New Studio

Spring is not quite in the air here in the south-east of England but I think it won't be long, the daffodils are in bud and just waiting for some warm sun. Nevertheless I am excited because we will be building a studio in the garden next month. Since moving back to England I have mourned the loss of my old studio in Canada. Under-appreciated at the time it was merely part of the basement of our large house, nicely warmed by the furnace and with the laundry sink close by with hot and cold running water, two windows looking out on my garden.

At this moment I am renting an old cowshed on a farm - clean and painted white inside admittedly but draughty and cold with no natural light, no sink and only cold water available outside. When I first rented it there were other artists on the farm too, a couple who do hand book-binding and a woman who carved granite sculptures. They were lovely and made it bearable. Since they have left and some unfriendly characters  moved in I no longer want to be there at all.

So, the decision to build a studio taking up part of our small garden was made, costs debated over, savings pondered and finally we gave the go ahead to a local man who is happy to have my husband help him build a wood framed fully insulated 'shed'. I can't wait for it to start and have already bought a climbing rose to grow over it.

Hello Again

I have decided to resurrect this blog, I think I have missed writing it. I really have no idea how many people end up reading it or whether anyone does, but I do enjoy writing it so long as it doesn't become a chore. So I will endeavour to write when I have something to say and never just because it has been a while since I wrote and I think I should write.

Since I last wrote I have moved from Canada to England. This involved convincing husband this was the right thing to do, selling our house in British Columbia, having the essentials shipped to the UK (my jewellery making tools and our bicycles), putting the rest of our stuff in storage, finding a house to rent in Kent, then finding a studio to rent, then after a year finding a house to buy and buying more stuff to go in it. Totally exhausting and stressful. But here we are now in a small brick cottage in an idyllic English village, and my husband loves it.

Moving my jewellery business has been difficult, almost but not quite like starting from scratch again. I had to find studio space which took four months and then unpack the tools I had brought over. I realised that the two pieces of equipment that I thought were too heavy or might not work over here - namely rolling mill and torch regulators and hoses - were the two that I really missed. Still there is always a way around - renting bench space on a day basis when I need to use a rolling mill, and for a torch - a cheap basic plumbers torch that was a stop gap but is still in use.

As for customers, I need to work on this area. I still ship work back to Canada to my favourite store that sells it so well and I sell online on Etsy which is worldwide anyway so no change there really. I now sell on another online store based in the UK  

www.notonthehighstreet.com/annaclarkstudio 

and I have ventured back into the art fair game. All in all it has been a good thing and I am happy to be here right now but international moving is not for the faint of heart. Having said that I have just booked a flight to Canada, just a holiday for three weeks to catch up with all my dear friends, do a little skiing and to rummage through our storage locker and look longingly at my old rolling mill.