A Bench Apron

 

 I am very lucky to have a lovely little studio at the bottom of the garden where I can do all my messy creative stuff like working with glass.

Over the last year as I've learnt more skills the poor studio has had more and more things added to it (tools and materials), to allow me to create everything I want.

I was very lucky to have a set of drawers donated to me from our neighbours who no longer needed them,  which helped with the storage issue, but I would like to start making some jewellery in there too and that needs a slightly different set up.

 

Traditionally, jewellers have a bench with a half circle cut out of it, with a bench peg that sticks out of the back edge of the circle to allow them to work on an item, with a fabric or leather bench apron which hangs under the peg and catches things as they drop - for instance if you are cutting a piece of silver wire to lenght.

Because I have such a small space and it needs to do many things, I can't really afford to cut a half circle in one of my worktops or have a bench peg sticking out all the time.

So 'im outdoors made me a peg and got me a clamp so I can use it when I need it.  I just needed a bench apron to catch things that I drop as the dog doesn't like them falling on his head, and it's really frustrating when you drop the thing your working on and then you have to spend ages looking for it!

After a lot of thinking and a discussion with 'im outdoors we came up with the idea to use sliding towel rails to make a sliding bench apron.  When I don't need it, it sits under the bench but when I need it I can just pull it out and set my peg up above it.

 

'im outdoors was very happy as all he needed to do was screw in four screws.  Then I could would out how to make the fabric sling to sit under the peg.

I decided to use an off cut of the waxed cotton from the bags I made in December.  And having made a paper prototype to make sure it would work set up my sewing machine.  

It was very simple.  Hem the front edge.  Make two tunnels, one on each edge for the towel rails to slot into, then create a dart at the back to raise the back edge and hopefully stop things escaping that way.  It reminded me of the canvas chair seats my mum made when I was a kid.

I'm very happy with it so far, it looks just right.  But the proof will be in trying it out.  I'm not sure what the next project will be yet, but I'm ready when I think if it! 

Sharing My Knowledge

 

I've always been happy to share my knowledge with others.

Last year I joined my local Arts & Craft Society and as I started to get to know people I realised that a lot of members have or want websites, but aren't sure how to make the most of them.

In my day job I work as a user experience researcher, talking to customers and watching as they use websites, so I've got a fair idea of what people are looking for when they visit a site. 

So when the first request came through for members to write content for the newsletter I wrote a piece about things to remember when adding content to your site.  Namely - tell a story so people can understand the artist behind the work and can see it's value.   (" but I can get it half that price on Temu!")

Then just before Christmas I got asked if I would come to one of their demonstration nights, and while the others who got asked were asked to give short demonstrations of how they create their art, I got asked to be there to answer peoples questions about their websites.

I said yes, which is how I was sitting in a community hall one evening this week hoping that someone would come and talk to me.  

 

I wasn't as busy as some of the other tables - how could I compete with lino printing, fusing glass or weaving, however I did have people come and talk to me, and I think we had some useful conversations.

Examples... One chap asked if he needed a website, but when we talked about what he needed it sounded like his LinkedIn profile would work fine, if he updated it.

 One ladies website had some amazing art on it, but none of the stories of her art were on the same page as the art.  I reminded her that you never know how someone got to the page so you can't assume they have read everything on your home page.

And one ladies showed me her site and after looking round we agreed that her navigation needed amending to help people find what they were looking for.

I loved these conversations and I hope it helps these artists to get their work out there and make the sales they need.  Got a question, feel free to ask, just don't ask me to build a site for you!