President’s Message – April 2025

President’s Message April 2025

Dear Members,                                                                                                

Get ready! You know it’s coming! And you know it will be great!

“What will be great?”, you say. The NWSSA Summer Symposiums! We have 2 of them. The 1st this year is July 12-19, 2025 at a beautiful camp near Port Orchard, WA. The 2nd occurs August 24-31, 2025 at a forest camp in the Oregon Cascades at Suttle Lake.

What’s so great? How about 3 meals a day, surrounded by 50-100 people, who just like you, have a passion for carving stone, touching stone, and buying stone. These same people are passionate about learning/teaching/exploring the world of stone sculpture.

There’s no doubt, we have a good time. We talk, laugh, and share. We meet people who inspire us. Often we get to know people who become lifelong friends.

Instructors are invited who represent a depth of skill and a wide range of knowledge and technique in handling the stone of their choice. On the carving field you can experience limestone, marble, granite, or jade (to name a few) being carved. You can talk with the carvers.

You’ll see tools used that are the same as Michelangelo used in the 1500’s as well as a huge variety of very modern hand and power tools.

Have I convinced you yet? How about swimming in a private lake? A super fun auction (of stuff we all donate) that supports our Scholarship fund. Attend special presentations from our guest artists and fellow members, chill out around a campfire.

And then on the final Saturday we create a huge show of our work and invite the public to come and walk through what at the time is the largest exhibition of stone sculpture in the country.

I hope to see you.

Dusty Cheers,
Tamara Buchanan
President of the Board, NWSSA,