First day at Atelier Haus July 25, 2018

After 30 hours of travel involving many changes of itinerary, carriers and one missed train connection (their fault – not mine) I arrived here in Hilmsen at midnight. I was greeted warmly by Kurt, Austin, Mark and several others. I soon had a cold beer in my hands and was able to start the process of transition from travel mode into artist residency! Managed to get to bed by 3 AM and up at 9AM so am pretty much back to normal. Today was devoted  to trips by various members of the group to gather materials and supplies, a quick trip to the butcher and the grocery store for staples. You know; beer, bread, sausage,beer,cheese, and don’t forget the beer.

Tomorrow we will reline the cupola, cast a new lid and probably some of us will start making molds. I will go in search of a suitable stone. The director, Hans, told me that if I take a large stone from one of the local farmers fields I will most likely NOT get shot. The terrain here is much like Wisconsin, glacial, so there are plenty of stones and the farmers gather the large ones that turn up with each plowing and deposit them along the edges of the fields.

Our situation is that we all share part of a traditional farm house from the 1700’s. The main building is the living quarters and the rest of the layout consists of barns and sheds that form a square with a courtyard in the center. The barns have been , for the most part, converted into studios for specific meida such as clay, metal casting, digital design and 3-D printing,woodworking, etc. We share cooking and cleaning duties and assist each other as needed and requested and work in a variety of media. Everyone also joins together to do the Iorn Pour  which is very intense and requires much preparation and planning and hard physical work. I will try to alert you to upcoming activities and events as I am told about them. For now I will close this post with an image of the back of the main house from the courtyard. Note the Post & Beam Construction with the typical 1700’s ‘half-timbered’ style. It is nice to work in such an environment. Cheers!

Atelier Haus