Shop Update

Bell, Hook & Spindle has shelving! Almost all of it, now. And I have even begun the fun part of displaying and stuffing shelves and book racks. Here is a quick peek.

Shelves waiting for commercial yarns.

Wall of hand spun skeins.

The Quilting Side of things.

Best laid plans...

Progress on the shop refurbishing is coming right along-but not at nearly the pace I had in mind. Still, today I will finish up the vault re-paint and move on to the back room and the painting of those walls. The back room will be Rick's wood working shop. We will wait to do the floors, to match the main shop floors, until the very end of the setup program so it will be in good shape for open house.
Meanwhile, everything that was crammed back there has come out into the main shop. The sheer mass of stuff that was crammed in back there!

Some people have seen the shop space empty and asked how in the world we would fill it all up...

 I can tell them, "No problem!"

 

 And there is still a mid-arm quilting machine to place near the back wall...on its 8 foot table! And don't forget the check out counter, desk, couch, two chairs, two rockers, tea vanity...

And this is my resting/pricing station. Isn't the floor great! Meanwhile, 'back at the home place'.

 Rick has been producing the pieces and parts that make up the shelving units we will use.
My job is to stain it all!

 This is the ellipse Rick has cut and painted for the huge Bell, Hook and Spindle sign that will hang up high above the building. We want people to be able to find us!

Next in line to be fabricated are my 'ladders'. Yardage will hang from them. I will take pix when they are complete and loaded. It will make more sense once you see it.
So, the saga continues and I hope we live to tell about it!

REAL Brick & Mortar!

 

This lovely old building is the perfect architectural fit for the flavor of Bell, Hook and Spindle, with its copper clad windows and literal brick and mortar! The huge 'brown thing' across the front of the building is all uncleaned copper. The scores of small squares at the top of the picture are 4", all original, all copper-clad panes of glass. This building must have been quite a beauty in its day.

This shows the progress of painting away the powder blue walls into the 'egg wash' white Rick chose. There are several stories floating about town about why there is a vault in the store, but all seem to agree there never has been a bank in this building. My aunt and uncle owned this building for a while and told me the vault had been used as a bedroom, an office, storage, and possibly as a vault when there was a jewelry store here. I think Hidden Talents had the best and most innovative use for the vault as an art gallery. Bell, Hook and Spindle will house some art, the spinning wheels, looms and antique wood working tools for sale.

As you can tell, the ceiling was in dire need of freshening!

 And we neutralized everything else.

Until we got to the floor...

What fun I had with the paint and sprinkles!

So, things are progressing! By this weekend we hope to begin putting together all the shelving units Rick has been building. Then all things from the back room version of Bell, Hook and Spindle, and everything crammed into the vault will be brought into the clean, new space. Then the ceiling/walls/flooring refurbishing will be repeated in the back room and a little in the vault. So far we've come. So far to go! But I am still working hard to make a September Grand Re-opening! Wish us luck!