Welcome 2021 and Good Riddance to 2020

Happy New Year everyone!  I can hardly believe my last blog post was May of last year.  So much has happened -- where do I begin?  2020 was off to a very rocky start and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, Covid-19 was out of the bag and running!  My dad passed away in January and my mom was living alone in a senior complex in Alberta.  When Covid hit and there were lock downs, my mom could not see any family.  Her meals were brought to her room so she couldn't even visit with her friends within the complex.  She was so lonely and I was worried that she was a high risk of catching the nasty virus.  We had talked about her coming and living with me after dad was gone and so I decided that it was time to go out and bring her back to stay with me -- at least as a trial run or until all of this blows over.

She stayed with me in Chase for several months and we then decided to relocate together to the city of Kelowna (about 2 hours away) where my brother lives.  Things have been a blur ever since --  preparing my home to sell, packing and putting most of my belongings into storage until we could find a suitable place to live.  Fortunately my brother and sister-in-law have an Airbnb suite which happened to be vacant (lots of cancellations due to Covid), so we were able to stay there for several months while looking for a new home.  After a lot of searching, we managed to find a comfortable condo-style apartment that was spacious enough for us to live as well as have an extra room for my art studio.  This photo shows a sneak peek at my new studio before moving in.  We have since put down all new laminate flooring plus still doing some other updates which I will show you later when it is all done.

My art studio took up 2 rooms in my previous home which meant downsizing to 1 room in my new place.  This has been a real challenge in organizing the space to make it as functional as possible.  I like the large corner windows which allow plenty of natural light without direct sun. This is the view from my window and if you look close enough you will see one of the many ducks swimming in the stream.

The other day my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were visiting outside (so we could social distance) and a bunch of ducks came up to check us out to see if we had any food to offer.  They were so polite and I felt bad I didn't have anything to give so I am planning a trip to the Wild Bird store to pick up some proper food for them -- especially to help a bit for over the winter.

So, back to my studio -- or lack thereof at the moment.  To make more useable space I had to acquire some new cabinets and shelving which meant a lot of building.  I love Ikea furniture but I tell you, I have come pretty close to learning to swear in Swedish!  I managed so far to put together a dining room buffet, 2 dressers, a nightstand, some kitchen cabinets, several shelf units and 4 Alex drawers.  So now that I am almost done, I can unpack the remainder of my boxes.

I have found I really like living in Kelowna.  It is a large enough city where it has pretty much everything and yet not too large and overcrowded.  I also love the underground parking and so no more snow shoveling or yard work to deal with anymore.

So I promise I will get back on track as soon as possible.  I am anxious to finish unpacking and get back to my art work again as it has been way too long!  I have had a lot of time to think so I have lots of new ideas brewing and looking forward to sharing them with you soon.

In the meantime, good riddance to 2020 and all the best of health to you for a new year!

Major Studio Overhaul and Tour

When we moved to our new home nine years ago we made plans to include a complete studio for our clay.  It has been really good having a separate room in the house just for this with lots of work space and storage.  Over the years, however, we started to outgrow it resulting in some reorganizing to create more room.  Eventually it just wasn't working as well for us anymore and we decided a total overhaul and move to a different room in our home would be the best plan.  Even though this room isn't much bigger than the previous, the space within is more functional.

In the photo below you will see our main clay area all across the back wall which is more than 11 feet long.  We broke up the area so we would have two working heights.  On the right is counter height for standing and on the left is for sitting. 

2 Good Claymates - Overview of studio - front is jewelry making storage

2 Good Claymates - Studio Space - sitting area

At the one end and center of the room is the Ikea glass top table.  I positioned it there so it would be directly across from our lower/sitting counter top.  Since we do a lot of work with messy materials such as mica powders, inks and paints, we prefer to keep them away from the raw clay and a glass work surface is easier for clean-up. 

2 Good Claymates - Sit down area for working

Between the two sitting down areas is my favorite old but super heavy duty file cabinet.  This is such a useful item that we picked up a while ago from a used office furniture store.  I painted it black to give it a more modern look.  It makes the perfect base for one of our work counter tops (1).  Besides the large file drawer at the bottom (2), it has several other drawers that provide easy access to items we use on a regular basis.  The next lower drawer holds all our inks, glazes and specialty paints and tools (4).  The drawer above that shows all our mica and embossing powders for quick and easy color selection (5).  Above that is an additional work space that pulls out (6).  This is so handy when I need a little more work area.

  

Finally, at the bottom (3) is an extra storage drawer unit for storing solvents, glazes, glues, and pan pastels.

Our standing area is where we do all of our clay conditioning and mixing of colors.  The counter tops are a type of Formica and extremely durable so we can work with the clay right on it. 

2 Good Claymates - Standing Counter Height

I reorganized some of the drawers in the Ikea unit in the middle.  All our shape cutters fit in the top for easy access.

Our newest addition for the studio is the heavy duty drawer unit that Dave purchased for my birthday gift.  It is one of those pieces that is for organizing heavy tools in a garage and can hold a lot of weight like 800 pounds.  I needed something to hold the heavy counter top plus better storage for all our clay and this one does it all!  I also love the stainless steel front.  

It has 4 drawers that pull out all the way with a super smooth glide.  The bottom 2 drawers are very deep and hold our entire clay stock.  One drawer is for all the Premo and Souffle and the other holds all the large blocks of Kato and now extra space for our new Fimo Professional.  There isn't much black clay at the moment as more should be arriving from Shades of Clay any day.

The top 2 drawers are not as deep but I love how they keep all my clay color recipes organized.

And finally, in the opposite corner of the room, is our large rack for keeping our snap jewelry supplies organized and a new photo booth area with more storage.

We do have a large patio door that steps out onto our covered deck.  This is handy when I need to step outside to spray our work with the PYM11.

The hot tub is especially nice after a long hard day of claying.