So I have begun my gallery space and remind myself that you have to break eggs to make omelettes! Man, what a mess! I have accumulated way too much stuff!
I began this process by searching "Craigslist" for metal scrappers. There are dozens in the town, people struggling to make ends meet and the druggies to be careful of because they will take more than you offer.
It was "Veteran's Day" on Friday so I found a Vet! A Vietnam Vet no less, a guy about my own age, also on Social Security and trying to make ends meet and willing to work for what he needed. It is a simple barter: pick up my scrap steel and you can have it. In two hours we had a corner of my shop clean and other metals from around my shop that weren't wanted any more. We worked together and talked the entire time, just about the struggle of life and what to do. What to do. We are both the kind of people that have to be doing something. Giving it to us is not what we want. Even older people like to be productive. And we were! He ended up with a ton of scrap steel, stuff that I could have made use of but storing it became an issue. I needed the space. In two hours he made over $150. Not too bad for old folk.
My shop is 200 square feet smaller and stuff is piled upon stuff. Everything is in my way. I am left with a space about 20' x 18' and for now can barely walk in it. I am at the point of "OMG, what have I done?" It will take some time to rearrange and organize and make it workable, but I have to do this first.
The Gallery Space is a luxury, a nice heated space where I can play at painting and display in an uncluttered way some of my metal art. This gallery space will be nice but it won't make me a dime. I need my shop!
Today I will move the big stuff around, free up my welding table and begin the process of creating a working space. I really need to spend two weeks on my shop before I attack the little gallery space. The shop will pay for the gallery and the gallery will pay for nothing! Well, maybe.
I definitely have two types of customers. Most are happy with the mess caused by active fabrication, creating metal art in my shop, the smell of burnt steel and just the experience of seeing stuff happening. This isn't a Doctor's office after all. I do have other customers though, mostly (and a little criticism here!) women designers, "decorators" in high heels and really nice clothes and very clean hands! I admit they are pretty uncomfortable here! They are after curtain rods and little brackets, stuff more familiar wrapped in cellophane packaging. They will be happy with my new gallery whenever I get it.
It won't be too fast though. I will insulate the wall I built next weekend and hang and tape the sheetrock but then it will move a bit slower. I need to concentrate on my shop and some of what I want to do with the gallery space will be expensive. I'll do it as the money comes in, one step at a time. I need some nice lighting
and I so want to install really nice hardwood floors over the grungy concrete look that is there now. And I still need that heater! There is lots to do. It is a project!
I'll keep you posted!
More of what I do, my shop and garden is HERE
I began this process by searching "Craigslist" for metal scrappers. There are dozens in the town, people struggling to make ends meet and the druggies to be careful of because they will take more than you offer.
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| Empty 200 sq. feet of gallery |
My shop is 200 square feet smaller and stuff is piled upon stuff. Everything is in my way. I am left with a space about 20' x 18' and for now can barely walk in it. I am at the point of "OMG, what have I done?" It will take some time to rearrange and organize and make it workable, but I have to do this first.
The Gallery Space is a luxury, a nice heated space where I can play at painting and display in an uncluttered way some of my metal art. This gallery space will be nice but it won't make me a dime. I need my shop!
Today I will move the big stuff around, free up my welding table and begin the process of creating a working space. I really need to spend two weeks on my shop before I attack the little gallery space. The shop will pay for the gallery and the gallery will pay for nothing! Well, maybe.
I definitely have two types of customers. Most are happy with the mess caused by active fabrication, creating metal art in my shop, the smell of burnt steel and just the experience of seeing stuff happening. This isn't a Doctor's office after all. I do have other customers though, mostly (and a little criticism here!) women designers, "decorators" in high heels and really nice clothes and very clean hands! I admit they are pretty uncomfortable here! They are after curtain rods and little brackets, stuff more familiar wrapped in cellophane packaging. They will be happy with my new gallery whenever I get it.
It won't be too fast though. I will insulate the wall I built next weekend and hang and tape the sheetrock but then it will move a bit slower. I need to concentrate on my shop and some of what I want to do with the gallery space will be expensive. I'll do it as the money comes in, one step at a time. I need some nice lighting
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| The view from my office door |
I'll keep you posted!
More of what I do, my shop and garden is HERE
2 comments:
Jerry congrats on all your hard work. Such an exciting venture you are on. Going slow is good to reflect on just what it is you need. So many things to do with the concrete without expensive covering - why not make is one of your canvases? Or just polish it - stained concrete you know is all the rage and it's green! So many possibilities.
PS: You know those thoughts I put out there about a beautiful adobe house... well funny thing something may have just been handed to me on a silver platter! I'm freaking out - I'm trying to be calm and not freak my freak out with a happy dance yet!!!
Where do you get all your energy, Jer? I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it all. Truth to tell, I'm overwhelmed just thinking about how I have to take the dog for his walks now that Michael is out of town this week. This new space will be great and it really sounds like you might have made a great new friend!
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