The studio has been undergoing a little shuffle about lately as I have been making my studio into two distinct spaces – one half for artwork, and one half for ceramics. Ceramics can get dusty, and it doesn’t seem to matter how often I wet wipe surfaces and mop floors, there is always a light “veil” of dust over everything. So, to stop that dust settling on my artworks in progress I am giving it its own space.
The main area is now going to be only for artwork (painting, drawing etc) and wrapping orders and the back area is now going to be for ceramics. I have a door between these two areas, so it just makes sense. It has been really nice moving everything around and having a cleanout and reorganise as I go.
This space that is just off the main area is now where I make my ceramics pieces. It gets sunshine all day which has been magic in our cold winters. I have some little cupboards behind where I was standing to take this shot to keep all of my items I need to make. Just off of this room is the kiln/drying room which will soon get a full coat of white paint… its currently way too cold for the paint to dry so I need to wait until it gets a bit warmer for that. The windows in here always get a chalky look to them when there has been rain as the old beading to the windows is old and brittle – again, a job that has to wait until its warmer outside.
You can see why I need to wait to do any painting of walls and why everything ceramics is taking so long to dry. It is utterly freezing here. I do love the cold weather though. It’s just a pain for drying anything!
I still have a few things to move about, like my slab roller you can see here. I just have to wait until the back room where the kilns are to be painted …in Spring. It’s quite heavy and a bit of a pain to dismantle, so I only want to be doing that once. That is ice on the windows you can see here. I hadn’t turned the heater on in here yet when I took this. bbbbrrrrrr!
I have kept my two big tables to use in the art room as I can spread out my drawings or prime canvases. This table is also doubling as my wrapping station for shipping out orders. I have my little white drawers that hold items like my embosser with my logo, certificates for prints and originals, paper for these certificates and wrapping items like business cards and the like. The wooden drawers hold some of my drawing pencils. It is so nice to have it all within easy reach when I am working. I put some of my high school sketches up on the wall. It’s a little reminder.
Eventually I will take my old Marley & Lockyer logo down, but I am happy to hold onto it for the time being – nostalgia maybe?
I love this are where I paint, so much. The light from the windows is so lovely. I will probably try and work out a better storage situation for my canvases and the like, and the floor needs another coat of white paint, but for now it does the trick.
It’s all coming together, and each time I am in the studio I am moving things about or organising a drawer or cupboard in between my jobs. I figure that by the time I have reorganised cupboards, drawers and boxes it will be spring, and I can get cracking with the painting and maintenance jobs …one thing at a time though, right?
Once I have got some more moved about and sorted in the back room, I will show you. What do you think so far? I’d love to hear.
Ness x
