I have been super busy since the years start, renovating a the stone shed beside my house. It is going to be my new studio! Im so excited about the space, this is my first custom fitted out studio.
As excited as I am, this work has been sucking away the time I have for making art. This is one of those projects where although its taking me away from painting for a while, it will ultimately help me work on my art in the long run. Im hoping to be moved into the studio by mid March.
I have been super lucky to have the best technician I know on my team 'John Lyon' who has worked with me on many of my exhibition installations and festival projects. John is also a very talented artist. He doing a art portfolio NCVA in Co. Sligo's VEC, and he is helping out with this project as a part of his work experience module.
Thank you so much for all the help guys! shouting out big love to my husband Iliocht and awesome friends John, Johnny, and Steven.
I'm not featured in any of these photos because I took them :)
There's still a way to go with this project but here's some progress photos of the work so far...
The stone walls, after scraping out the old render.
The traditional Irish stone work of this 200 year old structure, needed to be re-pointed, the pointing is the render between the stones. We had to scrape the remaining original render out. Originally this render would have been a mixture of lime, mud and animal blood!
There was so much of it! it was weird to think of the dust as part dry old animal blood, Yuck!
We needed to re-point the walls with a more modern substitute cement mixed with sand and lime. this involves filling back in the gaps between the stones by hand, literally 'pointing' in with your finger the wet mix into the tight gaps. This will help with insulation and help keeps away the damp in our often wet climate.
Johnny heading up the ladder to scrape the top of the inside gable wall
Iliocht and wet cement mix, lots of it and more to make
Johnny pointing the wall.
Some
of this wall had in it's long past been repaired with concrete blocks
quite ugly. We are going to build wooden flat walls to cover and
insulate the space further. the gabel wall will be left with the stone
showing as a feature in the space.
More pointing John (left) & Johnny (right)
It was cold in the shed as there is no heating yet, we used this gas powered parasol heater to keep the edge off.
The
walls to be covered with a wooden interior wall needed to be painted
with masonry paint, to stop mould growing on the stones behind the new
wall.
John working on the construction of the interior wooden wall.
John and Iliocht moving the wall.
John fits polystyrene insulation sheeting into the wall frame, the paint work is nearly done.
Coffee break!!! With Steven, John & Johnny.
John begins work on the side counter tops frame.
The side counter top frame is fixed to the new wall.
That's all for now! More photos coming soon!! In my Studio Renovation Part 2 blog.
