going to tell you what a stone will do for you. I will tell you exactly what I did to it, and you can decide what that is worth. This is the whole of it — there is no fifth step I am keeping back.
— it takes about three weeks, usually
-
01
The wash
Meltwater if there is snow, rain if there is not, seawater if that is where it came from. Never the tap — our water is treated and it smells of it.
-
02
The nights out
On a flat rock behind the house, under whatever the sky is doing. I aim for a full moon and I write down the phase I actually got, which is often cloud.
-
03
The quiet week
Wrapped in wool, in the second drawer, untouched. I think this part matters most and I cannot tell you why.
-
04
The card
I write the date, the place and the weather on a card by hand, and that goes in the box with it. Then it is finished and it can leave.
About me
Viktoria Wäststad
I grew up in Sogn. My grandfather built roads for the county and he could not drive past a fresh cut without stopping the car and getting out, which drove my grandmother to distraction and is more or less the whole reason I am doing this.
I studied geology for two years and left, which means I know enough to identify what I pick up and not enough to be bored by it. I work three days a week in a bookshop on Strandgaten. The rest of the time I am somewhere on the E16 with a hammer I am not always supposed to have.
I ask permission on quarry land. I leave the host rock where it makes the stone look better. I do not buy anything in from wholesalers, ever — if it is on this page, I was standing there when it came up.
Write to me. I answer everything, eventually.
I write when I find something
No schedule. Some months nothing, some weeks twice. You will hear about a stone before it goes on the page, which is usually how they go.