Thursday, May 13, 2010

A dream come true: my own studio!

For years I have been working in the boiler basement of our building when creating my jewelry. Not ideal, but a lot better than Nothing!

Then the brilliant jeweler Ossip Frolov gave me the opportunity to work for and with him for one month in his lovely shop in central Copenhagen.

What a change! I have enjoyed it a lot and learned more. Now that my internship ends, I don’t feel I can go back to my basement-boiler-workshop. I need to move on! With a new company, homepage and brand identity, I need to move forward, and so I searched for new premises to work and sell my art.

And I found it!

Between the Kings Garden, encircling the castle Rosenburg, and Nyboder – the low and very cute housings build by the king for his seamen in the 1600, you find a very nice and calm area of Copenhagen. Surrounded by the National museum of art and the royal castle Amalienburg, this is a living area for those who like to live in the historical part of the city – in walking distance of the bustling shopping life.


In Sankt Pauls Gade 72 I have obtained a studio within a workshop commune of four other women – a ceramic artist, a sculptor and two other jewelers. It’s an old basement shop and I have two windows, flanking a mailbox. Considering that this is not a shopping street, that mailbox might end up giving my jewelry quite a bit of attention – or so I hope.


I have great plans for this place, which will be a combined studio and shop. However, as the before pictures show, it takes a lot of work! The room was formerly inhibited by a painter who painted large pictures leaning against the walls – and it surely shows!

 

(The lovely lady with the impressive curly hair is Hanne Bertelsen, who is the ceramics artist owning the shop) But I’m not intimidated and with the help of my good friend Michael, I ventured into turning the rainbow-room into a calm, white base for my own colors.


And here we are, halfway through the painting process with the walls more or less white (another coat is definitely coming up!) I’m not meticulous, not aiming for smooth perfect results. Actually I like the coarseness of the surfaces, but I want at least the color to be uniform.


The floors are splattered with colors too, so I need to do something. I’ll probably end up painting them green (yup – still my fav color!)


Lots of work still to be done, but once that is over, I hope for the room to look something like this:


One large table will function as both my working surface and counter. The closed door at the end of the room will be turned into a vitrine with build-in lights and the wall next to the door will hold another set of vitrines. I have inherited an anvil from my grand father who was a black smith and will of cause use it in my studio. Also my friend Rikke lets me borrow a beautiful old mannequin and it will look stunning!

La piece de resistance is one of the windowsills opposite my bench, where I’m planning a cushioned seat for my visitors.


Imagine working and cosily chatting with your customer or friends! This is what I do as I search for vendors to sell me glass shelves, vitrine doors and thick wooden tabletops. It's a thrilling experience and I’ll keep you posted on the development!

6 comments:

  1. That looks fantastic! Congratulations to the new space!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope you'll blog and post pictures of the finished space!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, congratulations! It's already looking better & I'm sure it will be absolutely lovely when finished. I love the window seat idea & I'm envious of that anvil you mentioned! :) Best of luck w/ it all - can't wait to see finished pics!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! I can't wait to see pictures as the work progresses...how exciting! Congratulations! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations! How exciting. It looks like a lovely space.

    ReplyDelete