Describe your dream shop

[Dan Sawatzky]

We all have a dream shop which lives in our head and I'm no different. I've spoken to many letterhead friends who hold this same wonderful dream of their ultimate shop and inevidably it looks much different than mine.

My dream shop lived in my head for almost 20 years, while I worked in our tiny garage, in the basement and out in the driveway or on client's worksites. None of these solutions were close to ideal and all had there drawbacks in terms of inconvenience and lost time. But we plugged on dreaming of 'the day' when our dream could finally come true. I continually did sketches of the shop, played wit the layout and the style of construction we would use. I dreamed big and fancy! We even purchased properties a number of time on which to build but the timing was never right and so it was only a dream for many, many years.

Four and a half years ago it was finally time. We purchased our dream property and set about drawing the final plans. Janis,my loving wife and business partner of 33 years, agreed the shop was to come before the new house. We'd make do in the old farmhouse until we could afford to build again. Then we would go all out on that project too!

I remember excitedly taking the plans to Janis shortly after we bought the small acreage and in dismay watched her shake her head slowly as she looked them over... I was degected, but she quickly cheered me up when she calmly said... "make it BIGGER and BETTER!" She insisted I not compromise in any way on the design, but rather build it right the very first time. It was after all my dream shop and there would only be one kick at the can in this life.

The end result was a shop I am extrememly proud of. It works as a wonderful sales tool, and the studio/shop space inside works beyond my wildest dreams. Its proven to be a valuable investment.

I encourage all to dream wild dreams for their ultimate shop and never give up on them. It will undoubtably take a lot of work and dedicationand maybe time too before it comes true, but when it does its worth the wait!

Enjoying the nice cozy shop in Yarrow...

-grampa dan


_________________
Isn't it great to love what love what you do and do what you love!

[Larry White]

Here's my dream shop...the Town of Machine.
The large end building would be divided lengthwise down the center. One side would be for clean work, the other side for non-clean work. There would be a station for every type of glass work. Actually, I have a full layout of the building, let me find it... here it is...



brilliant cutting, sandblasting, glue chipping, stained glass, probably a beveler, acid etching area, gilding, mirroring, etc... everything.

The two buildings in the back (front of this picture) would be the wood shop and the storage buildings. The row of buildings off into the distance will be log homes or new prefab homes for all my Dead Man glass artist friends. They'll be set back to back with nice front yards. I'll get to do the backs of the homes with old western facades. ...just like the Town of Machine. You'll be able to walk out your backdoor and down Main Street to the shop. One of the buildings will be a gallery and reference library. We'll host week long workshops and killer Letterhead meets and eat slabs of beef. Do glass all day...projects on a whim. We'll keep the gate locked, except for the UPS guy bringin' us more gold.

Still the dream boys...hang tough!

'Course my current shop is a bit of a fantasy, truth be told. It's a nice place to spend the day, if ya have to work.

-William Blake

[joe cieslowski]

I've never dreamed about a special or fancy shop. My dream is to carve and I do.

In college, all us wood tech guys dreamed about building our own homes. I never thought I could ever afford an old colonial.....so I dreamed too.

27 years ago we moved into a 1755 salt box.....built by Capt. Edmond Dunning. He was a cook for George Washington. I look out my studio window at cow pastures with stone walls and wind rows.....the Blackberry River (nice little trout stream, Michael ) and then Canaan Mountain rises 1,200 ft above the house.......really sucks.....blocks my whole view!!! It's also the edge of the largest wilderness areas in Connecticut, ( 45 mins to go around my block using dirt roads.)


The wood shop is in the basement with dirt floors, stone walls (lotsa limestone) and hand hewn Chestnut beams.......some with the bark still on. Population in North canaan, 3,200.
This area is a weekend and summer playground for well to do New Yorkers......hence, great resturants the arts etc. (Plus they pay a lot of our property taxes... )

We moved here on purpose as soon as my business took off. ( we had spent summers traveling the whole US so we knew what we wanted).

I wouldn't change a thing.....I guess I'm living my dream shop... lol

Best Wishes & happy Thanksgiving,

Joe

[DAVE SMITH]

Larry. Nice shop man!
Dave