We so appreciate the time you took to travel to Kingston Springs to participate in the very first Stone Trust dry stone walling workshop in the southeastern United States. Thank you! You helped establish the foundation for a growing annual schedule of workshops from our Curriculum in Dry Stone. Several of you asked us to keep you informed about future offerings. This year, your next-step workshop in Tennessee is a 2-Day Cheek Rebuild.
You have learned the 5 basic rules of building a freestanding double-face stone wall. The rules also apply to the vertical wall end that a freestanding wall requires. The cheekend is a similar, but different kettle of fish, a structure that takes lots of practice to build well. Guess that’s true about all aspects of dry stone walling. Practice and working with experienced others results in beautiful, durable walls.
Two people from the April Introduction are returning in June to learn together how to build a cheekend. You can come, too!–in June, September, and October.
It takes a lot of work to get a new training site up and running, as you might imagine. Martin spent over a year establishing relationships, finding a location, reviewing the curriculum, understanding what it takes to teach a group to build a dry stone wall–it takes walls to strip out and rebuild! He had to determine what workshops to start with, how to schedule them, where to source the stone… He had to build the walls. He and Lesley, who generously offered The Land as a place to host Stone Trust workshops, figured it all out. Lesley even figured out how to make sure you could get breakfast and lunch! Every site isn’t able to offer such amenities. Thanks very much to Martin and Lesley for all the work you put into hosting workshops near Nashville.
If you are looking for additional training in 2022, please review our course offerings (Curriculum in Dry Stone) and consider traveling to Vermont, New Hampshire, or Minnesota. Logical next steps include Introduction to Stone Shaping, Retaining Walls, Flagging/Patio workshop, and Steps and Stairs. You can see when and where those workshops are being offered by following the links and scrolling down. If you are interested in pursuing certification, please review the information in your packet, the Certification links on our website, and of course be in touch! amy-louise.pfeffer@thestonetrust.org and info@thestonetrust.org. The second email address is easier to remember. Both come into my inbox.
Several people asked about how to source stone. The Stone Trust is in the early stages of establishing a formal presence in your neck of the woods. The people who have the pulse of the walling world are the instructors and professional members who do the work every day. (Instructors are professional members.) Please feel free to contact anyone on our Professional Member Directory for advice about sourcing stone. Feel free, too, to contact me and I’ll see what I can do to help.
Thanks again for sharing your time, money, interest, enthusiasm, and elbow grease with the Stone Trust. I hope we’ll get to see you again!