New walls, new burner and hot soup!

Today seemed quite a significant day to share recent activities with you, but to paint the full picture, you need to know about the last couple of months and beyond...

Since Christmas I have been mainly office bound, pencil to paper working on designs for proposed projects throughout 2012 and it's great to get this contrast from time to time. There's a completely different climate to start with! and then there's working and planning on a totally different scale. Building huge sculptures relies on a different group of muscles as well! Exercising the creative parts of your brain like this is so rewarding, plus it's great to be in the warm to do it!

Anyway before Christmas I scheduled some time to rebuild my workshop as running back to back with projects in the past few years has meant the space has suffered from neglect and has had to function on minor repairs - this is beginning to sound like an analogy of me!

To give you a brief history of the space, it is situated on an old train line, next to the Ashby canal. There is a horse chestnut tree immediately outside the front door and some silver birch for shade. 15 years ago I set up this creative space with some friends which has evolved from a portacabin to a temporary lean-to, from large bivvys to some sort of yurt?! and then into a tin roofed shack in 2002 with some more permanent uprights to stop it blowing away! Still challenged by time and budget the walls were wrapped in lorry curtains and the gaps woven with surplus willow, until November last year, then I finally built a floor! Extended a few metres, gaining enough space for a willow store and soaking area (luxury!), built some large opening doors and locked in all the walls with tin and installed a new wood burner. Of course this isn't quite finished, the insulation is yet to be fitted.
I cannot express the absolute joy, even at this unfinished stage, that I have found myself in a few days ago. My first official day weaving in 2012 wrapped up in my new revised building and then to make it even better, punctuated with a bowl of steaming borshch for lunch, home-made and (most importantly) shared by my Ukrainian mate Pete.

Here's to many more happy days creating and interesting lunches!!