Cat's Eye Carving

My New Workshop Layout

For the last three days I have been reorganising my workshop!!

I have wanted to do it for months now but you know what it’s like, there’s always something else to do. When I moved in there in January 2007, the previous occupier had re-hung the door so I designed my space to work with that, and any of you saw it then will understand why I have done this. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the sink was in my gallery space and I had a lovely even magnolia wall in my workshop space.

The first thing was to shift about half a ton of stone from one end to the other, then move my benches and my tools and equipment, now this all sounds quite easy, however the benches are old wooden ones and under each one I stored tools, sand, buckets of lime, clay and other such stuff! I also had to keep my gallery space reasonably accessible because I couldn’t close to the public!!

By the end of day one it looked like a bomb had gone off in my workshop, I left at 7.15 in the evening wondering if I had done the right thing.

Obviously this is a very strenuous thing to do so my back was playing up but a few stretches and a hot bath later I was ready for a good nights sleep, ready to face the mess that was my gallery/workshop in the morning.

I was able to crack on with the painting of my gallery area on Saturday morning and as soon as it was dry, start putting up shelves for my carvings to go on. The benches were in place and all the gubbins was back where it belonged. It was beginning to look like I had started something good!!

My friend displays some of her beaded jewellery in my gallery so once I had moved the cabinet I was able to get my engine hoist into its new home on the back wall. I had to move more of my stone to make room for my tool chest and then the shelves where I dump everything had to be moved!!

I could then move the half ton of stone to its final resting place and there it was my gallery, it looked bigger than it had done up the other end, probably because this end is a lot lighter due to the light coloured wall, the other end wall comprises of very dark Forest of Dean sandstone, it is part of the original old dairy.

6.15 arrived and I decided that I had done enough for the day, Ed my wonderful boyfriend who put this blog together for me was off to Silverstone at 7 am on Sunday morning, so I decided to get up when he left, to make an early start.

I arrived at my workshop at 8.30 and the first task was to re-hang the door, sounds easy enough, however I had made it into a stable door last year to keep the draft out in the winter (people won’t come in when the door is closed, I think it’s a British thing!!). Anyhow I digress, I thought I could do this and move the piece of stone I use as a plinth before ten, when the site opens to the public-I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had finally started putting the first hinge back on when I heard the tearoom girls turn up, didn’t think much of this, they often get there early, it was when I heard the voices of the other workshop owners that I realised the time. Fortunately the public don’t generally arrive too early on a Sunday. I got the door done, it needs tweaking, but it works well enough for now!!

The large block of stone required my brain, it’s amazing what I can move on my own with a bit of thought, I levered it up with my bar then onto the rollers. Once in position I had to stand it upright, again with the bar, I levered it up put a block underneath, I did this a few times until I could just lift it with the bar, sounds pretty impressive huh!!

The public aren’t allowed in when I’m doing this sort of thing. Then comes the power of the legs, sitting down I pushed the stone into position. The next bit did require some help, my carving of a mermaid’s head needed moving and she is just too heavy to lift on my own!

The rest of the day I spent tidying my working area, it’s still not quite how I want it but it’s getting there. It was quite busy on Sunday so I spent quite a lot of time with the public. I was going to take photos of the work in progress but I left my camera at home on Saturday and Ed took it with him to Silverstone on Sunday.

I will take some photos so that you can get an idea of what I have been explaining.