Summer Studio at work

It is ironic how it took me most of the Summer to set this spot up and run it efficiently, and here we are at the end of August. Soon, I will have to shut it down for the winter.

I can only count on a few more days of super warm temperatures - such as this for surface design to really cook.


Maybe if I am really lucky, this September might offer a couple of warm days, but the warm humid nights for curing are already gone.


Above, is a shot looking to the West with the pot belly stove - it currently serves as a drying rack for rubber gloves. On the North wall below, I have added one more shelf to the ones that were already there. This gives me an 8 foot work bench. I found a microwave at Zellers for $49. so it has a place of honour next to the bench.
The table that came with the shack is too small, so I have the padded work surface propped up on plastic storage bins as a temporary measure.

I have discovered that everything needs to be in sealed containers as there are a lot of lively little creatures roaming around at night looking for anything that looks like a nest. In the mornings, I am usually greeted with a bevy of spiders in mid construction mode.

These chairs take up too much room so I hung them on the wall. They make great 'occasional shelves' until someone comes to visit:-)

Now here is the beauty of this place, this piece was left like this uncovered overnight and was still damp in the morning - perfect!

Oh, a word about how I get water down here...here's how -
Here is my sink. This old picnic table has a new lease on life.

and here is the French drain I built with my own two hands. I got this idea from Marian Reid who offers marvelous posts on the Dyerslist. I dug a two-foot hole that leans away from the shack and filled it with three bags of gravel - I embellished it with a necklace of stones from the cliff. It is both beautiful and practical - thanks Marian!
These are yogurt cups with freshly mixed dye sitting in sodium alginate that will need a stir before dye painting. Below is a piece waiting to be placed on my new drying rack.


Here is my drying rack. I bought this at Zellers (same day as the microwave) also for $49. I thought I would need to build something expensive or elaborate. This wall came with its own racks, eight in total, and only needed to be bolted to the wall. I use eight insulation foam pieces 24'' x 48'', each to stretch the fabric - they are light weight and wipe down easily.

Not glamorous but these three dedicated electrical lines (got them for my birthday back in July) are what keep this place humming: the fridge, the microwave and all sorts of heating plates and irons.

Cool eh? Cool for real though, pretty soon.