Wednesday, April 29, 2009

From The outside in the evening time.

Tonight I took a walk down to the Mill to see
the smaller space from the outside. This space
is nearly ready to go, as it is being painted at
the moment and needs so little work. It will
accomodate four or five of us working, and we
can run one or two workshops at the same time
so we would really need a rota system of when
we need to work or run classes to operate
efficiently. There is still scope for a coffee
area, but it will be within the space as
opposed to a different room.
It is amazing to stand outside and watch
the River Liffey flow under the building,
and it is visible from both sides. It is
also incredible that the flow is so different
on each side too. The Mill is a hive of
activity, day and night. There is so much
happening here, from creches to Pilates,
a gym to a Parent and Toddler Group.
There is Drama, Weight Watchers,
Fas, Ballet, Yoga, Karate, Hip-Hop,
Salsa Dance, Indoor Soccer, Tai Chi,
in fact the list of activities keeps going. There
are also lots of premises being rented out
for other small businesses.


This space is so beautiful too, and if the weird
partition was removed inside, the space could
be again, so different. I wish there was a before
and after series of photos, so we could see how
the room looked when opened up as one.
When I see it painted white, it seems to evoke
memories of The College of Art, where I spent
4 years studying Textile Design. Lovely white
backgrounds to inspire colour and new ideas.


And the view from the foot-bridge.
The smaller room is barely visible
to the left of the tree, with the water
flowing underneath.
I guess the space is so affordable for
us starting out, and we could always
move if things get busy and we feel
we have tested the market enough
to trust higher rents and more rates...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

More of the bigger space

I would so love to see this room cleared
out and painted snow white like the other
space we viewed this morning.
I have a vision of a mosaic on this wall
and three huge triangular sails on it
with our name and what we are about.

The space is from the second left window
across to the one right of the people.



Through the Magic Door..
And the door.


Choices....

This is the smaller space, but it is so full of
character. It is divided in two, in a strange
way, but we could remove it if we wanted.
There is a bizaar little space here with a door
and the window above. It is shelved, and again we
could take down the entire partition........................





I adore these windows. The river Liffey runs
under the building, and the view is to the car
park from this side.



Here, is the main room we would probably use
as our studios, or the coffee area. It is hard to
imagine with the partition in place. One side
has cement floors and the other is wooden.






Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Beginning






This is where I envisage the project to be.
Its in The Mill in Celbridge, Co. Kildare.
As far as I know, it was originally a Carpet
Mill, but I need to clarify some details
before I post any more!
The plan so far is for a shared workshop space,
and each person having their own area to work in
and an area to hold classes and summercamps
and demonstration days.
We can have a gallery, an exhibition area,
a shop and a cafe. We hope to offer fair trade coffee
to parents waiting to collect their children
from classes, and the chance to sit in the cafe
and observe what is going on, without
intruding. We hope to call on our friend's and
families wonderful baking skills to tempt
everyone from time to time. Coffee and
tea will be served in caffeteirs and large
tea-pots (made by our Potter!), none of this
expensive one cup business........
We'd love to open the place up to groups
for rent, for yoga, bookclubs, knitting clubs,
tai-chi, or anyone interested in taking
advantage of the location in the town,
the free parking, the buzz of other things happening
all around the Mill. We could have big bowls of
Chick-Pea, sweet potato and spinach
stew, served with home-made crusty
bread, I have a baker in mind for that bread..
Bring your own wine, we supply the music, the
incense and the creative atmosphere.
Creativity is a huge part of this, everyone can
try their hand at pottery, sewing, singing,
painting, drawing, puppet-making, jewellery,
photography, in fact a range of crafts to long
to list, yet something to appeal to everyone.
Welcome to this space, please feel free to add
ideas and comments, and please check back
often. I hope you will be as inspired as we are,
and that you will see it happen, and lots of images
to mark its progress. Thanks, Annah