Over the last two months I scrabbed plaster, painted (with the help of a wonderful friend who sacrificed her precious saturday afternoons for me) and schlepped more things into my new attic space than I ever imagined. Finally, the new studio is (more or less) finished. At least there are shelves, the books are all there (Did I mention the schlepping? And I'm still missing about a ton of magazines which are hopefully still buried somewhere in the basement storage), most of my fabrics, my tools (except for the BabyMac folding 4 shaft loom and my treadle sewing machine - they are both still in the basement ... more schlepping) and at least the weaving yarn are all in the studio now. I already baptized my new office space by printing and binding 11 books that were ordered before christmas. And the 160 L container for the new indigo vat is already in the bath and ready to go.
I still don't have the dye space finished. But I needed a break from schlepping things from the basement and the second floor upstairs. Unfortunately, most of my dye stuff is in the garden shed (nee garage) and involves some more metres and stairs.
All in all, it was a revelation. I had no suprises when it came to stash. No, OMG, I didn't know I had this-moment. Only one book double (which was a fitting gift for my friend.) My biggest surprise, though, was the quantity. When most of your things are being packed away in closets and boxes, stashed in the basement and all around your flat, you loose sight for the sheer amount of things. Seeing everything all together in one space was quite a shock. As I said, there were no surprises about the single items, just the sheer amount of undyed fabric I collected over the time. Some of them are vintage and quite beautiful, some are new from the remnants box of my favourite fabric shop and some are just that, vintage, undyed, white (mostly) bed sheets and pillows. Great for a lot of things. A lot of people just donated me their unused white bed linens. You know, the densely woven white cotton fabric. Beautiful quality most of it. Some with embroidery most without.
And this is how it looks right now
as you can see, it still isn't pretty. I don't know if it ever will be pretty. But it's rather large, there is still room left in the shelves and room to maneuvre. There is still a lot to do but I couldn't help myself and began arranging for warping the rigid heddle yesterday late afternoon. I'm planning some scarves for a while now and am looking forward to actually weaving them.
Next thing I have to do is sewing some curtains. It took me a while to figure out a mode of mounting that won't look too aargh and doesn't involve those ugly blinds. And before it actually gets cold (if it gets cold this winter, who knows) I will need a curtain in front of the kitchen/dye area because I know from past experience this can be a rather cold spot in this flat. And I will need another insulating curtain in front of the door opening towards the stair case. Our house was build in the 60s and they used concrete blocks (good, great insulating factor) and glass bricks (bad, next to no insulation). But since it has three storeys and a huge stair case from ground to roof with glass bricks on two sides, the stair case insulation is next to not exsisting. On the other hand, exchanging it with insulation glass is not affordable. So, we just live with additional curtains in front of our appartement doors. The appartments themselves are rather well insulated. Weird combo but that's the 60s for you.
I wish you all a wonderful and creative new year. I am just happy that I can begin working again.