I must admit I have this strange fascination with how others work and set up their studios, how they manage it all in odd and unusual places, altered buildings, basements, bathrooms, wherever it is that they find the space to make the work they do. With the generous help of family, I’ve been slowly renovating my garage and turning it into a winterized heated year-round studio and have had so much to consider in terms of how to set up a space which greatly exceeds the size of studio I’m used to working in. Go figure though that I’ve already managed to fill most of the shelves and space in a manner of weeks! I’ve had quite the range of spaces to work in over the past few years. When I lived in Edmonton I had a studio on the top floor of a beautiful old building, drafty as anything and full of printmakers. I think that studio was the cleanest I’ve ever been in for fear of being cornered by the collective anger of dust hating printmakers – could have only been worse had it been photographers! And at other times I’ve turned my kitchen in a woodshop (a table pulled apart without its leaf used to clamp and cut wood on), my living room has been taken over, clay everywhere in the carpet (such bad OHS), basements converted for wheel throwing, and bathrooms have become casting slip mixing rooms and glaze rooms. But now it’s all in one spot, a dream come true, a garage just steps away from the house, with a beautiful view over the snow covered yard. (Okay I still mix slip in my bathroom, but that’s cuz getting running water out to the garage would have cost a small fortune!)

The reason I was thinking about this was inspired by receiving an email from Adrienne Gradauer & Zacharie Quin, some potters new to the province who just sent me their website with pics of their new working space. Check them out at Smilling Cow Studio.

I still think one of the most beautiful studio spaces I’ve seen is Karin Eriksson‘s new space. Check out her style blog for pics of the space during a recent sale. Gorgeous! That’s one thing I love about blogs and websites is to get that sneak peek, or little snoop into studios…