The Typewriter Table

[glasshouse]

After seeing some of the gorgeous studios that many of you work out of, I decided to post photos of my less-than-perfect workspace and the work we're currently doing to upgrade my poor torcherous conditions. Also my cousin really wanted to see them.


I live in a barn.


It's a converted dairy barn. We live in the studio upstairs, and storage, laundry and my torch are downstairs. Downstairs is all concrete with funny walls, TALL ceilings and corridors that they used to run the cows through back in the day. The concrete is very convenient for me!





My studio is a...


Typewriter Table! that my dad got from Recycletown at the dump! I stole it. And it's smaller than it looks. See the stainless steel napkin holders? They're the only hot rod rests that would fit on the table! And the firebrick mandrel holder...That's history right there! My dad made it from a piece of his old glass furnace from way back in his glassblowing days. Man is it ever crumbly messy though.


Note the hood which is soon going to be refurbished and installed in my NEW studio...Don't flame me!!! The big fan is to the right of the pix and there's one in the back door too for now. Just temporary!



My glass storage is a...


Beer Box by Lost Coast Brewing Co.!

But very very soon... (they are pouring concrete TODAY!!!)

I will be moving to...the Cantina! AKA the 100+ year old Shop:


I will have to share it with a welding machine and lots of woodworking tools.


Outside the wall I claimed for my workspace.


Honey, Build my bench here and make it pretty!


We already have houseplants. And no, the roof doesn't leak.


Briathan and Momma Kitty can't wait for it to be finished!

Well, that's a stretch but I caught them in the act again and decided public humiliation was appropriate.

We have a long way to go and I'll post more pix as we do it.

Kelly

[artsyuno]

I'm totally charmed by the exterior photos. What a cool place to live and work!

[judi]

what a neat place!

[Lorraine Chandler]

People not from California do not know what it means to live in Sonoma county....Very Very lucky you!! I love the area. You have sooo much to work with. Have a blast and keep us updated.

I know people who would give a years wages to live in that part of the country/
Lorraine

[squid]

Rambo Patootie superbun is adorable!!!!! I would love to see a bigger version of that pic

Very cool place



Edited to say I saw the bigger pic when I clicked on yourr avatar - that pic is hilarious!

[C-Ann]

Just love it - please post more pic's as you go!

[GinaJ]

Definitely keep us posted on your progress! I LOVE the cat picture!

[anneli]

Ha! What a cool place to work!! I work outside under a type of carport that is attached to a shed..so I know what it's like not to be in pristene conditions. I am also in California..so we ARE lucky we have pretty nice weather right? I'll be moving it all inside soon though. Good luck with your new space. I loved the photos..they are great!!

[Breezy]

YAY! You're getting more space soon!!! I'm so excited for you and I can't wait to see it...you're too far away
Breezy

[Diane (clarus)]

Looks great! I look forward to watching your progress. And yes, it is wonderful living in California.......

-Diane

[Kalera]

WOW I am completely in crush with where you live! An old dairy barn? It's beautiful! And your new studio looks like it's going to be amazing... plus the landscape where you live is sooo gorgeous!

[miahawk]

what a cool place! it's got so much character. your kitties are adorable, too.

[Jenfire]

LOVE IT! I too work out of part of a dairy barn and find it wonderfully inspiring. Keep going things are looking great!
Jen

[Breezy]

Hi Kelly!
I saw a typewriter table at the Goodwill this morning and it made me think of you I have a better idea of the amount of space you're dealing with...that's dedication man!
Breezy

[slightlyvitrified]

Nice table....I want it back! I'm verry proud of all the progress you've made this year. Keep it up. PS I got the S. C., airbrush and alcohol so we can start the "secret" Tiffany style fuming soon...Hold your breath!

Love, slightlyvitrified....your dad.

[Breezy]

Hi Slightlyvitrified! When are you going to start posting your work A birdie told me you got your very own torch...how exciting...a new chapter in the glass saga!
Breezy

[glasshouse]

Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments. I do feel pretty lucky to be able to live here. Although living in the heart of Wine Country I have never been wine tasting. I guess that's the Sonoma County that the tourists experience. Maybe next year I'll have a Gathering party and we can all go wine-tasting together. So plan on a couple extra days for your travel plans!-Oakland's not too far away!

I haven't updated lately because nothing was happening with the studio...I was basically waiting for the concrete to cure. It seemed like it took forever. So in the meantime I managed to sweet-talk my Dear Old Dad and my landlords into doing a permanent acid stain on the concrete. We finished the stain yesterday and Dear Old Dad is going to come by on Tuesday to seal the finish. It looks beautiful!

I took lots of photos to document the concrete stain process.

Before we started:


Sweeping up leaves with BB:


Christian cut down my houseplants


This is where the torches will go!


Starting the Stain


Halfway there!


Dear Old Dad doing a wash over the stain


My corner is the prettiest part of the shop! IMHO!


Waiting for it to dry


I need to get pictures now that it's dry, before we seal it. But that will have to be tomorrow!

Have a great evening!

[papimom]

That stain is gorgeous. Tell me how it was done. Please.
Joan

[glassactcc]

Hey Kelly, I just found this post. I haven't been here in awhile. I am so excited for you. Finally you can graduate to maybe a.....computer table I want to see so I have to come over, but what's with the kitty porn? By the way.....I love your Etsy shop. Very wonderful beads in such a short time see, your gushing with talent! I'm so glad you did that.

[Breezy]

Wow, it looks amazing!!! I can't wait to see it in person, I promise I'll put everything back where it goes and be a very good studio guest


Breezy

[glasshouse]

Thanks you guys!

Joan- the stain is an acid stain. I think you can buy concrete stains at Lowe's or online. My dad layers several colors kind of splotchy before he mops them in, in one of the pictures he's using his sprayer. We used Padre Brown, Amber Green and Copper Patina I think. The blue wash over the top is a water based wood stain. We worked it in and wiped most of it off. It will be sealed with the lacquer finish. If you can do it yourself you save so much money. If we had been a regular customer, the job would have been between $3000-$4000 but my dad did it for materials cost, about $600.00 for a little over 600 square feet. It's a lot of fun too.

Cynthia! You're so sweet to make such nice lies to me. I'm glad you liked the etsy shop. Christian has been so mean and grumpy lately because he is the "breadwinner" and so I finally had to list beads to appease him. I'm not sure if I'm really ready for it though. Like I said in another post somewhere, now the beads are up...it's not MY fault if no one buys them, right? So hopefully that will make him happy. Maybe he'll be so happy he'll start the interior remodel on my studio and finish it in record time!!!

Breezy Bee- You better come visit me real soon! I guess it will have to be after the studio gets finished since one person can barely fit at the typewriter table... I know- we could take turns! I hope you're coming down for "Thanksgiving"- sssshh.

[Mike H]

Hi Kelly,

Your place has Tons of Charm! Your muse will definately be enhanced by
your cool new studio. Great job on the floor, that is really sweet!
You and your dad should come over and blow glass and do some torchwork
at my place sometime. Does your dad still blow glass? If so , where?
You can ask your friend Cynthia to come too. Your torchwork looks really nice. I like meeting other glass artists and sharing techniques.
I still have a couple of modifications to make to my shop so I can have all my glassblowing equipment setup next to my shop, but I am really close.
My wife and I are looking for a House with some land in Sonoma County
like Sebastopol, Santa Rosa or Sonoma to move to after our Daughter Graduates from High School at the end of this school year.
We have been traveling to Sonoma lately looking at properties, We can't wait to move, the bay area is getting on our nerves!

[glasshouse]

Hi Mike! I'm glad you found my thread. My dad does still blow glass, but he rents studio time down at Public Glass in South SFO. I'm sure he'd love to check out your studio. He set up several when he did art glass for a living. He's a one-man act though, no assistants, so he might set up differently than a team would.

Sonoma County is beautiful, there are a lot of really nice places to live outside of the city. (Santa Rosa) I live up on Sonoma Mountain in Penngrove near Petaluma and Rohnert Park. My husband's dad does home/land deals (he sells mfd. homes) and I think right now it's a buyers market. Lots of foreclosures. You could always make Gualala your permanent residence. Glass and mushrooms- my 2 favorite things! We'll definitely have to meet one of these days!

Kelly

[mixednut]

I love the look of it all! I like rustic, and old. DH uses old wood to build things for my studio and we torch it to give it a nice color and bring out the wood grain.

[glass-sis]

Just charming!

[glasshouse]

Well, seeing Jan & Steve's thread about their cool new Northern Cali studio reminded me that I have waited way too long to update this thread. I have tons of pictures of the Cantina remodel, which is still a work in progress. *sigh* But it's coming along...

I have to say that we are very fortunate to live in one of the prettiest places on earth. It's hard to capture from just a picture. And yes, it's ridiculously expensive. Even being raised here and living here since birth we are priced out of the market. I guess it's ok with us though. We can't afford to buy million$$$ property but we get to rent here! And our families are close but not too close, which is a bonus. Anyway, I digress.

So, to resume the updates where we left off, this is dawn up at our place last October 29th.


In November Christian framed the south wall and put in a bank of windows in my corner, recycled from the remodel job he did for my parents. Yay! The gorgeous concrete floor got dirtier. Christian and I had a few tiffs about that. I wish we had put down a thicker layer of lacquer and wax before he started with the big stuff. Oh well. If the finish gets a little scratched I can always touch it up with oils. You can see the hills are still fairly brown after Thanksgiving. We had a very dry autumn. These were taken November 25th, the day after my dad's 60th birthday when my aunt & uncles came up to visit.

Viewed facing Northeast


Christian and my Uncle Mitch in front of the partially installed windows


The front of the Cantina facing the driveway is still original at this point in November...very rustic!


So that takes us up through November, and the beginning of a job that just got bigger and bigger. But it is past my bedtime so I will save the rest of the story for later!

Happy Sunday!

Kelly

PS I did go winetasting finally for the first time recently. It was really quite fun! The wines were amazing and it was free! I'm definitely gonna play "tourist" again soon!

[murf]

looks to be a very cool and promising space.
Murf

[theglasszone]

How fun and exciting!!! I'm really enjoying sharing this adventure with you!!! It's like a good book that you just don't want to put down...

Of course, we can hardly wait for the next "chapter"!

DeAnne in CA

[ChristyPhelps]

Can't wait to see the updates! You rent, but they let you make mods like that? Great deal that is!

[glasshouse]

Well, thanks, I guess if people are actually reading this, I need to get my b*tt in gear and post the pictures of the rest of the work we've done on the Cantina. BTW when I say "we", I usually mean Christian my husband, Anderson our neighbor, Ben who works for Christian and Quincy (here on LE!) who's a recent addition to the crew. My job is to hold the camera. I did help my dad with staining the floors and I am going to do clean-up and painting. Christian did teach me to use a chop saw the other day though. It was fun!

We got really lucky with our landlords. They are actually paying for us to renovate. Christian has done work around the property for them prior to this project. It's been a lifesaver for us this past winter, when Christian's construction business has been slow he works on the Cantina and we wouldn't have been able to pay our bills without it. We are barely scraping by right now, but I think it will turn around and work out the way it's s'posed to.

Most of the materials are recycled from Christian's other jobs. We re-used the old rustic redwood siding. The windows are mostly recycled, some from my parents' house when Christian replaced their windows last year. Most of the sheetrock will be recycled, it's from the jewelry manufacturer I worked for that went out of business last year. They had to tear out the interior offices in the warehouse facility when they ended their lease. Christian did the tear out in exchange for the materials. They would have gone right in a dumpster otherwise. I think we are going to build a deck off the back of the Cantina when it's done and that will be made from all the little pieces of leftover Trex that Christian saves from his decking jobs. It might not be the prettiest but it will be green! (Not literally green though!)

Anyway, I better get back to Quickbooks (ugh!) and get our receipts for last year entered and reconciled for taxes. Then I will be able to resize and post photos of the work we've done since.

Kelly