Studio Move

I'll write another post to talk about why, but here are some pictures of what I've been doing.

The new Serpentine Arts & Crafts Collective has finally found a home to rent for the Winter. One thing that made it easier to afford is the fact that there's room for my weaving studio in the basement.

This truck contains the possessions of 3 people and half of my storage unit.

I left half a day late for Hood River so that I could be there for moving day and celebrate with the community for one evening. When I returned from that show, three of them had left for a two-month camping trip. Did I mention that teaching forest skills will be a big part of our new collective's work?

Next, I had to kludge together a "good enough for now" sewing studio. The reserves of garments are getting low and I've still got two shows this year.

Then came the lighting. The new studio has no natural light so I needed to bring in a lot of light in a hurry. I chose fluorescent, not because I like it, but because of the cost of fixtures and utilities.

Then came storage. The basement has a tendency to be a moist environment. Even though this one is dry and contains a wood-fired furnace that heats it before heating the house, I still need to have all yarn and inventory inside of plastic boxes.

Stacks of boxes make access difficult, so I sought out some shelving. What I found was the right price, but HUGE. Each shelf will take an 8x4 sheet of plywood to finish it and hold 10 boxes when it's done. That's 40 boxes of yarn on one shelf. I got another one that I'll be using for finished cloth and merchandise inventory.

And all the while, I was traveling to work every day and bringing home one vanload of studio every night. You see, I needed to finish winding the deep purple beam before I could move it. I'll post good pictures as soon as I can.

Here's the studio two days ago with the beam all wound and ready to move.

And then, yesterday was the final moving day. I wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for Wispr. There just aren't enough hours in a day. While I took apart the loom, he removed the air conditioner, packed the first vanload, swept the storage space, spackled the walls, and more. After a 3:00 lunch at home, we went back to move the loom and got it all in the house by dark.

You may have noticed one theme in all of this... Every time I turn around there is more startup cost for the business. It's rapidly depleting the reserves, but there's really no choice. The reduction in rent and space for more people to help with weaving will make it up soon enough, but for now it's a little harrowing to spend so much money.