A Plan?

OK, so I think it’s taken me a few days to get my head around what’s going on at the moment. As you may already know, 10 months ago, I moved out of my home workshop and into a studio at a craft centre. I did this, partly because we were moving anyway, but mainly so that I could offer “Make Your Own Wedding Ring” workshops. 

It’s been brilliant, and as well as welcoming several lovely couples into my work space to make their rings, I’ve also felt really proud of myself for being able to support myself and my family AND afford to pay rent for premises. It made me feel worthy of the title, "Designer/Goldsmith"!

But then the world got sick...

I’m now in a position where I have a wonderful space in which to work...but it’s not at home, where we all need to stay at the moment...and all my tools and equipment are there! I’ve seen lots of social media posts from fellow artists and craftspeople who have been moving things to work from home, but its not that simple for me. I built my benches in the unit, in fact, I don’t think I could actually get my bench in my car to bring home. I have a clamp on bench peg that I could put on the kitchen table, but I’d be very limited in what I could actually make, as things like my microscope for stone setting, my rolling mill and soldering equipment are all attached to my studio bench. 

So...I’ve decided that I’m going to continue to go to my studio, for the time being at least. My time there though, is going to have to be limited by my bladder!!! 

I can cycle there (or drive if it’s chucking it down with rain!) without having to be near to anyone. The only thing there that may have come into contact with the outside world is my door handle, and I’m now disinfecting that every time I go. So if I just do a couple of hours, and don’t need to use the communal loo’s, then its essentially no different to being at home. There does seem to be a bit of maintenance work going on, but I should be able to avoid the times that any workers are there, and if I do turn up and find anyone working too near to my studio door, then I’ll just turn around and come home again. 

So that’s my plan for the foreseeable future. I’m gutted that I can’t run my workshops, and although I do have some commissions that are “in progress”, I can’t finish anything that needs to be hallmarked until the assay offices reopen. What I can do though, is sit here in my garden, in the sunshine (today anyway) and write things like this. I can also update my website and Etsy shop, and spend a bit more time on the endless list of jobs to do to the, ummm, “project” that we’ve recently moved into. 

Money wise, we’re ok at the moment (although that’s only because we have some money saved to do the work on the house), but this is usually my busiest time of year. So without being able to run workshops, and buying jewellery probably not top of most people’s priority lists at the moment, I’m hoping that one of those government small business grants will come my way soon. 

I’m still more than happy to take on commissions, as I can do all the initial consultations and coming up with ideas over email/FaceTime/skype. This is how I work on most projects anyway, and hopefully, the extra design time that I now have will make the physical pieces all the more worth the wait!