THE WOOD STUDIO
WESTMANINSTRUMENTS
As you can see in the picture (top 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 neighbour 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  Mtn. 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