Bridport Open Studios August 2015

Hi!

A quick note to let you know that I'm taking part in this year's Bridport and West Dorset Open Studios, and I'll be throwing open the doors to my secret headquarters, hidden away in the centre of bustling Bridport.

From Friday 28th to Monday 31st August the studio will be open between 10am - 4pm. I'll be there to chat about my work and there will be some pieces available for sale, including a freshly made batch of singing birds in a dazzling array of colours. Also available will be cards of my work and a special "Bargain Corner", with slight seconds and past works for sale.

There's lots to do in lovely Bridport if you're making a special trip - fab places to eat like The Red Brick Cafe or Soulshine (both a short walk), the vibrant "Arts and Vintage Quarter" on the St. Michael's Trading Estate, two great arts venues (The Electric Palace and Bridport Arts Centre) and of course beautiful West Bay just a mile or so down the road for bracing sea air, Jurassic coast views and of course fish 'n' chips.

You can find me at:
Cross Keys Studios, 13 South Street, Bridport, DT6 3NR. The entrance is just off Buckydoo Square, between Mango Hairdressers and Double D Computers (follow the BWDOS signs).  A short walking distance from town car parks or 1 hour free parking on South Street.

Access to the studio is reasonably good, although there are three slight changes of level from the street, each with a single step.

New Stained Glass Studio

So happy and excited to have finally finished renovating the outbuilding which is now my brand spanking new studio (you can read about my old one here.)

It was quite a task... damp, dirty, full of junk, badly lit, horrible windows, nasty ripped and stained lino, massive useless (too deep) shelves at one end, massive useless sink unit at the other end.

So sleeves were rolled up and work commenced. The shelves and sink unit were removed and I had a new purpose-built workbench made. Then the rest was up to me: filling, drilling, deglazing, reglazing, priming, painting, cleaning, sanding, more painting, trips to Ikea, furniture building, tiling, grouting... you get the idea. And then moving in.

So lovely to have proper drawers and shelves and storage. So good to have a workbench that is BIG ENOUGH. So nice to have light, and room to move around.

Some things I did that worked out really well:

Painting the lino. I didn't think it would work either, but I got down on my hands and knees and sanded it thoroughly all over (fun times). Then degreased it with sugar soap. Then repaired the rips using flexible caulk. And then painted it with floor paint. It seems to have withstood the various items of furniture I have dragged around on it so far!

Glass racks - they are actually Ikea shelving units, from the Trofast range. The top one is this one, turned on its side.

Windows - removed all the light-stealing Flemish glass from the 5 window panels and 6 door panels and replaced with normal clear glass. Ba Da Bing - DAYLIGHT!

Pegboard - Ok, super trendy I know, but it is actually for workshops and tool storage, so I'm going with it. I still haven't finished putting everything up on it yet, because it will take a while to work out what I need on that bench and what would be better over by the smaller bench.

New smaller sink - big enough for washing hands and brushes, not so big it takes up half the workshop (I have a bigger butler's sink in the old workshop that I'll still use if I need more sink space).

Bookshelves - the cheapest shelving that Ikea does, but it looks great, and when properly fixed to the wall is as strong as you like.

So you'd probably like to see the before pictures.  Brace yourselves.  And this isn't even as bad as it was because I took these once I'd removed most of the junk...

Makes me feel a bit exhausted just looking at these now - the state of that lino! You would never know it was like that under the shiny grey paint.

Looking forward to starting on my next piece of work in there, and I'll be taking part in Bridport Open Studios in August this year, so it will be a nice opportunity to show it off.

September. Brought to you by Mustard Yellow.

So far this week I have been:

Toying with buying this simple yet incredibly gorgeous bakelite necklace from Etsy. Too late alas, it has now sold.

snooping around Bridport Open Studios and

buying prints from Paul Blow...

...and putting them up in my kitchen

(yes of course I arranged my tinned goods to match)

opening a Wasp Cafe (they are really abusing the drink-all-you-like policy though)

and helping Nelly with her new line in dress-up-paper-dolls.

...Ngggghhhh....still here...just about....

Phew, busy busy busy at the moment, crowbarring work into every spare moment, staying up far too late and waking up far too early. But we've got visitors here this weekend, so we're taking the afternoon off to have a nosy around other people's workshops because it's Bridport Open Studios this weekend. I've taken part a couple of times, but not for the last 2 years since Isla was born. Hopefully next year I'll be joining in again.

Programme cover by the sublime Paul Blow.