Channel Your Inner Artist
By Nikki Alvin-Smith

Horse riders are very often creative talents outside of the horse world. Horse riding is an art in itself, especially if you follow dressage and classical principles. Countless of my friends are musicians, singers, artists, sculptors, potters and are geniuses at expressing themselves through different mediums.

Creative talent should be expressed and following your heart into art, can also relieve stress and provide an emotional support activity that helps you deal with hectic daily strife.

Our homes are filled with family. They overflow with ‘stuff’ and it can be hard to be creative amongst the hubbub of life in the house. How cool would it be to create your own haven outside of the boundaries of the home but inside the boundaries of your backyard, just a short step away from the responsibilities of family but far enough away to shut the door and enjoy some peace and quiet and your right of self expression?

Let’s face it, many of our creative pursuits don’t just require mental focus and time alone, they can also produce a certain amount of noise or aromas! As an oil painter that enjoys working on canvas the use of ‘turps’ and linseed oil, and oil paints, I know that when I set up residence as an artist in the study, kitchen or other house space it brings its own set of challenges for the rest of my family and friends.

When your child comes home armed with a trumpet and much enthusiasm for his adventure into music, naturally you want to encourage their endeavors, but perhaps you don’t want to listen to practice sessions for the first few years?

Your potter’s wheel necessarily creates a terrible mess. How about a specially formatted floor in your outside structure that is easy clean, with space to spread out your beautifully designed wares and a kiln can be added adjacent to the building without risk to your home?

The answer to solve these issues can be delivered right to your doorstep. Have you entertained the idea of having a structure custom built to match your own unique style set up on site in your backyard? A visit to Stoltzfus Structures in Atglen, PA is in order to set your creative genius flowing. Or if that is too far to drive you can take 360 degree tours on their website at www.MySheds.com and see lots of alternative structures for which you can even obtain healthy financing through their site, to buy right away.

Here are a few ideas to whet your appetite that will allow you to enjoy your own ‘freedom of expression.’

The Stoltzfus Structures Music Room

This can be a place to rehearse on a violin or drum set and a place to entertain the inevitable band or chamber quartet that follows your musical foray. The Stoltzfus Structures Music Studio can provide a haven to write music, record music or play music. The walls can windowless, an electrical package may be added in advance and you can add soundproofing and interior design later. Isn’t that music to your ears?

Want a special roof design for acoustical depth? Choose from a huge selection of options available. Simple site preparation and on site set up and efficient delivery even in to those hard to reach corners of your property are services offered to every buyer of a Stoltzfus Structure. After 43 years in business, they know a thing or two!

The size can be customized to suit your particular needs and a porch can be incorporated to give you a spot to sit and muse, pick your guitar or banjo in the evening, with your dog at your side and a cold beverage on the table.

While the garage band is a romantic notion, wouldn’t you much rather keep the garage for the purpose it was built and have a designated area to play your tunes to your heart’s delight.

The Stoltzfus Structures Potter’s Studio

This structure can incorporate specially clad floors for easy cleaning, windows where you want them for the perfect light for glazing your work in harmony with natural light, and plenty of room to place your pottery creations in full view for possible purchase by visiting friends.

Want to complement your existing home with an artistic eye so your ‘potting shed’ doesn’t look like an old fashioned garden ‘potting shed’ of the other variety? Then choose from Stoltzfus’s huge range of siding colors and materials.

You can organize your space for optimum ease of use with a clay station and a glaze station so you can move fluidly from one to the other. This way you can have an area where you keep all your moist or drying clay and have multiple or one wedging tables. Clean up is much easier if you keep all your clay in one place. Being organized in this way will also prevent you from glazing a piece of clay that needs to be bisqued first.

The Stoltzfus Structures Artist Studio

When I was a kid, my mother (who is now an internationally renowned artist), would set her canvas up on the kitchen counter. I would come home from school to find her with paintbrush in hand, ardently trying to finish her day’s work before the important natural light faded.

When we moved house, she finally had a room at the end of the house that she commandeered as her studio. She would disappear for many hours to complete her works of art. I would sneak in to take a peek with a cup of tea in my hand as an offering to be allowed to view the progress of her works.

The turpentine aroma did not go unnoticed when you walked in the back door. Today the room is chock full of art books and canvases. She is 84 years young with arthritis but she still paints on most days and I still take a cup of tea to her as a bribe to gain entrance to her studio, when I go home for a visit.

Inevitably I have followed her lead into art and though I started late, I too started by commandeering an unfinished ‘study’ room in our home.

How wonderful would it be to have a permanent spot where you could spread out and enjoy the natural light and feel as if you were outside when you were inside, happily sheltered from hot sun and wind and rain, completing your next masterpiece.

The Stoltzfus Structures Art Studio can be designed to answer your dream of having your own art studio. This building will become a place of privacy, a place of reflection and creation that you can call your very own. Place the building for the perfect light angles you prefer, toward the North light is the most popular among artists.

There is something special about having a structure in the garden that you can trot out to whenever the creative muse takes hold. One wall of the building could be solid for displaying your art, while another has windows to allow you to view nature while you paint it. Whatever your desire, you can add your artistic flourish to the colors and materials of the build. As a purchaser having the artistic license over both the inside and outside design of the structure is a thrill not to be missed.

Stoltzfus Structures Arts and Crafts and Sewing Studio

The myriad of resources required for the craft world, are extremely enticing to pets and small children. Between beads, glitter, paper, needles, glues and all the other accoutrements to inspire the craft creator there is a lot to attract those curious minds and having a place to keep them safe and out of harms way has great appeal.

A large table space on which to spread out the phases of each project and to be able to leave the room, close the door and leave everything out and ready for your next creative session saves time and encourages you to mull over your projects without rushing to finish because it is time for dinner.

For seamstress work having a large table to layout patterns and fabrics, and provide a cutting station and a sewing station that can be permanently set up is a delight. The dining table always seems to be needed for something just at the critical moment doesn’t it? Aren’t you tired of clearing away everyday?

Stoltzfus Structures Jewelry Studio

For jewelry makers the benefit of a space for specialist tools and materials needed for their work, the studio is a bonus space to be enjoyed for the same reasons as the art and crafts creator. The tiny pieces used for jewelry design require careful storage away from prying children’s eyes and family pets, who may find playing with expensive components very attractive.

You can add your own specialist lighting that will save your eyes from early degradation issues and create magnification areas that can be left set up for immediate use and spread out your designs across the space for maximum inspiration.

Stoltzfus Structures Writer’s Studio

The writer’s haunt is notably a place of peace and quiet where the writer can allow their inner voice to flow onto the page and characters to develop and take on a life of their own.

As an author and freelance writer myself, I can attest to the reality that when working on something creative it is a great boon to have a location away from the usual formal office set up.

I add a well-designed chair to save my back, a desk set at just the right height to save my wrists from carpel tunnel syndrome, and surround myself with lot of bookshelves that house all the books I love. I do confess that many titles will still end up strewn over the coffee table along with piles of paper scribbled with ideas and discarded pages. Even with the use of the modern version of typewriter from my friends at Apple, I still love to print what I write and read it through and edit it with by hand, so there is a printer handy and ready for action.

In my writer’s retreat I’ve included a comfy couch so I can curl-up in the corner to read my writings out loud to myself at the end of each day. Set on a glass counter under the many large windows that provide a view of the mountains and grazing horses, I have a small tray of glasses and cups and an electric kettle. In the corner of the room sits a small fridge for keeping bites for the peckish writer handy and the milk cold for the tea. There may even a be a bottle of Chateaux something or other for those evening moments when the toil is done and self congratulatory glass of wine can be shared with friends or family, as the sun sets on a pile more pages on the desk.

The writer’s studio is the perfect private place to sit and tap on a keyboard and gaze from time to time out of the window as you ponder your next sentence. Channel your inner artist and express yourself. It is said that everyone has at least one good book in them!

As you can devise from all above ideas, there is no limit to your imagination to how structures in your own back garden can be used and how they can be designed to meet your needs and desires.

You are at liberty with all the Stoltzfus Structures to unleash your inner artist and create just the space you have always wanted at an affordable price.

One of my favorite sayings that is arguably attributed to T.S. Elliot:
“ It is never too late, to become what you might have been.”

Make your own dreams a reality and get started now!