Kate Wainwright

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Welcome to my workshop...

My workshop is not a classic workshop per se, I feel very lucky to have enough space in our little home to have this space where I can create without worrying about making a mess or getting in the way! Because this is 'where the magic happens' I wanted to share my creative space with you...

My workshop is based in a nook of the house that I have taken over and made my own, I chose the conservatory because it is light (and my husband had already taken the spare bedroom for his drum-room!). Good light is essential for seeing what I am doing (obviously), and natural light is the gold standard - I'll eek out natural light as much as I can favouring working almost in the dark instead of switching to harsh artificial lights. Note to self - must look into daylight bulbs - my poor eyes! 

I love having a sofa in this space it keeps it a relaxed environment, if I need to take five, draw up some designs, have a cuppa or just cuddle the pups I can just relax here for a bit. This is also my breakfast spot - our house is on a hill so I can look out the conservatory whilst having my breakfast and watch the sunrise. I have lots of books on design, different techniques and supplier catalogues for when I am costing designs out, its good to have all your resources to hand so decent storage is an absolute must and these Ikea units keep all my stuff neat (ish) and easy to access! 

In case you weren't already aware - plants are highly essential in a workshop for air purification purposes (insert winky face here),  well maybe not but I love to bring a bit of the outdoors indoors and this is the one space my husband can't moan about there being too many plants, plus being a conservatory the plants are very happy in there!

To create additional bench space I picked up a great little butchers block from Ikea and attached my polishing motor and my rolling mill to the top. This mini Durston rolling mill is my absolute pride and joy, it is such a quality, versatile piece of machinery. A rolling mill can be used to make different thicknesses of silver sheet and wire, to reshape wire and to emboss beautiful patterns into silver. 

The workbench is the hub of activity when I am making jewellery, most processes happen at the peg. This bench was originally my Grandad's from his watch repairman days...

... the base became really unsturdy and not really robust enough for the amount of heavy hitting it needed to be able to take so one year as a surprise my husband replaced the frame with a new super sturdy one with a few additional features for me. Such as these handy magnetic strips so I can have specific tools within reach at all times but not clogging up vital workspace and these storage slots which are adjustable so I can get them just the way i want them.

So that is my workshop in a nutshell! Thanks for taking the tour with me and I would love to see/hear about your creative space if you have one or if you have any suggestions for improvements to mine!

K x