Lots of great comments here for a first studio. I’d like to throw my €.02 on a couple of topics I think are worth unpacking a bit more.
Workspaces are living creatures that evolve as we and our work and our tools do. I think focusing more on experimentation and actually making things is the best way to inform studio design. What do you actually need to make what interests you? I started by reading books and looking at other studios and while that was a bit helpful, I quickly threw it all out and just built what made sense to me based on my interests, tools, budget and materials available. It led to some really interesting breakthroughs in my work.
Heating and cooling in a Michigan garage will probably be more of a concern than anything other than lighting. Here in the hill country of croatia, most buildings are stone with 60cm thick walls and they take about a week to warm up when you move in. A cinder block garage will have some of that thermal mass situation as well. If you leave the heat on low at night it’ll probably encourage more studio use.
Lighting! One of the differences between a pro studio and a beginner studio is the pros understand the importance of lighting. Fortunately LED shop lights are cheap and easily available now. Get more than you think you need. Best to have matching fixtures of the same color temp. I got a bunch from Amazon and was glad I did every day.
Another important thing touched on here but I think deserves more attention is ventilation. Lots of things used in jewelry studios are biologically unhelpful (poisonous). Proper ventilation is very important to your long term health. I learned from my architect and glass flameworker wife that fume extraction systems must be properly sized to be effective. Here’s a few links on the topic.
Consider also that fume extraction is also heat extraction and you need to keep in mind that the makeup air (the air that replaces the air you are extracting) needs to come from somewhere and it probably won’t be heated in the winter. One reason glass studios are so $%#^@ cold in the winter! Fortunately most jewelry work generally requires fewer CFM of extraction than glass or welding.
Some thoughts about electricity. If you are in a position to control the wiring in your space I suggest putting all the 110 receptacles/lights on one or two switches at the door. Turning them off when you leave at night precludes leaving your pickle pot or space heater on, reducing fire hazards.
My first studio was in a finished basement in the northern Detroit area. I had to problems with any of my tools. I now have a studio in the upper part of the lower peninsula in Michigan, near Charlevoix. It is in the “basement" area, unfinished, attached to a walk out lower level. When I first set up the studio, there was a real problem with humidity. We used two dehumidifiers and I was emptying them constantly. The final straw came when I had a teacher in for a metal clay weekend and almost all of our work cracked, melted, and was otherwise destroyed in the kiln. We determined that we could not, absolutely could not, dry the clay enough to fire no matter how long we waited or how long we left it in the dehydrator. We finally had a whole floor dehumidifier installed which automatically drains itself. I still have a problem with rust, but now the metal clay dries out and processes fine in the kiln. I live in Florida in the winter and when I return in the spring, I have to clean up tools, bench blocks, and other items. I have had to throw away electronic measuring tools because the batteries have rusted and the innards were destroyed. I now remove batteries when I leave. I do oil some before I leave. The studio is heated, so I’m not sure how the cold will affect anything. I suspect the cold will be less of an issue for the tools and supplies than the humidity. You might want to keep liquids and pastes inside where it’s warm and tote them out as needed. Good luck, stay safe, and enjoy your new work area. I love mine.
Hi Rita and all,
I’ve been following this thread…I have problems with humidity in my finished basement/studio, but it’s mostly been mold rather than a lot of rust…humidity in summer runs about 85% from time to time. I also keep camera equipment in that space and since I recently got some new cameras I decided to get a plastic tote to keep the cameras in to keep out some of the humidity. I also looked on Amazon for some silica gel and found that I could buy it in a 5 lb bottle which comes with ten organza bags in which to put it. If you put the tools away in a closed container, you can put whatever amount of silica gel you think you need in with them. When the gel is full of water, it turns color and you can reconstitute it by putting it in a microwave or oven and heating it to about 265*F. The 5 lb bottle is a LOT of silica gel and costs about $30. Just another option for those really challenged by humidity…-royjohn