Frome Open Studios

Ok, so it's been less than a year since my last post. In that year I have moved house again, this time into a permanent residence in the middle of Frome. I saw a house I liked that happened to have a shop attached, and bought it... shop and all.
Having a real life shop to fill with stock and sit in all day is daunting, not to mention all the work that went into making it look right. It's still a work in progress, but it probably always will be - part of the fun.
The shop was open for Frome Open Studios which started on the 2nd of July and ran until the 10th. I had four other local artists exhibit in the space, and it was lovely to get to know them all. We had quite a few visitors, and some sales, and it was good fun.

Today was the first day it was open as a shop, and I actually enjoyed sitting in working on stuff  behind the counter.
I intend to do some metalwork there, but only 'light duties'. I also hope to design some new ranges, and generally keep busy when things are quiet. Which to be honest is quite a lot of the time...

As I haven't set up the workbench in there yet, I busied myself by giving some tired and scratched looking acrylic jewellery display units a makeover. They were clear acrylic and all the scratches looked pretty bad. I decided to sand them to see if I could frost them, and the scratches disappeared completely. They look so much better, and I won't have to buy a whole bunch of new ones (yet).

Here is an example of what they looked like before... and after. I used some medium sandpaper, then a brass brush to unify the finish. Both sides are sanded by the way.

Perhaps now that I am beginning to be a bit more settled I will do some more blogging!