Lisa Call

On a Roll

Yesterday I completed the South African Impressions project by wrapping up some loss ends and posting the final photos.

Today I finally finished putting up the design walls in my new studio. I did a huge home remodel/addition last year and the house and new studio were completed at the beginning of April. More details on building a studio are here, and all my construction photos are here.

I got all but 16 feet of design wall up and then stalled on the project. Between show deadlines, travels to Europe and family issues there never seemed to be time to tackle this last bit.

Which means I’ve been using my studio with this pile of styrofoam sitting in the corner the last 8 months and it’s been really bugging me:

 
to add to the unfinished energy-draining look this ladder has sat in the corner for 8 months:

Work

Determined not to start the new year with this mess still in my studio today was the day for putting up the remaining walls. The day started off on the wrong foot and after 5 hours of being awake I finally made it up the studio. Serious avoidance going on I believe.

The first wall went up quickly as most of the work was done on it and it was small – just 4′ by 11′.

The second wall was not as cooperative. Big mental block – how as I going to put a 12′ x 11′ wall up by myself and did I have room on the floor and how was I going to cut that angle to match the ceiling and on and on.

With many (as in hours) of breaks on facebook I made it through the project and the answer to all the questions was “it’ll all work out”.

First step was to cut the styrofoam to fit the space (holes for outlets and the angle at the top) and to assemble three 8′ x 4′ sheets so it was 1 big wall (I do this with pins, glue and poster board – I’ll post photos tomorrow of details).

Here’s the wall all pieced together – and look at that – it fits perfectly. I love it when life is easy (if you click to see the larger picture you can see the seams between the pieces of styrofoam):

Next up is covering the thing in flannel (because fabric sticks to flannel without pins – static is very handy). This is a major project sewing together 44 yards of flannel into a big sheet. Again – detail photos tomorrow.

The Results

Once covered in flannel the styrofoam is screwed to wall and wa-la – design wall. Here it is in all it’s glory – 12 feet long and over 11′ high at the peak (in the corner is my last unfinished project in the studio before I start work for my solo show – hand dyed fabric for sale – I need to photograph it and get it listed – it’s been waiting 6 months):

Here’s the other design wall I put up today. This corner is my storage corner for work in progress. The other 3 big walls are working walls – so I can 3 huge textile paintings going or up to 6 or 7 smaller in the works at the same time.

The quilts in these storage walls are the larger pieces from the South African Impressions Project. They are ready to be quilted. Also some labels and bindings and other misc hanging out:

I did an additional 2 hours of cleaning in the studio and set up this table where I had a pile of stuff no longer needed. Now my kids can bring their lap tops up the studio and do their homework with me instead of hanging in their rooms (I’m sure they are just thrilled with that idea):

And since I was showing everything else here is the design wall I use most often as it is closest to my cutting table.

One thing I wasn’t sure about is what it would look like above the windows with the design walls on either side of them. Looks okay and it’s a great place to hang art and misc.

Above the furthest window are some toys I bought in South Africa. Love the wood.

And so now, 8 months later I can dance in the studio again. The energy is quite different now that it is done. Here’s to completion!