Have I mentioned that I have an AWESOME studio? It is quite large and housed in a 
sprawling, VERY industrial and Historic factory, Crown Cork & Seal. Some buildings on the property date back to 1892, the founding of Crown Cork & Seal Company in Baltimore, MD. Originally the company invented a method of sealing bottles. During prohibition, they switched from capping beer bottles to capping soda bottles to stay in business. Following new inventions in sealing tin cans, several mergers and aquisitions, and expansion of operations worldwide, the headquarters was moved to Philadelphia in 1958. I’m not sure when they completely moved their operations out of the Baltimore plant, but the current owners have built artist and artisan studios among other various tenants in many of the buildings. One building has 6 FLOORS!
My studio has a wall of Windows – 133 in fact – you can see what it looked like 3+ years ago, right before I moved in! I’m sure they are the original windows, although my building is not one of the oldest ones. I might add that the caulk, iron framing and brickwork is also original, so you can guess that it is far from airtight! Winters can be chilllllly! Funny things happen in old factories. When it rains, the concrete actually SWEATS in the stairways and hallways. We have freight train tracks on the front and back sides of the factory, and sometimes you are stuck trying to leave or enter as a train is STOPPED in front of the entrance. I have twiddled my thumbs there for nearly an hour on occasion, and you really have to WEEDLE the guards to open the back gate at night if you are stuck. The building actually SHAKES when a train goes by. Normally you don’t even notice – it’s not like an earthquake. But once in a while I see my printer table vibrating – kind of CREEPY, especially after the earthquake we had this fall! aaaaannnnddd…. yes, there is a POLTERGEIST! I am convinced! One of my artist buds down the hall went up to the next floor – unused, but recently cleared of a lot of junk, dirt, pidgeon crap, etc. He took a picture with his digital camera – and when he looked at the photo, there was a foggy CLOUD right in front of him. No cloud in real life! He took another, and the foggy cloud had moved to the left. Again, no cloud in real life! One more pic and the cloud was gone. When he showed me the pics, HTG, there was a FACE in the cloud. Yup, REALLY CREEPY! So now when something goes missing that you JUST put down a few minutes ago, we blame our little Casper. THAT took me a while to come to terms with and get comfortable again in my studio, let me tell you!
Until tomorrow…Keep Calm and Find Yourself a Rubber Stamp!
