Rebuilding the Studio - September - November 2014

In April 2011, I put together an exciting new design for my glass studio. But as life, scheduling and remodeling go, it took me three years before I actually brought in a contractor to help me with the work. And, just as on schedule, it took another five months before he was actually able to bring his team in to do the work. He thought it would take “just a week” after Labor Day, but we completed the project in early November 2014. When it comes to construction projects, one has to practice the gift of patience.

It is so wonderful to have a new studio that it was worth the wait. My old studio work tables were once the kitchen cabinets of the previous owners of our house in Burlingame, California that my daughter’s father and I purchased in 1993. The kitchen cabinets were very fashionable when the McCormicks put them in in the mid- to late-1960’s, but they were a bit outdated 30 years later in the 1990’s. Since they were solid wood, David and I decided they would make great work tables. So, he screwed them back to back, put them on casters, placed doors on them for tops, and I worked happily on them for 20 years. One was my kiln table, one was my central work table and the last was a long work table, which sat against a wall. The rest of my motley studio crew was an old desk one of our neighbors had put out for trash. My 75 jars of powdered glass frit were sitting on the shelves of a large, old bookcase my grandfather had made which is in the next door laundry room. The largest item was my grandfather’s old work desk.  My sheets of glass sat on the floor in six crates from Bullseye Glass and it was getting nearly impossible to tell what colors of glass I had anymore. It was time for a change.

One day in April 2014, while having a morning snack with my friend Darca, she mentioned that she liked working with the contractor who was remodeling her kitchen. I asked her for a recommendation. When I asked her contractor to come over and quote on my studio project, it turned out that the work tables I wanted to construct were very similar to the work tables Matt used in his shop and so it seemed like a good fit. Unfortunately, as the months wore on, it became clear that his team would not have time for the project during the Spring or during the Summer… they started the day after Labor Day. The work tables, drawers and cabinets were custom built based on my design and to accommodate my cases of glass. Here are photos of how the studio looked during and after their work.

East Corner Before

East Corner Glass Cases Going In (and Old Work Table)

Northeast Corner Glass Cases Going In

Northeast Corner Moving In

Frit and Glass Wall Before (with Old Kiln Work Table)

Frit and Glass Wall (with New Kiln Work Tables)

New Work Tables and Drawers In Process

New Tables and Shelving Complete

Moving Back In

Now that it’s starting to snow in Iowa, I will have to share some of this space with our outdoor furniture and a car during the winter months, but it will still be wonderful to continue my current series in this new space.