| THE WOOD STUDIO |
| As you can see in the picture ( right), we are fortunate to have our studio located in one of the premier Arts and Crafts center in the United States. TAMARACK, has a 60,000 sq.ft. Retail space, a Food Court (managed by The Greenbrier a 5 star resort), a 3,000 sq.ft Conference Center, a 300 seat Theater and a Fine Art Gallery. Tamarack was created by the State of WV, Turnpike Authority as an Economic Development Program to promote and develop the cottage industry in West Virginia. Opening in May of 1996 and now has over 2000 WV artisans juried into the system. There are 5 studios: textile, pottery,glass,metal and wood. We also have other artisans demonstrating on the week ends. Tamarack has a large selection of items ranging in price from $.05 Marbles from Marble King to $19,000.00 glass & bronze tables by Burl Jones |
| We moved to WV in 1990 from Denver Co., leaving behind careers in Architecture & Printing to find a more relaxed lifestyle. After several years of raising cattle on the farm we started making small wooden Folk Art Items for our farm house. Friends and neighbors wanted everything we made. Someone suggested we sell our items at a local craft fair and as they say the rest is history. One year while spending the winter in Florida, working on our Folk Art we stumbled upon the Bowed Psaltery. "I could play this and I loved it from the first moment I played it". While traveling full time doing Craft Festivals and playing music in the evenings at campgrounds we recognized the interest in the Bowed Psaltery and started building them shortly thereafter. A few years later while spending another winter in Florida we participated in a Music Festival where we were introduced to the Mt. Dulcimer, which Tish found much easier on the hands to play than the guitar and many of our existing customers wanted us to make dulcimers for them. Through the years we have enjoyed collecting antique instruments and the challenge of reproducing them. In July of 2001 Tamarack invited us to become their full time resident wood workers. We thought long and hard about giving up the traveling but we realized that having a studio at Tamarack would still allow us to introduce our instruments to many people. As we said before if you find yourself in Southern West Virginia please stop by our studio so we can take a break. Thanks, Greg and Tish Westman @ TAMARACK |
| TAMARACK STUDIO |
| Our Home Town |
