Walls are gone in the old studio! New and improved coming soon!
As fall turns toward winter we are shifting gears to focus on some big internal changes for Organic Armor.
First thing is a top to bottom remodel of our studio. We are based in a hundred year old factory building on the edge of Asheville, between the river and the railroad tracks. It’s a great place, filled with artists and good energy but it’s got some practical challenges, namely a lack of temperature control.
It’s freezing cold in the winter (we’re talking paint brushes frozen solid in their water cups), and hot as blazes in the summer. It’s also very dusty (lead paint, mouse droppings), mmm, aren’t I painting a nice picture? We have made it work for five years but now our dear landlady is going to spring for new walls and an insulated ceiling. Yippee!
So this week we pulled five years of supplies, yogurt cups, wire forms, experiments, bins of fabric, weird collections of things “we might need someday”, etc. out of there and piled it up in a storage area. In the process we culled many van loads of recycling, trash and stuff for the Goodwill. Whew!
Now the workmen are demo-ing, framing, putting in electric (we’ll have plugs on all four walls now!), drywall, paint etc. It’s supposed to be ready in 3 weeks. Meanwhile we are going to build all new work stations, designed especially for the tasks we do, with lots of storage that will accomodate the wide variety of shapes and sizes of stuff we need. We’re even getting a new couch! This new space is going to be functional and beautiful, a place where exciting creative things can happen.
Which brings me to the second big project of the winter, we are going to start creating some tutorials for Organic Armor projects! These will likely be downloadable pdfs, but at some point we’ll have videos too. Our fans have been asking for this for many years and we’re finally ready to do it. We hope to have some for you by Spring, just in time for you to start making your own cool stuff for summer festivals. Maybe by next summer we will offer some workshops as well in the fabulous new space.
We are also going to update our website. It’s got some technical issues (Doteasy stinks) and the photo galleries are way out of date. So expect some filling in of pages that have been “under construction” for way too long, and lots of new photos from the great shoots we’ve done this year.
There is lots to do in the winter months ahead. We are laying the foundation for a stronger company that will be able to dream big and create even more amazing work in 2013.
To stay informed check out our Facebook page which gets updated almost everyday (we are almost to 10,000 fans!) and subscribe to our seasonal newsletter which usually contains special offers.
We are so thankful for all of you who love and support us and our work!