Setting up my new studio

I currently have a studio at the Hotshops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm moving from #216 to #305 around the first of August. My daughter, Samantha, is going to decorate the space, and we're both designing it.

Here are some pictures  of the space before we start.

 The doorway. Look to the right of that lovely double door. That's space for me to hang quilts. Look to the left of the door, the wall that has the chairs is also space to hang quilts. I don't know whose chairs those are.

Sam has some interesting ideas for the windows in the door. The idea is to give visitors a glimpse into the room, but I don't want to feel like I'm at the zoo.

 This is the wall to the left of the door, as you look in. See that sink? It's really wide. The bowl is on the left,  and the drain is on the right. The drain is 48" long, sloping towards the bowl. You know what this means? Fabric dyeing right in a sink. Ice dyeing. The ice can melt right into the sink! And rinsing. I can use the sprayer to quickly rinse the fabric without the dye falling back on the fabric. One negative is that the hot water is not piped to this sink.


To the right, you see another sink, and that one has hot water. I can switch the faucets and MAYBE get hot water piped over to the wide sink, I'll have to figure it out. You may also take note of the cabinets, which have doors in less than perfect shape. The upper doors are ok, the bottom, not so much. Ikea has inexpensive doors ($7) and hinges that I think I can use to replace them. My plan is to store dye supplies and tools, as well as other surface design materials in the cabinets on the bottom. Not sure what goes on top, as I can't really reach them anyway.

 Here is the back wall of the studio, when you look in the door. It's brick. and it's very high. I plan to use this part of the wall to display quilts. I'll be fabricating some sort of hanging system so that no nails are put in the brick wall. I will be attaching something to the joists that will allow me to show quilts and change them frequently. I will also want to have safe storage for quilts, to keep them from deteriorating.

 Looking North towards the window along the nice long walls. On the left, we'll have materials storage, fabric, books, perhaps sewing cabinets. On the right, close to the window, my longarm. See those brown tiles on the wall at the right? They are gone, I'll be putting my working wall up there. It will be made from Designer Tack bulletin boards, covered with batting and cloth. That section is 15 feet long.

The floor at the back 30 feet of the studio is really crappy. It's the old wood factory floor. It's a bit rough, and has places for pencils and things to fall between the boards. (they won't fall down to the second floor, there is a floor beneath it) I will  cover some of it with the rugs I have, but I'm looking for a solution for the space, which is about 15x30 feet. It needs to be something I can easily remove without damaging that floor further, and inexpensive. The floor in the foreground is fine, it just needs to be cleaned.

I paid $5 for this table at the Restore shop in Omaha. It was a white patio table, in good shape, cute, but sorta boring on top. Sam painted it, then created stencils and painted it again. I'm very impressed by her stencil skills, as well as the composition. Isn't this marvelous?

Stay tuned! More is coming!