Travelin studio pics

[CD Lampwork]

Just wanted to add a little something here. As many of you know we live and work in a 35 foot RV. We work when we need money. Travel, visit, play and explore the U.S. when we have enough.

Here's our studio set up here in Michigan for the summer. And a couple of our photo studio.

[Janine]

Cool! I was wondering how you guys did it. Thanks for sharing!

[encantado]

The torch area looks so comfortable! Do people ask you what is going on in there when they see all those pretty colors through the window?

[Kaye]

hey, ya know I thought you guys had splurged and bought one of those photo studio get ups....your pix are awesome...way to go!
such an efficient studio/and it all fits in a box...I saw for myself...amazing

[BillBrach]

Greg,

I'd love to know more about your bus. What year and brand is it ?? My wife and I are working towards a traveling studio. Currently, we have a Class C Winnebago, which pulls all of our studio stuff in a 12' cargo trailer. We basicaly set up under our roll down awning in the fresh air.

If you ever want to come to Florida, I can probably find a place for you to park your rig for practically nothing.

Bill

[Kaye]

psssssssss...I am surprised Dale didn't come in and ask where your ventilation was???

[ChaseDesigns]

LOLOL...I was thinking the same thing!!!

Fancy photogaphy huh? It works so good when it is in the shade. The trick is to have that hatch open that is black to keep the glare from reflecting onto the beads. Does that make sense?

[ChaseDesigns]

Greg,

I'd love to know more about your bus. What year and brand is it ?? My wife and I are working towards a traveling studio. Currently, we have a Class C Winnebago, which pulls all of our studio stuff in a 12' cargo trailer. We basicaly set up under our roll down awning in the fresh air.

If you ever want to come to Florida, I can probably find a place for you to park your rig for practically nothing.

Bill

Hi Bill, thanks for the offer. Not sure when we will be back in Florida. Probably not for a while. We are in Michigan right now.

We have a 35 ft winnebago Cheifton. 1998. We tried working ouside, but the wind just did us in. We torch with all the windows open and two fans blowing. It seems to work quite well. The propane tank is outside the window. The biggest challenge is power. The kiln and the concentrator are most happy when they each are plugged into seperate brakers. It works on one, but the voltage is kinda iffy in some parks and the concentrator doesn't like that so much. The rig itself has a propane dictector and a smoke alarm just above where we work. We try to stay away from iffy materials such as silver and enamels, while working in the rv...just to be sure.

We store all of our studio in a big plastic bin while traveling in the rv...plus the glass. It breaks down pretty good. Although the kiln is pretty small 6 x 6. We take turns torching, so we really only work about 4hrs a day each. Not a bad way to live.

(greg's wife)

[gerryann]

Thanks so much for the e-mail. My husband and I are getting ready to retire in about two months. Jack is building me a Studio in our 35 foot motor home. He will be removing the dinning table and cussions the building me a little studio inside the bench seat area. We have it all planed out and will insall ventelation through a small side window with and exaust tunnel right over my torch to suck out any fumes or gasses. I will be posting pictures as soon as it is funished. I bought a oxygen concentrator and will envest in a smaller kiln that is portable and easy to move around. GerryAnn's Glass beads http://www.gaglassbeads.com

[ChaseDesigns]

Welcome to the dark side Gerry! Please post pics once the studio is done. We all love studio pics. Maybe we should start a sub-group of travelling lampworkers. Sounds like there are becoming more and more of us.

Hope to see you around here or somewhere down the road.
Greg

[Heidi von Frozenfyre]

This is pretty kewl you two :)

I like the concept... like the beadies that are being pumped out... what a life :)

It would be UBER FABULOUS if Greggie could be driving and you torchin' at the same time :)

[lunesse]

Wonderful, guys. You know how to live, absolutely. So many kudos to you, both for doing life how you want to, but also finding each other to do it with, ya know?

[ptbeads]

I know this thread is almost a year old, but we are looking into purchasing a 35' Winnebago Adventurer 1999 and a 20' trailer. I thought my studio would work perfectly in the trailer, but my dad was wondering if my kiln would be ok bouncing around all the time. My kiln looks similar to yours, so my question is, have you had any problems with the kiln while traveling and do you store it in any special way?

[ChaseDesigns]

Hi Dianna,
We have almost the same thing a 35 ft Winnebago...1998. (ours is a chiefton, but the 1999 Adventurer is the same model) :-D

Greg breaks down our kiln. It is an aim kiln with rings and stored in in towels in a rubbermaid storage bin. Three years no problems what so ever...accept a switch that died, but that is know to happen with age anyway.

[ChaseDesigns]

Are you going to be traveling full time, part time...whats your plan? Nosey aren't I? :lol:

Gonna turn the trailer into a studio? We have thought about that a time or two. But then how would we tow our VW bus? Wouldn't work too good.

[ptbeads]

We would be traveling 7-8 months per year.
We also do embroidery, which is why we are wanting to buy this set-up, get rid of the competition!!! bwahahaha :twisted:
Anyhoo... the trailer is already set up for an embroidery shop, but with a little rearranging, it could have a small studio area.
28587
28586
I'm pretty excited, it would mean that I have to quit my horrible, evil day job and actually do something I might enjoy. 8)

[ptbeads]

Extra transportation, now that's another story. These guys hauled a motorcycle in the trailer, but I'm a little bit of a wuss, so I don't know about that.

[ChaseDesigns]

Oh cool!

HUmmm you need a mini or something like that. A trike maybe, but then what about rain? Can you fit in maybe a little Susuki jeep type? Well hummm. A 35 ft winnebago isn't exactly easy to drive around some cities.

We quit the evil day job over three years ago and we are never looking back. Ohh horrible flash backs. :-D

Well you can always find us here is you have any more questions. :wave:

[ChaseDesigns]

BTW those bags are too cute! I was browsing them a few minutes ago

[ptbeads]

The trike has crossed my mind. I guess I'll have to become a hardass biker and just ride in the rain! :biggrin: Hard to be a hardass biker on a trike though, isn't it? 8-[

I'm sure you'll hear from me. I'm excited!

Thanks for the compliment on the bags. My mom did the artwork.

[ChaseDesigns]

HAHA...ya hard to be a bad ass on a trike. But hey, who cares anyway? Actually you know with this life style I never drive in the rain anymore. We get to choose where we want to be, when we want to be...so usually we have nice weather. We follow the sun.

When we get rain, I stay in or make Greg drive if I HAVE to go somewhere. Like the post office.....and we have a VW for gods sake. I am just a wuss now. LOL

[LadyHaak]

I'm trying to be a better person, so I'm not jealous of ya'll!:fnwl:

[caspertorch]

I wonder if we could make this work with 3 little kids and two dogs....:-k

looks and sounds like you all are having a great time...GOOD FOR YOU!!! =D>
~Becky

[gerryann]

Hi all, It's been a about a year sense I have posted in this site. But , I always say better late then never. teehee!
Anyway I now have my new studio in our motor home. All the credit goes to my hubby and my son-n-low. I let my kiln set on top and to one side of my work table and I pack it with pillows and strap it down with bungie cords. I have made it fire proof by putting sheet metal on the table top and back board. The ventelation is run out the side window with an exhaust Fan. I use an oxygen concentrator on wheels that I can move when needed and I keep the propane tank out side of the moter home for safety reasons. We are still open to ideas on how to make it better. If anyone has any thing that could be an asset to it, please let me know. We are now full time RV'ers and love every munute of it. I am adding a few pictures of my studio. It's kind of a mess right now tho.

4551145510

[ChaseDesigns]

Gerry, I just saw this. WOW congratulations. Your set up looks really wonderful. Much more professional than ours does. But then we torch on the dash board. :lol:

[Anne Ricketts]

Where is that little green guy smilie when ya need him!!! Sigh! One day!!!

[e. mort]

The trike has crossed my mind. I guess I'll have to become a hardass biker and just ride in the rain! :biggrin: Hard to be a hardass biker on a trike though, isn't it? 8-[

I'm sure you'll hear from me. I'm excited!

Thanks for the compliment on the bags. My mom did the artwork.

When I was in Quartzite a few years ago I saw a wierd little vehicle driving around. It sort of looked like a gasoline powered golf cart on steroids. It had the big nobby tires, and a soft top (like a jeep), but it was small enough to fit in the back of one of those travel trailers that has a "toy hauler" section in the back. It was street legal, and looked like it could really handle the off road action as well. Maybe something like that would work for you?

[ChaseDesigns]

:lol: Anne, aren't your kids grown yet? Seems like they are getting there...and you have that airstream right?

Eric, that gold cart on steroids sounds very cool, especially for Quartzite, all that off roading there.

[Anne Ricketts]

LOL! Well Cam has got 3 1/2 more yrs of school but Austin graduates this May! \\:D/ . We don't have the RV yet, maybe by the time Cam graduates we will! :grin:

[Megan]

Cool RV set ups everyone! My parents are full-time RVing now, just locally and weekend trips for a year or two until they retire and then traveling after that.. Most likely a lot of time in Alaska.. It really is appealing.

How do you full time RVers handle getting your mail and health insurance and stuff like that?

[meadowesky]

Greg and Deanna can I PLEASE PLEASE see pictures of your bus??? It is by far my dream mobile :) 2 years ago we drove down to arkansas with all of our tax money for one from Illinois. Too bad the woman had lied about the condition it was in...
also, how does your internet access work? Do you stop and use it at truck stops or do you have some type of satelite??

[ChaseDesigns]

Here ya go:

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Lets see....we have www.maxwellsatellite.com for our internet. It takes Greg usually about a 1/2 hr to set up every time we go somewhere.

Our mail is sent to www.escapees.com here in Livingston. They are an organization by Rvers for Rvers. They have a mail forwarding service and a network of parks. A really wonderful organization. It allows us to have a mailing address here in Texas, so we can call ourselves Texas residents. So we just tell them where to send our mail once a week or so. Most Post Offices will allow general delivery and most parks will let you send your mail there too.

We buy our own Health Insurance. One of our biggest expenses. Our network is here in Texas. So we usually come through here once a year and get out check ups done.

[meadowesky]

that is so sweet! what a wonderful life you live, wonder how hard it would be with a kiddo?
but I wanna see the volkswagen :lol:

[lampie_lesley]

Oh boy does that look like tranquility !!!!

One day... it's something I aspire to !!

Les xx

[thatsmithlady]

"but I wanna see the volkswagen " well, it is not a volkswagen but it is a bus. Have a look at this sweet set up that shortglassbus has on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojwZP_IPDvs&feature=related

[Lorraine Chandler]

Hi, the original post is from 2005..very old. They now have an adorable bungalow in Louisiana. I think they still have the bus though??

[ChaseDesigns]

We have settled in Louisiana, for the time being. We tend to get restless every handful of years and make changes to our lifestyle. We did sell the RV last year, having the poor thing just sitting out back was a little depressing after the 5 glorious years she gave us living on the road. We do still have the VW, it's kinda sorta going threw a restoration, slowly as money allows. It's no longer our primary auto as it's not really the easiest to drive and is a little persnikity being 38 years old and all. I'll have to look and see if I can find a pic of her somewhere.79597 New house and old VW. One of the best parts of living on the road was the oportunity to meet so many friends from LE in real life! Even so this new adventure in Louisiana is even better than life on the road.

[ChaseDesigns]

That's the house just as we were buying her. Here's what she looks like after quite a lot of energy and paint.175194

This is Greg by the way.

[murf]

very cute home, sweet bus. i have a 78 vw camper. my baby

[thatsmithlady]

Love the new paint colour on the house. I had a 72 VW van for years and still miss it. May your newly planted roots run deep!