New studio - up and running!

Having a studio to work in has been a dream of mine for a long time and now I have it. The benefit of having thought about it for so long is that I've had plenty of time to hone my requirements and so I am excited to say that my finished studio meets all those requirements and ticks all my boxes! I am very, very lucky. So what did I want from my studio? 

I wanted somewhere with a print table large enough to cater for my large pieces of cloth and and area I could print and dye without worrying about the long term effects of spillage on furniture and flooring. . 

A sink and a washing machine that never needed to be used for household washing. Those small particles of dye get everywhere and are difficult to see and can easily ruin clothes and sheets in my case. Although I've had some accidents, I'm really surprised and grateful that I haven't had more dyeing incidents than I have.

Somewhere I can leave my sewing machine set up, ready to go and a large pin board which I absolutely love having. Not sure how I did without one of those before,

Storage space, now which textile artist doesn't need more of that? So this is the mezzanine level, which still needs a banister and a loft ladder to get to it and then I can start using it.

Good light available even when it's dark outside and the light in the studio is brilliant (no pun intended). I have 3 large velux windows and lots (and I mean lots) of LED daylight bulbs. All the research into light temperatures, light output etc were worth every hour we spent on it.

And these are supplemented by the bespoke window which I am rather keen on but for obvious reasons the builders less so. 

The whole thing took a lot longer to complete than we thought but it has been so worth it. It wasn't until 11th January that the studio was fully fitted out and had that all-so-important heating working. 

It has been difficult to do much textile work in the last 6 months with the chaos created by the building work, the lack of space, the research and ordering to be done, so I have lots of pent up creativity to get down on cloth but I've started. I've been experimenting with creating texture and layering colours but lots more work to do. I have just finished one piece though,which I'll show you next time, which I hope will be soon.