A Studio Re-Do

This summer has been a wild and crazy one in my house. It has all come from that big move I mentioned in my last post. The third week of July, we finally started loading up the trucks and headed across town. Well, not exactly across town… it’s more like we moved from the out skirts of town into town.

Until this week, it has been more then 6 weeks since I have been able to torch. I have never gone this long without making beads since first learning 3 1/2 years ago. Let’s just say, I have not been a happy camper about the situation. I have tried to stay creative through the transition. I have had fun picking out new colors for all the rooms in the house, and as of right now I painted 5 of them. I have stayed creative taking lots of photos, with much frustration at my camera’s lack of performance. I have over bought on school supplies. Who doesn’t love 22cent packs of crayons?!? And I think there is a bit of an art to getting all the supplies to fit in one under-the-bed style Rubbermaid tote. HA.

My studio would have been the first thing I set up, but having 3 kids home with me wasn’t letting that happen. I couldn’t hide out in my studio while they were bored out of their skulls wreaking havoc through every room of the house. But things have finally started to come together. My new house is a large (well, large to me) cape style home that had an addition added in 2000. The smart folks that built the addition put in a full basement under the new construction rather then a small crawl space. That means I have two basements!! My studio is in the new area. The space is approximately 16′ x 24′, and the south corner has three good sized windows that let in a fair amount of natural light.

My studio re-do started with pulling down the plastic covered insulation that was on the concrete walls. I’ll be playing with fire and we do not need synthetic things near by. From there I had primer sealer tinted to a color called “Bayside” to give the space a bit of color. I decided that I really didn’t need the whole room, so for now, I have a divided hung to separate my area from my storage area. It’s nice to have some place to keep things like extra tables and busts that is close by and easy to find. For the dividers, I picked out some funky checkerboard shower curtains from Target. My basement is very dry, but better safe then moldy. Plus it is a good 12ft away from the torch, so no worries about the plastic there.

My favorite part has been the “putting things in” part. I am still playing with the layout of the room, but I think I am getting close. There is still more work to be done. We’ll be having my master electrician father in law come by to rewire my area. I need a few more outlets and we want to make sure there is enough juice to support my kiln, an oxygen concentrator, a ventilation hood and some lights. Oh, and I’ll probably want a radio too. The ventilation hood needs to be put in too. It will most likely go on the wall right between those windows over my desk. That is if I don’t rearrange the room again.

Hopefully now that things are starting to come together and I am getting to create more, I’ll be back more often to share my creative process.

Kerry Bogert is blogging about her glass art beads and jewelry from her home studio in Webster, NY. Check her work at www.kabsconcepts.com