up and running

Progress on our new downtown studio is finally moving along. We are awaiting confirmation from the city of Franklin that our zoning has been approved, so in the meantime we are still setting up. Most of the heavy machinery has been moved in, while boxes of hand tools still await sorting and organizing. Moving the machinery was no small task as our shop is located on the second story of a 100 year old brick storefront. With 14ft ceilings, the original manual freight elevator is the only means of moving heavy objects upstairs. The lift consists of a wooden platform raised and lowered by cable attached to a giant (5ft. diameter) cast iron flywheel which is rotated by pulling a rope pully from the first floor. Operating the lift is often a two person job requiring one person to release the brake by pulling the relase cable and a second to pull the rope pully.

Our studio consists of three 1000 sqft. rooms with brick walls, pine t&g flooring, and ten foot ceilings. Sounds wonderful, but I should mention, the dinner-mint painted brick walls were flaking, the pine floors were creaking, and the ceiling was falling down from years of birds nesting in the attic. While I tackeled the ceiling with new 1/4 inch plywood sheathing, Maeve began scraping the brick. It took us a few weeks of scraping, then priming and painting but finally the walls look great (Great job Maeve). The ceiling is about half way finished with about 15 more sheets to install. A new pine floor is in order, but for now that will have to wait.