Well as you know I've been working at JPFA full-time since August and to be honest it has taken a bit of mental restructuring on my part. My work space had to change as well. As most of you know my "Studio" was once the family/TV room down in the basement. When we started four years ago I was given a small space at the back of the room, This is where I took pictures, skeined off yarns and prepared the sales for shipping.
OMG!!! Yuck!!!!
Tiny huh?I was then able to push the "family" space back some and add in another table. This worked very well for a good while. it looked like crap and if we had anyone over for movies or one of the boys had a party, I had to package up and store away all of the equipment and bins of product.
Got tedious, FAST. Especially if I was in the middle of a wholesale order.
So my family decided.....yea well it was more like they got tired of me whining when I had to clean up my projects......that the entire basement should be left to the "cellar dweller". Smart guys.
So the TV went upstairs to the front room. Yes, we have a room upstairs that we NEVER used, there was no hardship for them to move, believe me. The sofa from the basement went up into the boys "common room" on the third floor. Yes another area where the family and friends can congregate!
I know it looks a bit weird, but when we moved in this space was a *gasp* WORKSHOP. And the guy had a gas stove in the corner on that raised platform. Well when we made it into a family room the gas stove went first. It's not like it worked or anything and we had plans for a wood stove. We figured it was too much of a pain in the ass to break out the brick platform the stove had been on, so we just rugged over it. It made a nice place for bean bags and such for the boys to flopp, while we watched the boob tube.
Now that raised space is my office.
I've only put in pictures of when it first went in because believe me, it is NOT that clean now. The walls are hung with cork boards and covered in notes and lists I have to get done.
I do have a small problem fitting my trash bin, but that should be easy to fix moving forward.
The "studio" portion has different work areas and there is the "kitchen"portion that I'll get to that in a mo. This picture below is taken from the office platform. The tables are old doors with horses underneath. I wasn't sure I'd like them but after moving the room around a few times, I have grown to like the modular worktops. The first table is ball winders and the swift. I also use the sweater machine on this one. I was hoping to make my own sock blanks but it is too much of a time suck/annoyance that I will just continue to purchase them.
Table two is the skein winder that my son made me. Is that not a work of art??? Its electric and I have a foot pedal to vary the speed. I can use up to 6 cones on that bad boy. On the end of the table is my drum carder, It is not always there, I have storage space for that when not in use. My youngest on made that 2 summers ago. Yup, SPOILED!! The smaller 2 foot florescent lights will be replaced by long 4 foot jobbies that will be hung directly over the work surfaces. While the laboratory is very bright, it can get pretty dark in this side on yucky days.
That tall rack you see was once in the laboratory and now holds bins of finished product.
This is an old picture of the laboratory. When Jenn and I started this venture my MIL was redoing her kitchen and had these cabinets/sink section to give me. Hubby added the shelve to the backsplash to hold my dyes. You can see where that large rolling rack once was. It held all of the undyed supplies at that time. Now I have a wall of white cubbies. The maps were a gift from DH and we put push pins into all of the different city/state/countries that we have sold to. World Wide Baby!
The walls in the laboratory were not always white, but ugly brown paneling - think 1960's. We had a pipe burst behind that wall and had to have the entire room replaced. Whoopie!!
You can see (just barely) a stainless steel table on the left of the room with a large storage cabinet. Yea, it is a narrow space, which I find works wonders for a one-woman show like this. The cabinet is gone now, under the stairs and I hold the felting/sewing equipment in it. The table has been extended to the full length of the room.
This is the newest addition. A counter extension. I'll be able to fit 4 of the dual hot plates and you can see all of the large storage space underneath. There is a large hood that will replace the smaller one I have now to suck up and out all of the hot steamy air. Can't have mold growing in my space!
Being in the basement has its ups and downs. Its toasty warm in the winter (our wood stove is in a small room off to the side) and in the summer it is naturally cool. The only problem I see is that I NEVER see the sun.
I wonder if I can get them to build me an OUTDOOR studio too..............
Thanks for letting me share the changing studio space. Next pictures should be up when the vent is done and the tables all painted to match.
Happy crafting!
DD
