Very excited to reveal that I have a new studio at last! I was very lucky to have had a studio in our old house in Surrey, which already had a room above the garage I could use. But since we moved to Devon in 2015 I’ve been using a combination of the upstairs spare bedroom (mainly for sewing and, obviously, storing a massive stash of yarns, fabric, threads…) and a 70cm-wide piece of kitchen worktop next to the sink for any wet-felting. Which has obviously been a bit of a challenge for most felted pieces.
In our first year here (3 months after we moved in!) I participated in Devon Open Studios, using our single garage, which we partitioned off. Luckily it was quite a warm September, but it wasn’t really a long-term solution with no water or heating, and it meant workshops were off the agenda. So we decided we’d convert the garage into a studio, as it was unlikely to ever be used for anything other than junk storage. The plan should have been simple, but of course first we needed somewhere to store all the junk that was in there, so that meant getting a shed. And that turned into a shed with an office/hobby room attached for hubby (you can see where this story’s heading…).
So fast forward to all that being done, and in early summer 2018 we decided the time was right and our builder was available. All good, but what with all that going on, and summer visitors, and changing jobs (so just life generally really) we didn’t get much beyond the painted shell being finished. So in the end we took a week off in November and, after many trips to the tip, Ikea etc, we finally finished…well over Christmas really by the time I’d sorted out moving everything back. Ta dah!!
So the studio is still all shiny and new to me and I’m still fiddling about with it but I absolutely love it! It’s a great space to work in (I can now make felt nearly 2 metres long if I want!), store all my supplies (er, well not the sewing stuff which I’m still keeping in my upstairs lair, shhh don’t tell), display my felt bags and also keep inspiring pieces from other artists. I’ve got kitchen-height tables, a sink, a bench, stools and loads of storage shelves. The other bonus is that I’ll be able to run felting workshops from home again. This will just be for small groups (3 or 4 participants max), but it means lots of individual coaching and ALL my supplies to hand. So I’ll be starting to think about courses to offer, so if you have a particular interest please message me (and if you can get a small group of you together, even better). Oh, and I’ve even got a kettle and a fridge. And plates for cake…
