The other day I found a box of beautiful stones I’d taken off the beach 20 years ago. I decided to finally let them go, so left them them outside at the foot of a tree in the field by the house. Just a few days later quite by chance I found myself joining in at a stone stacking championships at the beach in Dunbar. I’d occasionally liked to create Andy Goldsworthy style pieces with stones but never put much thought into it. Watching the competitors on the first day make some amazing artworks, I thought what the hell! It looks too much like fun and I saw that there were several other total novices that were having a go. So the next day I found myself along with about 25 others, trying to see how many stones I could stack in 20 minutes. As soon as I started I realised it’s totally addictive. I had our dog with me so couldn’t join in the 2 hour artistic creation part but come hell or high water I will have a go next year.
It was all very low key, just in it’s third year and organised by one James Craig Page, a Dunbar artist and stone stacker himself. Check out the event website… The overall winner Pedro Duran, who also won last year and wins a flight to the world championships in Texas. It seemed all the winners are old friends but it was good to see some locals also get placed. Very inspired by John Earnshaw who drove up from Lancashire to compete despite being a total novice. He, like me, just wanted to have a go. I loved that it was such a friendly event. The artworks seemed to invite folk to chat with strangers around them and I met so many nice people.
It’s not very widely advertised and it needs proper publicity so I hope this might encourage a few more folk to come along next year. Now I’m just heading out to find my pile of beautiful stones and take them back in the house. Got to get practicing!
