For the last 5 or so years I’ve had my studio in the back half of my gift shop, Field and Fable. It lets me keep an eye on the shop and help my building mates. My studio is the old parts room from a small engine shop and it’s sort of perfect as a studio. We own the building I mostly love it to pieces. I’ve made great beads and canes and clay things and classes here.
The current COVID-19 pandemic means my gift shop is shuttered and the other businesses in the building are mostly closed for the time being. Everyone is working so hard to flatten the curve and stop the spread here. Since I’m still getting occasional online orders, I come in and pack and ship a few times a week. I’m cautious about moving it all back to the house because my two cats are much more active than the elderly one that we had when I first worked from my home studio. And, it’s our building so we pretty much can avoid humans there, too.
I’ve been making some pretty good stuff without the regular interruptions that an open shop has. Not that open shops are bad at all, it’s just practical to get used to what will be some long term changes. For a special customer request I made these Hawaiian bird beads – a goose and a honeycreeper – that turned out just great.
About the studio shot – when I took over the parts room, everything got several more coats of white paint. The counter I use as a bench got everything taken off it so I could sterilize it all properly back at the start and since it mostly holds items for customers, I’m keeping those in storage so I don’t have to keep cleaning them off. On the plastic table in the foreground are some bags of lettuce and herbs from the little aerogardens I have going in the corner of the studio. Part of the charm of having a big drafty old garage is that it can get used for anything and I don’t feel bad about making a mess.