I have my own studio!

It’s just beginning to sink in that I now have my own studio – a long-held dream. Still quite a bit to do to get it fully up and running and it will continue to evolve naturally over time, but I pulled my first prints in it on Saturday – wood engravings. How exciting is that!

Ordered some copper sulphate crystals for etching from Hawthorn’s yesterday and hung up a load of inky scrim to dry from my last visit to the workshop. Smells wonderfully printkmakingish in there already. Took a desk and chair up today so I now have somewhere to sit down and work.

I was thinking today how… bizarre it is really. I started this blog less than two months ago, intending to write about wood engraving; the whole point was that it’s a form of printmaking that I could do at home which wouldn’t take up much room. And here I am, determined to go back to etching and setting up my own studio.

I HAVE MY OWN STUDIO! How lucky am I.

Project Atelier: Phase One

The idea for this project was suggested by a friend some time ago but for various reasons, I didn’t think it would be worth it. However, I changed my mind yesterday morning and Phase One began in the afternoon.

The photo shows my father’s garage cum workshop which, since his death last summer, has become a general repository – for junk mostly. I’ve been dreading having to clear it as it had a lifetime’s accumulation of aircraft-building tools, gadgets, spare parts and detritus. He built real ones that people fly in, not model planes, so it’s not just a few hand tools and a smudge of glue we’re talking about here!

Good old G has mentioned to me several times what a excellent studio it would make, and she’s right of course – thank you G. Just terrifying to clear. And sad. I miss my dad and there’s so much of him in there; it’s going to be hard. But cathartic too I hope. And he’d be glad that I’m using his workshop to printmake in. Anything to do with tools, bits of wood and metal and he was happy.

Spent three hours on it yesterday but have barely scratched the surface… will keep you posted…