I moved into my new studio at The
Worcester Center for Crafts last week.
I have yet to start a new piece because my days have been filled with
orientation meetings, studio tech hours and setting up my space to my
liking. The head of the Ceramics
Studio and AiR program, Tom, helped me put up a divider for more privacy in my
space this week. He also helped me
cut down my worktable legs, since a short girl needs a short table!
My new space!
And view of my table and new wall divider.
I also have a paying job at the
center now! Granted it’s only 8 hours a week, but it’s better than nothing at
all. I’m the Building Monitor on
Saturdays from 9:30am- 5:30pm. Early morning is not fun but hey, beggars can’t
be choosers. Basically, I answer
questions and make sure no one does things they shouldn’t be doing. I’ll have administrative tasks at some
point too. Eventually they want to
train me to be the Metals Studio monitor as well. This would be great because I’d get to refamiliarize myself
with that studio and hopefully start making and incorporating some metal into
my work. But for now I get to be based out of my studio and work on my own
stuff and essentially just be present.
And now for a story:
On Monday I did start working on
reassembling my mamma sheep in the studio. I made the huge mistake of using a Bondo-like repair patch,
which smelled absolutely awful! I wouldn’t be surprised if the sore throat I
had afterwards was a result of breathing in the chemical fumes. I only patched the interior cracks and
stopped there because the smell was so bad. I wrapped up the bowl and putty knife I was using and took
them out to the dumpster in a futile attempt to keep the fumes down. I then
went down to the restroom and on the way back noticed that I could smell the
fumes in the hallway! It wasn’t
too bad in the open workroom in ceramics but it must have wafted through to the
other side of my space, which has a false wall, and into the WSU (Worcester
State University) sculpture studio then into the hall. Of course I panicked! First week there
and I make the studio impossible to work in!
Now I had NO IDEA that the smell
would carry like that. I also had forgotten that the ventilation system at WCC
was not nearly as good as the one that I was used to at the Star Store, UMass
Dartmouth Studios in New Bedford.
I wasn’t aware that there were even vents I could turn on to air out
the space either. At any rate, I sent out emails, apologizing to Tom and my two
studio mates, Dan and Lauren. I
had a panic attack that night and felt terrible for disturbing other people. I
was not raked over the coals or threatened with expulsion as I had anticipated
though. I was simply told to not
use Bondo inside again (not a problem!) and shown where the vent switches are
located. I was also informed of a bonding agent I haven’t tried yet, PC-11, that
isn’t as toxic. So, I ordered some from the hardware store and will test it
out.
Live and learn, right?!
