On the first weekend in May, the Stone Trust hosted two simultaneous workshops at Opus 40, a world-famous sculpture park and museum in Saugerties, New York. Created by artist and professor Harvey Fite over the course of nearly forty years, Fite’s opus is currently undergoing a multi-year restoration to rebuild sections that are failing. Brian Post, former executive director of the Stone Trust, leads the restoration. He also led the 2-Day Introduction to Dry Stone Walling and the Cheek Rebuild workshops at Opus 40 a couple of weeks ago.
These workshops filled up with wallers excited to experience the combination of a Stone Trust workshop at the Opus 40 site. Twenty-three wallers joined the introductory workshop. Six more advanced wallers came for the cheek rebuild.
Those of you learning the five basic rules of dry stone walling came primarily from New York, although six of you arrived from a masonry company in New Jersey. A couple of you had landscaping experience, but most of the group are novices. You took home enough knowledge to improve your skill through practice.
The cheek end workshop drew a largely professional group of landscapers-hardscapers from a wider geographic area: New York, New England, and New Jersey. Thanks for coming to continue your education! Some of you are on your way to Level 2 Waller Certification, globally recognized as the professional level, and also the level at which you qualify to become a Stone Trust instructor.
Brian gave a tour of Opus 40 to give you insight into the amazing possibilities of what can be done by people who understand how to build with dry stone. Many of you reported feeling inspired to continue your walling journey. You may plan to learn stone shaping next or how to apply the five basics to retaining walls. With such an enthusiastic group, you are sure to create some amazing dry stone work!
Thank you to all of the instructors, Brian Post, Jamie Masefield, Ben Maron, and Russell Autrey. Your participants said, “They were wonderful! Really enthusiastic, kind, and knowledgeable.” Thank you for sharing your time and passion with this group of wallers.
