Show us where you work!
This is my messy studio with the outdoor extension.
I converted this office room into my metal studio and I am loving every bit. The bench is right next to the sliding door to the patio and gets lot's of light. When I am in the studio the door is always open. Right now thats my only ventilation system. Luckily living close to the beach in LA, the climate is most of the time nice enough to just keep it open. But I really need to invest in a dust collection fan system in the future. I don't do a lot of work inside that creates fumes, I don't solder much since I do most work in the waxes before casting and the kiln for the casting burn out during is outside. The metal dust from grinding and filing is really my only concern. A dust collector is high up on my tool wish list.
Earlier this year I set up my vacuum casting equipment in the studio and moved out the computer to make more space. I love that I can now have more control over the timing of my castings. It also let me to try out a few more ideas and some tests with casting organic material like these found twigs.
If something does not come out well, it just gets melted in the next casting run. Another advantage is that I can recycle a lot of my clean scrap silver, which was nice when the silver price started to skyrocket a few weeks ago. Sending castings out to a outside caster cost a lot in labor charges. I would have thought twice about testing so many new designs in the last few month. However the equipment was expensive and I still have to see how much my energy bill went up due to running the kiln and melting furnace almost every weekend. I only regret that I can't do any castings with palladium alloys, my new favorite metal, as the melting temperate of palladium white gold and palladium exceeds the temperature range of my melting furnace and kiln. Casting palladium does require some special equipment anyways, so its better keep that for those professional casters.
| Please take a walk through the studio's of these other Etsy Metal Artist's Rebecca Bogan - http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog Shirlee Grund - http://lichenandlychee.com/blog/ Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com Elizabeth Scott http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog Cynthia Del Giudice http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com Michele Grady http://www.michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com Erin Austin - http://metalmusing.blogspot.com/ Evelyn Markasky -- http://markasky.blogspot.com/ Kathryn Cole - http://www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com 2Roses - http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com Lauren Anabela Beaudoin/Creative Dexterity - http://creativedexterity.com/Blog/main.html |
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