What’s On My Desk: Jessica Doyle and Chris Day
Since May, artists Jessica Doyle and Chris Day have been working hard to renovate and transform their new printing studio and retail space in uptown Saint John, Doyle & Day.
We recently paid them a visit before their grand opening this weekend to chat with Jessica about how the space has come along and get a glimpse of where their bags, prints and other artwork get made:
Where is your workspace?
We’re at 44 Water Street in uptown Saint John. We renovated the lower floor of the historic property.
Can you tell us about the work you do here?
We manufacture bags, we do original artwork, we screen print bags and do some graphic design.
Can you describe the effort you put in to make your space the way it is?
We built a staircase because there was no staircase going up to the sewing area. We used 15 gallons of paint to get the walls up to par. They were all different colours and there were book pages slathered all over them. Chris spent two weeks just taking down book pages.
We still have flooring to go up above the entrance way and lighting to go up in the sewing studio. We actually rented an industrial buffer too to do the floors, because they were kind of grey.
Can you describe some of the things you surround yourself with here that keep you productive and inspired?
I think we kind of play off each other. We keep each other on our toes.
The natural light is also good. When I’m upstairs sewing, it’s the piles [of fabric] that keep me going. I’m like “ok, I gotta keep sewing. Get through it and meet the deadlines.”
What inspired you to have a workspace like this, to have both your studio and your retail shop in one place?
I’ve been selling artwork for about 25 years this year, and the past seven or eight years I really made a push to keep selling the art. When I was in the Saint John City Market, it was getting to a point where it was a down time and not a lot of people, I wanted to be producing. I couldn’t sew. I could do little drawings, but I couldn’t really get into something because I didn’t have my equipment with me.
So we had started manufacturing bags and we were scattered. We had screen printing on Bayside Drive, all the sewing and the art in our home and then we were going to different shows. At least when we’re here, everything is all here. And our home is our home again. It’s not being overtaken with sewing equipment.
What’s the most important thing on your desk?
My sewing machine. The Singer 591 D200A. It’s my main sewing machine that I sew everything on. It’s not really a desk, it’s like an industrial sewing table.