Silver Fall 2000 – Nov/Dec 2000

A look at the rain outside today makes it all the more amazing to realize that it’s only been a month (at this writing) since we gathered together at Silver Falls.

Under the relaxed guidance of coordinator Mark Andrew, the symposium had the feel of a caring, sharing, educational holiday. As an indication of how smoothly everything ran, Mark volunteered to do a repeat performance next year!

Our time was loosely structured, allowing ample opportunity for individual carving and/or attending the wide variety of workshops that have given our symposia their fine reputation. Rich Hestekind took the term “water play” to a whole new level with his instruction on creating stone water features. Rich’s workshop helped us become aware of the many aspects of water/stone interplay. To achieve this, we hiked to the nearby waterfalls and observed the power and subtlety of water; we poured water over rocks with a garden hose and noted the patterns and sounds; and there was even a utilitarian discussion about hole-drilling and plumbing connections in fountains. We came away with a much greater understanding and appreciation of the magic and mystery of water.

David Miller held hand tool classes for those curious about the time-honored techniques of the old masters. He expertly discussed and demonstrated everything from the use of tooth chisels and rondels, to mallets. It was inspirational for those of us who drag around power cords like giant umbilical cords. More than once I had to question the wisdom of all of the noise and dust that has become a regular component of my sculpting experience.

On the other hand, Tom Urban’s classes on power tools snapped me back to my old power-hungry self as he talked about rpms, amps and every sort of electrical and pneumatic invention known to human kind. After seeing Tom’s collection of more-tools-than-I-believed-any-sane-person-could-possibly-own, I succumbed to severe tool lust. The conversion from my brief flirtation with hand tools was complete. I want, no I need MORE POWER TOOLS! Oh yeah baby!

I led a hard-stone workshop where we talked about working with granite and basalt. There were examples of each type of stone, as well as my tools, for people to experiment with. Several people really got into it and enjoyed working on a group project: a granite stone basin. We managed to finish it in the nick of time for the auction. [Ed.’s note: The water basin began as a perfect “boulder” shape from which Stu had sliced the off the top. Then the group carved out a shallow basin and helped bring the flat surface around the hollow to a high polish. It was perfectly balanced and beautiful.]

Things looked bleak for a brief time when it was discovered that our old friend John Pugh was unable to be our supplier of stone and tools. We were extremely fortunate with great replacements on short notice. Alexandra Morosco, from Pronto Tools, in Ventura, CA, brought a wide variety of tools and knowledge for which we were grateful. Randy Zieber shipped numerous pallets of stone down from British Columbia on Rich’s truck. Randy arrived later in the week with another full trailer load . There were many unusual marble and limestone varieties, as well as the chlorite for which Randy is famous. We just ate it up! Randy was stunned and happy to discover that he had sold everything he brought and could drive back to B.C. with an empty trailer.

We had several wonderfully inspirational evenings viewing slide shows of each others work, as well as an ongoing opportunity to view everyone’s portfolios.

The food was magnificent. The weather was beautiful on every day but the last, when it decided to remind us why Oregon is so green. But at that point, I don’ t think anyone minded too much. It was really great to visit with old friends and meet new ones.

‘Til next year.