Settling In To My New Studio

I signed a lease on a studio at Western Avenue Studios late last month, and, on March 1st, it was ready!


Here are Carlos and the munchkins looking out the (huge!) windows at the canal. Which looks like this:



Neat, huh? WAS is in nearby Lowell, Massachusetts (about five miles from our home, nice short commute), and there are over 120 artists working in studios on four floors of an old, renovated mill building. Lowell was one of the centers of the industrial revolution in the U.S. Most of the old mill buildings were textile mills - how fitting! And many of them are now being converted into lofts, studios, and work-live studios.

Anyway, not sure if you could tell in that first picture or not, but the floor of the studio was in *really* really bad shape...

Eegads. Carlos has definitely won the Husband of the Year award... He spent the entire day last Tuesday sanding the floor for me - three different grits, a huge amount of work. I stained the floor in the middle of the night and we got a couple of coats of polyurethane on it before we left for the weekend to ski. And this is what it looks like now!

Hooray! Much better! I have started moving in - yarn, a work table, nothing too complicated yet. I'm hoping we'll get my big 60" 12-shaft LeClerc Colonial moved in tonight - right in front of those lovely windows, so I can look out once in a while as I weave. Very happy!

I've been meeting quite a few of my neighbors, too, they're all so nice! If you live in the area, WAS has Open Studios the first Saturday of each month, from noon - 5 p.m. It's definitely worth stopping by, just to see lots of artists at work (and to maybe buy something if it strikes your fancy!) - painters, photographers, jewelry artists, fiber artists, mixed media artists, one other weaver that I know of - lots of different types of art to check out.