I have a new sink in the studio!

OK, so it is a newly installed sink.

Up until now, the water supply in the studio has been a large jug. Any rinsing out has happened, very carefully, in the kitchen sink.

Working in the kitchen rather undermines the whole point of having a studio, which is supposed to be a place I can concentrate on being creative, rather than keeping the place clean. But when the alternative is rinsing in a bucket, the kitchen makes sense, although carrying a bucket full of dye through the house is a bit worrying.

But not any more. My chum Ruby stood in the studio one day and said “What you need in here is a sink. Do you want one of my old Belfast ones?” So in due course, she brought it round. I chiselled out the compost from the overflow, and Stan has plumbed it in for me.

Now I can stand in the studio, resting my forearms on the top of the sink, dangling my fingers in the water where I can just reach the bottom to swirl the things I’m rinsing out.

No doubt you will have spotted a notable feature: the elegant soap dish, which contains olive oil soap for cleaning paint brushes. Originally, it was just the nearest container of the right size, but somehow it just seems right…