We moved very quickly into our new house 5 years ago now. The people buying our old house were impatient to start work on it. We were impatient to get moved in. The vast space which was to be my studio got some drywall on the walls and white paint and that was that.
My husband said it would be like an “industrial space”, and I thought “Yeah, gritty!” and felt very hip and au courrant and also, younger, less hide bound, more open minded, etc. Walls covered with shelves of yarn and 6 looms with projects underway were a dynamic and attractive distraction.
Then I saw the pictures online of Jean Sharp’s new studio! Well thought out, beautiful, etc. Maybe that’s when I started feeling my space was, well, shabby with lots of ugly corners. The lighting was amateur.
I hated the duck tape, red industrial tape and even pink insulation peeking out. I noticed I was bringing projects into the rest of the house to work on.
Time for a reno. Packing up all my yarn and basketry stuff and all those shells with holes in them and skate egg cases and driftwood, pine needles, lotus seed pods, felting supplies, etc., was quite a job. John took apart several looms.
It all took so much time. There also were all the decisions about what really was I going to use and what materials should be eliminated from storage. It was like a sober second thought, as I had certainly pared back supplies and materials when we moved in five years ago.
We used a carpenter/contractor who had done a lot of work on our old house. He has many years experience, and does things that I would never even think of, but which adds immeasurably to the finished project.
He wanted us to choose paint colours, doors, flooring and told us where to shop. I felt very inadequate at this shopping! Could not visualize how anything was going to look. So far it seems to be looking good. The electrician, plumber, etc,. were people he has enjoyed working with over the years and they were excellent workers, as well as very agreeable to have coming and going.
The last step of course was moving everything back! Talk about a make work project. And then I had a series of medical interventions when I discovered I had cancer. The treatments take so much of a toll, but all is well. Oh yes, and then a knee replacement. I feel very fortunate to have had such wonderful medical care, and the timing of it all before COVID 19. But, all in all, its taken over a year and a half to really get my workshop operational. Just this week I made a last adjustment to a loom’s foot pedals.
I am loving being in my new studio, back to work and rediscovering all my yarns and full of new ideas for projects. The pandemic has insisted I stay at home, and that has been good for weaving. Now, my next challenge. Figuring out ecommerce, to sell my work as the pandemic has certainly not been good for my craft shows.
UPDATE ! With a lot of assistance, I have an online shop on this website, in the Menu under….. SHOP.