Here’s my work table at my new studio (moved to this 100-year-old house in the city of Ithaca the summer of 2010). Although this studio is much smaller than the one at our previous house, I really don’t need a lot of room since I’m just sitting on a chair while making beads (and I have plenty of storage room around me). My kiln is conveniently located just to the right of my work area, and my gas booster (compressor) is just beyond that. Above the table is an exhaust fan permanently installed into the window frame. Intake air comes from another window to my left–proper ventilation is extremely important!
Most of my rods of glass are stored in PVC pipe sections in a sturdy metal bookcase to the left of my work area. Above that is the window for air intake. (The plastic bucket in front of the window serves to keep air from passing through my flame–makes it difficult to create beads if the flame is moving.) Also in this picture is a microfilm cabinet that is now filled with specialty glass rods (silver-glass, dichroic, filigrana, etc.) and topped with CIM glass (one of my favorite glasses to work with, along with Double Helix silver glasses).
These built-in shelves hold my stashes of frit (glass bits), murrini, foils, wires, mesh, presses, and lots of miscellaneous stuff I use in the making of my beads.
I just love the wonderful door to my studio that my husband Bill built from scratch! We built the entire studio in what started out as a dark corner in the basement of our “new” old house (see below). It had a dirt floor, old foam insulation blocking the windows, and cob webs everywhere! It was a labor of love, and Bill did a magnificent job!
This shows the original space in our basement that we converted into my studio!