First Alex
The first annual StoneFest ’05 was held September 15 – 17 and was sponsored by Marenakos Rock Center and Trow and Holden Co. Participants spent three days celebrating stone, tools, and fine craftsmanship at Marenakos’ wonderful, new Stonearium in its downtown Seattle location.
This Stonearium is an environment to connect and engage creative people who honor craftsmanship with natural stone. Principal Scott Hackney calls it “a place for connecting people and stone; dreaming out loud, and building with stone,”
It is organic, both physically and metaphorically. The Stonearium will allow contributors who work in stone and related fields, to share many visions. Marenakos offers extraordinary spaces for: masons, architects, sculptors, landscape professionals, quarriers, and stone suppliers.
International professionals from the stone world were guest presenters at StoneFest ’05, offering hands on training and building sessions. There were question and answer forums for all who sought to further their connection to stone. Explored topics included:
- Networking within this developing stone community.
- Proper methods for building structurally sound elements with stone.
- Carving topics were covered by Alexandra Morosco and Keith Phillips. Alex is working on two 7-foot figures for the library that will flank the doors on either side of the north entry.
- Traditional Lettering techniques were displayed and discussed by Peter Andrusko and Keith Phillips. Peter created a classical design for the west wall of the library, incorporating arches, lettering, and stone working’s golden rules.
- In Mortar: myth and methodology, Bobby Watt covered some cardinal rules when working with mortar.
- After tools of the trade were demonstrated, Alexandra Morosco and Randy Potter, both with Trow and Holden, conducted a helpful question and answer forum.
Currently showing in the Stonearium gallery are works by Richard Hestekind, Kazsutaka Uchida, Alexandra Morosco, Tom Small, Sabah Al-Dhaher, Lloyd Whannell, Kentaro Kojima and Keiko Kojima.
The Stonearium is open to the public Monday through Saturday 9-6, and is located at 3220 1st Ave. South, Seattle (5 blocks south of Safeco Field). Tel. 206.340.0081.
Then Elaine
“A pile of rocks is just a pile of rocks until someone dreams a cathedral,” quotes Bobby Watt, an eminent Canadian stone mason, as he passionately scribes on the wall in the future library of the Stonearium, exemplifying the vision of Scott Hackney and Bill Hyde of Marenakos.
You build it and they will come, we’ve all heard that. And come they did, working in the art of stone to make the vision come forth. What can you learn from the experience of working side-by-side with stone masons with a vision? Perhaps, just perhaps, you can learn that labor matters, that the division of labor matters, and you need a good business model.
Scott envisions a place where stone in all its various applications produces an art that home owners, interior designers, and architects can see and incorporate into their work.
There has long been a divide of sorts between artist, craftsperson, tradesman etc. The experience at StoneFest was an immersion in the art of stone by people who are keeping alive the fundamental art of converting a pile of rocks into a thing of beauty. As Scott says, “Marenakos sells stone. We want you to connect to the same people we connect to every day, and build beautiful works.” For us as sculptors it is an opportunity to broaden our focus and perhaps our opportunities.
The next project at the downtown location is a fireplace that will be the “granddaddy of all hearths.” If I lived closer, I’d offer my hands to this project, just to be a part of that hearth. And it seems I want to work more with others after my experience at StoneFest ‘05.
It was an inclusive experience and it gave me a small sense of what it might have been like to work together on a great hall, oh, say back in the year 1100. One imagines getting a feel for history, and gaining some humility about the working of stone.
