I just had to show you this to kick off Studio Week here at Dingbat Press. For those of you who don’t know much about me, I am a mother, and work from home.

For the last 5 years, my studio has been in my basement. We had a designated room, which my first press and love went barely down a flight of stairs to what we thought would be it’s final resting place.

Cleopatra : Manufactured by Challenge Machinery Co., model 15MA (manual, knockoff of the Vandercook SP-15). I’m partial to this press, because it doesn’t have those stupid springs that the Vandy has. This baby locks in place ;) But then again I’m a biased mother.

Then, the business grew, and the product grew, and the raw goods that I needed on-hand grew, and then I hired employees. Interns became part of the team, suddenly I realized that I had all but outgrown my basement. It was time for a real “bigger” studio. (And I bought a Windmill, and there was NO way a 3,500 lb Heidelberg press was going to even make it into our house – let alone the basement.)

Henrietta : Heidelberg Windmill with lockouts, red-ball. This is genius German engineering. They just don’t make things like they used to. CAST IRON BABY!

So I decided that the windmill was worth more money than my crap 2000 Honda Accord that smells like child barf, so the car got kicked to the curb. And I shopped, and ordered windows and drywall, and I moved the studio in! Come join the fun in seeing the progress that was/is the garage/studio for the week and get a peek into our new and improved space!