Setting up my own studio?

[ekajati]

Hi all

I'm new here! I live in London and would like to make my own silver jewelry and also glass beads. I've done one course in the jewelry and know that I'll need bags of practice - I've got more ideas and inspiration than I have experience and skill ;-) The bead making I'll hopefully do in October. I would love to make my own studio in my garage, which is separate from my house. It doesn't have any electricity or anything else in it at the moment, just a glorified 2 car space shed with cement walls and floor. It has one window and is pretty draughty (no fancy modern doors). Also, I have zero money! I've tried to hunt on the internet for articles on how to set up your own BASIC studio from scratch, but haven't found any. Can anyone point me in the right direction eg to a beginner's guide how to set up a basic studio? Many many thanks!!!!

[Bowed Over]

Sorry can't help with that. Sure someone will though. Welcome to the forum.

Lisa

[glowingsunsets]

If no one on here comes up with suggestions which I'm sure they will, maybe you could put bead making studio in google on the image tab and then look at how other people have set theirs up. I found one website where a lady does beading and silversmithing, you could always contact her for advice, most people are more than happy to share their knowledge.... oh I can't put the website in as I haven't made enough posts yet. As for setting up the studio on zero money Freecycle is brilliant for getting shelving, work tops and flooring for nothing, also skips are a great source for brand new off cuts of wood and the like so long as you don't mind knocking on the door and asking if you can have something first. My daughter and myself have found some real treasures in skips, it's amazing what people throw away lol.

[Pretty things]

Before you make any decisions that involve money, have a word with your local council's planning department. You may find that you will need 'change of use' planning permission as you are changing from essentially a storage area to a workroom.

[ekajati]

Hi all

Thanks for the advice, I nearly forgot about you guys because I don't get notifications in my email! Must set it up... and I will have a look on ebay... hoping some other people may come in because I've been hunting on google and haven't even found any articles on how to set up... waiting in hope! Thanks

[Potter Doodle Doo]

Hi,

If you're looking to do it for zero money, I'm not sure that you'll be able to. As Pretty Things said, you will need to contact your local planning office regarding change of use for the garage for which they will charge. If permission is granted they will expect you to ensure that it is upto current building codes (again this may involve sufficient outlay as from your description, the garage doesn't have much to offer at the moment) and you will obviously need to pay business rates for it (this is done on square footage). If you don't do this prior to opening and they find out the fines that they can hand out can be huge.

[ekajati]

Hi Potter

Very interesting. I wonder what they would do with the fact that the use would actually not change, since it's a garage with space for 2 cars, and one half of it would continue to be used by someone we are renting the space to? So really it would still be used as a garage, with a corner being used for something else. Plus I'm not setting up a business yet - I would just be using the space for a hobby. I'll have to look into this, the outcome would be very interesting. I sort of doubt that they would insist on change of use, but I'll have to check it out. Of course I don't mean i'm literally unwilling to spend anything on this project, just that the costs will have to be as low and minimal as possible. As glowing sunsets said, I'll be finding planks from skips rather than paying someone to knock something up for me etc. There was a competition on Cooksons to win a fully equipped jewellers bench, which of course I went in for... won't know the result til August. Thanks for the input!

Hi,

If you're looking to do it for zero money, I'm not sure that you'll be able to. As Pretty Things said, you will need to contact your local planning office regarding change of use for the garage for which they will charge. If permission is granted they will expect you to ensure that it is upto current building codes (again this may involve sufficient outlay as from your description, the garage doesn't have much to offer at the moment) and you will obviously need to pay business rates for it (this is done on square footage). If you don't do this prior to opening and they find out the fines that they can hand out can be huge.

[Potter Doodle Doo]

So really it would still be used as a garage, with a corner being used for something else. Plus I'm not setting up a business yet - I would just be using the space for a hobby. !

If you're using it as a hobby then it should be ok (but do check). However, if you are planning on selling the items that you make from your 'hobby' then it becomes a business and as such you will probably require change of use. It doesn't matter if you're using the whole garage or just part of it, it will still be classed as business use.

In addition to this, if you are renting part of your garage out to someone, this may also be classed as commercial use too.

All I'm saying here is do be careful and check with your local council. Unfortunately, this all happened to a close friend of mine. They were using their garage to store items for their online store. They were reported by a competitor and were fined, they now have to pay business rates on 2/3 of their garage space (they have a tripple garage).