The Art of Living by Making Art

Jewellery inspired by nature and made by hand.
How I make it, why I make it, the challenges I face and the successes that come my way.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

My Beautiful Space

I am finally installed and working in my new space and it is truly wonderful, almost too good to be true. It is clean and bright - the first studio I have ever worked in that I did not need the overhead light on during the day. Being fully insulated with lovely sheep's wool the temperature  stays very even and comfortable. My work bench is all set up in front of the window overlooking my cottage garden and I have a long counter along the back of the room with soldering station, enamelling kiln, hydraulic press and bowl for water and washing pieces. We did not put a water pipe to the studio but a 2 litre jug of water is plenty for the day.

I have organised all my tools and supplies into two Ikea drawer units on castors. Each of the units has six shallow wide drawers so nothing gets lost at the bottom of the heap, all can be laid out individually, easy to find. The units live under the counter but can be rolled out if need be.

I chose to have a floor made of solid wood for strength. It is unplaned though it has been sanded and finished with hardwax-oil but it does have gaps between the planks - a nightmare under the workbench so I have painstakingly caulked each gap around the workbench area with clear caulking.

Next job is to make some narrow shelves to store my jars of enamels - floating shelves look nice but I don't think I have the patience to make them to the size I want - it will be good old fashioned planks of painted wood on metal shelf brackets. I like touches of that old workshop look after all. Maybe I should make an extra shelf to show off my old oil can collection inherited from my father whose workshop had hundreds of tools.

Meanwhile today is just the right day for gardening so I am putting in the climbing rose called 'Aloha' that I picked out to eventually grow around the windows, and lavender and pinks by the stoop.