In the summer of 2005 one of my dreams came true.  I got my own studio, courtesy of my loving husband Rick.  It has 3 torching stations, a flat screen HDTV, a stereo, a CD player, a DVD player, Direct TV with TiVo, an air conditioner/heat pump, cabinets and a sink.  I told my husband that if it had a bathroom he might not see me for many hours, so we decided to forego the bathroom.  It is small at only 14' x 10', but it is a little piece of heaven for me.  There's enough room for me and a couple of my friends if I want to have a play day.        

My studio started as a very simple garden shed from Home Depot, which we had them install.  That took one guy 2 days to complete.  It was pretty amazing that he got the whole thing done in just 2 days, including shingling the roof and installing 4 windows. 

Then we hired a professional electrician to install the electricity and ventilation system, which I helped design.  I have 2 very strong squirrel cage blowers that vent fumes to the outside of my studio, and boy do they suck!  To keep critters out of the vents, we installed louvers (like they use in greenhouses) on the outside.  They open when the vent fan is on and close when the fan is off.  You can see one on the side view of the studio, up above the windows.

 

After the ventilation system was installed Rick painted the outside to match our house.  Then on the inside he insulated, put up drywall, textured and painted the walls and ceiling, installed an air conditioner/heat pump, installed four 4" overhead flourescent lights, installed cabinets and a sink, laid ceramic tile, and built a front porch deck complete with railing.  Then he landscaped around the building to make it look like it had been there for years and added a cobblestone path leading from our screened pool to my studio.

 

                                        

To finish off the inside, I bought stainless steel restaurant prep tables and we cut off the legs to lower them to sitting height.  I also bought numerous storage units for my glass rods, and I was ready to start torching. 

    

  

           

 

 

My 2 propane tanks are located in hinged wooden boxes that I built, which are located on the front porch of the studio.  I drilled small holes through the siding and fed the hoses through to the inside; then I caulked around the holes to keep crawly things out.  My oxygen comes from an oxygen generator for my main torch, and 2 oxygen concentrators for the other 2 torches.

 

The view from the front porch of my studio, and from the 2 windows on the side, is of our gorgeous screened pool.  Before I fell head over heels for hot glass, I was an avid orchid collector, with over 300 orchids in my collection.  If you look closely at the picture of the screened pool, you can see some of my many orchid plants.