Ajo working: studio

Showing posts with label studio. Show all posts

Sunday, March 2, 2014

New Studio Workshop Before and After

Hey everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends.

I spent lots of time working on my new "studio" which is in the back of our new shop that we are currently designing. Its so nice to have a warm place to make my bread boards now instead of using the gravel carport behind our house. I know this is nothing that exciting but I wanted to show you how it looked before I worked on it.

In a word, gross. This place use to be a taxidermy business so there was all kinds of this and that splattered on the walls and floor. Im not sure what it was and I really dont want to know either, Im just happy its gone now. First thing I did was pull up the floor.

Then I replaced it with parquet wood floor tiles. Next, the ick splattered cabinets had to go. I gave them a good cleaning and coat or two of Kilz, then, another three coats of Valspar Ultra White paint in semi gloss. Im thinking about adding knobs, just not sure what kind yet. Then I sanded down the wood countertop and put a coat of Minwax Special Walnut stain. The doors also received a coat of ultra white and the walls are painted with
Elmira White by Benjamin Moore.

I still need to add a few more things and install baseboards at some point.

Heres what it looks like now.

I also brought in some personal things to make it feel homey. I know its just a workshop but I really believe in surrounding yourself with things that make you happy, especially when working. I also brought in this stainless steel table which is so perfect for working on. The stool was left behind so I cleaned it and recovered it with an old coffee bean sack.

I am so happy with the entire room and it really inspired hubby to get to work in the other rooms.

One really special thing I wanted to share about this place is that its right across the street from my dads old office before he passed away. I just think thats pretty cool since this all happened because of my bread boards, which were inspired by my dad. That makes me smile and I know hes smiling, too.

Cant wait to share the rest of the place with you soon!

Have a great day!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

open studio update 5 27

we had an excellent first day of open studio weekend saturday. we started off with a long list and a pretty big pile of disorganized stuff friday morning, but by 5:30, we had it all together, the studio doors were locked, and kit and i were sitting by the pond. click the photos to enlarge them ...

we added the leather seats to the chairs first thing and put them upstairs out of the dust explosion that occurs once a year when we clean the shop for this event. this is what it looked like around 9:00 am, and the photos above and below were taken just before i shut out the lights at around 5:00.

as you come in the door there are two slabs of claro walnut that we finished in anticipation of clients who were arriving friday after lunch to discuss a coffee table, which they ordered. the weekend was off to a good start ...

they considered the two we had put finish on, but in the end, selected one that we hadnt prepared ... bonus ..

these 6 ladderbacks we built to go with the claro slab table with the rebar x base that we finished thursday. that table and chairs will be going to the guilford, vermont, welcome center on route 91 for july, august, and september as a display piece to troll for new work. the state offers space to crafts people who ask for it for free in three month blocks. i was lucky to get the summer block and my contact told me that over 600,000 people stop there in an average year. it is a beautiful space. imagine that ... we have high hopes for that piece of marketing.

probably the most commented on item of the day was this copper top table we finished on friday around 2:00. (cut it a little close) .. its 3 wide and 11 long.

its based loosely on an antique french provincial wood top table image from the internet. this table will get its own post as the whole process was interesting. you can see most of the half size mockup behind the chairs photo above.

it turns out that the mahogany coffee table will be around for another 3 weeks or so so we found a place for that .

sam finished the base thursday for this bench we fabricated from an offcut of a table we made two years ago. it was originally about a foot wider and had some issues, but after some judicious trimming, made a nice little bench ... i actually sold it today and it will be going to a local home where theyll use it as a coffee table on a covered porch ... perfect ...

sam had two of his three spark screen/fireplace inserts on display and they received some excellent reviews ...

and will dropped off his new daffodil banjo that he finished wednesday on his way to a gig in glover, vermont, waaaay up north ...

rum drinks and beer for my crew ... kit got her jewelry set up in the finish room ...

and penny set up her paintings in the finish room with kits jewelry and then took a rum and a tour of the shop with trevor ...

we go back to the late 70s with jim and penny, and you couldnt ask for better friends ... all for now ...
more photos tomorrow ...