Our new home updates finally done!

In a previous post, I shared about the stove with the double oven I had ordered.  Unfortunately it never did not arrive.  I investigated a little more to discover that it may not arrive for a very long time.  One store told me that a company that manufactured parts went belly up.  Not sure how true that was but I do know that there is a serious appliance shortage and so I decided to get my money back and buy the first stove I could get my hands on -- as long as it had a convection oven.  So I had to settle -- and now I do have a decent stove that I can get back into clay production.

I also finished the other updates in our condo.  The kitchen is nearly done -- I repainted all the cabinets and added hardware to match the Ikea Cabinets I installed at the one end.  I plan to replace the countertops someday but will have to wait another year or so but am happy with it for now.  You can see the photos below showing before and after the renovations and see the huge difference.

Kitchen - "Before"

Kitchen - "After"

Kitchen - "Before"

Kitchen - "After"

We also had an electrician come in and change out all the light fixtures so everything is now more modern plus energy saving LED.  The track lighting in the kitchen is LED and a real improvement over the old fluorescent bulbs.

The last thing I had to do was repair the ceiling.  I purchased these cool ceiling tiles that glue up.  Installing them looked real easy in the video but were a bit more of a challenge.  After the first few tiles were put up I got the hang of it and even enjoyed the challenge.  I felt all the going up and down the ladder was great exercise until at the end while installing the last few pieces I had pulled a muscle.  It was quite painful and put me out of commission for a couple of weeks.  All in all, I feel pretty good about how it turned out and would definitely do it again if needed.  Below is a picture of the finished ceiling.

I also made a few more changes to my studio.  I discovered that the floors in our building are not that sound proof after replacing the old carpet with laminate flooring and using the highest grade under-lay.  The people who live one floor down spend a lot of time in the same room below and as it is my main working studio, I did not want to be an annoyance so I found this really nice area rug that was a perfect fit.  I also found the sheer curtain valance to hang on the window and now the room is cozier than ever!

I love the french doors that separate the studio from the dining room.  To make the room more private, I add this privacy film to each of the window panes.  Now if we have company I can close the doors to hide my work (and mess) without blocking out all the light.

And lastly, we added a new and updated light fixture for the dining room.  This piece is soooo cool.  It is a called a "Fandelier".  It is a chandelier and ceiling fan combined.  It comes with a remote control and when you turn the fan (3 speeds) on, the hidden acrylic blades above pop out and retract when turned off!  How cool is that?!

"Fandelier"

So most of our renos are complete and is nice that I can again focus more on my clay.  The other nice bonus is our condo apartment actually has it's own furnace and central air conditioning.  My mom and I both decided that it was really important for comfort.  It is paying off at the moment with our extreme heat wave this week.  We have had extreme temperatures for several days now and expected to stay that way for a bit longer.  Our area has actually broke records for high temperatures this time of year for all across Canada!  Tomorrow it is suppose to peak at 48 C  or  118 F!

Tomorrow I will share with you some of the items I have finally finished off in the new Pantone colors.  Stay tuned!

Still Settling in -- Somehow

So I am back and things are finally progressing with unpacking my studio and all.  Wow, how did I end up with so many things?  And so many little pieces!  As I unpacked I did my year end inventory count so I wouldn't have to go through everything all over again.  I also sorted out a lot of items that I don't really need or want to use anymore so I need to photograph and list in my online store so look for some great specials soon.

It has been months since I have actually done any claying and now chomping at the bit to get back to creating again.  Unfortunately it will have to wait as I have nothing I can bake in yet.  I love the apartment condo I purchased together with my mom.  It is very spacious (2 bedroom, 2 bath plus studio) and is more than 1300 square feet.  An apartment this size is hard to come by.  It is in an older building that has been recently upgraded and totally updated.  Unfortunately, the apartment itself has not been updated and is still in it's original 30 year old form.  So before moving in we had to deal with some necessary updates which has taken a lot of time and effort.  The photo below shows one end of my kitchen that I did myself - before and after (except lay the new flooring).  It still isn't finished as you can see by the old cabinets at the other end which I am working on right now and will share later after I am done.

One of the items that required attention was the old appliances.  The fridge and stove were very old and fortunately still functioning but don't know for how long.  On purchasing some new ones, we discovered there was a major shortage and nearly every appliance in every store was out of stock and on back order.  This was because many of the factories were shut down last year due to covid.  When they started up again, they were working at a much lower capacity than before.  Another reason was that many Canadians couldn't travel south for the winter this year, so decided to put the money from their trip into their homes instead.  So after buying our new appliances, the fridge finally arrived 3 months later.  Unfortunately we were informed that our stove was still on back order.  We just received a call, however, that it is now suppose to arrive this Friday!

So I cannot bake any clay until my new stove arrives.  Let me explain why this stove/oven is so special.  A few years back, my late husband Dave had bought me a new stove.  It had 2 ovens that were both true convection.  I absolutely loved it as I could bake my clay in one oven and still prepare my food and bake in the other at the same time!  This oven was great as I could bake a lot of items at a time as well as larger size pieces.  And to keep everything "food safe", I always baked in pans that were tightly sealed so no fumes would escape.

I really loved that stove and probably should have kept it and replaced it with another when I sold my house in Chase but I felt I could easily buy another one later.  I just didn't realize how long I would have to wait.  So I am hoping it will still arrive on Friday as scheduled -- fingers crossed!

My studio is finally getting more organized.  At least I can now see my counter tops!  The above photo shows my standing corner where I condition my clay and mix up my colors.  I wanted it in the corner under the huge windows so I could look outside while working.  I have two other work areas (sitting) in the room that I will show you later.  I also realized I couldn't fit everything into this room and so set up my jewelry making station in our sunroom.  I have a feeling that my desk in the sunroom and this corner work station will be my favorite spots with so much activity to see outside!  Besides all the ducks (see last post) we have had some deer pay us a visit several times.  They had wandered into the courtyard -- probably by crossing the stream -- and seemed to really enjoy themselves.  It is difficult to believe we are so close to downtown with all this nature around us. 

So, I will keep you posted on my new stove if/when it arrives.  In the meantime, I am thinking it is not too late to start mixing up some new Pantone Spring colors!  I totally missed mixing up the colors from last fall.  This wasn't intentional but a result of all my supplies being packed away and in storage for several months between all the other chaos of moving.  I just took a peek today at the new colors and hoping they will be a great way to add that spark that I need to get back into my creative groove!

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.

Let There Be Light

I am really happy with our latest studio redo and corner table set-up we did last spring but lately I had been expressing to Dave how I wish we had more light for our work table.  So Dave surprised me with a new lamp the other day - a large floor style Ott-Lite.   I got to thinking of where this light would work the best and it involved a little reorganizing of our work space but the new light is wonderful!  Here is our main corner clay table now all nicely arranged.  It feels so good to see it all neat and tidy like this.  The Ott-lite fit perfectly in the corner and because it extends out a fair bit the light makes the whole corner much brighter.  The Ott-Lite is also best when working with color and since we work with so much color, it is a necessity.

Studio Organization Ideas

It is nice to have a clean and tidy studio again as I prefer to work in a well organized and uncluttered environment.  It has also helped improve production and my first day back to claying I decided to make a lot of new canes.  The intense colors in these remind me of a box of crayons and the patterns found in a coloring book.

Now that the studio is pretty much organized, I thought I would share a few organizing tips that I have applied.  I don't have a huge budget for new furnishings and consider myself to be good at improvising with what we already have.  Sometimes taking an item and using it in a different way than intended can be inspiring.

We have these metal shelves that are very useful.  They not only provide support in holding up our long countertop (clay table) but they are also strong enough to hold all of our clay supply which is away from direct heat and sunlight.

As you can see, we go through a lot of clay (yes these are the large blocks) and our order from Shades of Clay just arrived today.  Most of it fit here except for the extra case of black and transluscent.

We order extra (double our usual amount) in the spring before the hot summer arrives as it takes nearly a week to get here and we do not want the clay to "bake" in any trucks that might be sitting during transit.  Some of our large shows are in the early fall so it is important that we have enough clay to get us through the summer.

We found these little drawer units a while ago and I tested them out to see if the clay could be stored in them.  It turns out that the clay doesn't react at all to the plastic so I like to keep the open blocks of each clay color organized.  This way when I need some, it is quick and handy to grab.  I also have one drawer just for the "white mix", wrapped in deli sheets, that I use a lot of.

This simple book shelf sits on our clay table and is perfect for organizing all the containers that hold our canes and mixed color blends.  I still need to label a few of them but pretty much know what is in each one of them.

This is a simple cardboard stationary box that I've had for some time now.  The top part works as a dispenser for our deli sheets and the drawer works for stashing things like the shop towel.  Shop towels come in a roll like paper towel, but are much stronger and can be used over and over.  They are also lint-free which is a good thing when working with polymer clay.  The sheets are quite large so I like to cut them in quarters.

This is an old metal file cabinet that is used as a base for our large work counter.  It was an ugly grey color which we painted black.  The bottom drawer holds a lot of files but I found that one of the drawers is perfect for holding most of our texture sheets and moulds, etc. and all of our shape cutters fit in the top shallow drawer. 

The coolest thing about this cabinet is the pull out "shelf" at the top which can come in handy at times.

Lastly, a studio isn't complete without at least one OttLite which is a more accurate way to see true color.  We have several throughout our studio -- with two of them in my sewing area and one here.  It is on the jewelry making table but also right next to the clay table so is handy for color matching and mixing.

You will notice the metre (yard) stick attached to the front edge of the counter.  I never have to look for my ruler again this way.  If you don't have a yard stick you can always attach a tape measure instead.  This one has both imperial (inches) as well as metric (centimeters) measurements which is useful.

Spring Cleaning and Studio Redo

For the past few months I was feeling like it was time for a change in the studio as we seemed to be outgrowing our space and things were getting a little too messy for me.  I began to make plans to see how things could be arranged for a more efficient work area.  We decided last Monday would be a good day to start.  I had figured that it would be a two day job -- one day to "pull everything apart" and the next day to put it all back.  I thought we would be right back at claying again by Wednesday but I underestimated how much work it would be and five days later, the dust has finally settled and things are pretty much now in their new place.

So here is a little tour of our new and improved, rearranged studio:

We have three work stations, one of which is this Ikea table with the glass top that is my favorite.  This is now our "secondary work space" for working with mica powders, paints, glazing and such. 

Instead of three separate work tables I decided to combine two of them to create a corner space.  The clay work area is on the left and the jewelry making area is on the right.  Any items that is used for both clay and jewelry making is now within reach and not on the opposite side of the room as before.

Corner Work Area

Clay Work Station

Jewelry Making Work Station

This is the "baking area" with extra storage for beads, etc. that is opposite to the clay and jewelry work stations.

And another view of the Ikea table facing the closet .... 

... which is also my sewing area.  I shared here how I created this work space last year.  I can sew any time I want and then close the closet door when done.

Lastly, this little cupboard is actually for shoes but I reclaimed it from our closet to use it here.  I found some bins and boxes to fit into the spaces to help keep items that need working on or finishing a little more organized.

So now our studio is new and freshly arranged, I am ready to go back to "work" and hopefully play a little as well in between.