Ray Cover's New Travelling Studio
Donation protected
Thank you everyone for reading this. I am trying to raise funds to buy and older Airstream, Spartan, Argosy or other all metal well built camper to convert into a traveling engraving studio and home for me.
Here is my background story. I work as an artist, namely as a metal engraver. I also travel teaching engraving classes around the United States. I have a 17 ft camper that my daughter and I remodelled so that I would have an engraving bench in the camper and have small living space so that I would not have to spend money on hotel rooms as I traveled to teach classes. I have added a picture of the engraving bench we built in my 17ft camper.
I have been living and working full time out of this camper since my wife and I were divorced in March of 2014. I made this choice to allow me to put the money that I would normally spend on rent toward paying off the debt I was left with after the divorce. I have paid off several thousand dollars of that debt but still have a few thousand to go.
There are two issues with my current situation that I need to deal with. The first issue is space. Now, I have gotten along just fine as far as living in that small space. I don't require much in the way of comforts to live and for that part of it I am quite content. However, I desperately need more workspace. There are just some aspects of my artwork that I just can't do in that confined space. For example, I have not been able to do any fly rod work at my current bench. I need more bench space to allow for larger projects. I have also had to pass on several private instruciton opportunites in the past year because I just do have a space to do those lessons. The few private instructions I have done were possible because a friend or family member "loaned" me a place for it. That is several shousand dollars worth of income I have lost due to lack of space.
The second issue is that my current camper is falling apart. The floor needs to be replaced and after every trip I have several repairs to make. This is supossed to be a good brand of camper. however, I have realized that none of the modern campers are really built to be used as much as I use one. I need to get an older camper like mentioned above that is built to be lived in and used. Once I remodel it to suite my needs it should be fairly trouble free for years to come.
My "home base" is my parrents farm in Missouri. My father is a machinist and I have several craftsmen/craftswomen in the family. As you can see from the picture of the bench my daughter and I built, I have skills and I have freinds and family around me with the skills to do this. What I don't have is the funds to do it.
I have done my research. I have taken the average price I can find the type and size of camper that I am looking for, itemized a list of parts and appliances, added the 8% (5% fee and 2.9% transfer fee) that Gofundme charges. The total came up to right at $20,000.
I fully believe this is an attainable goal. If 1000 people can send me $20 or 500 people can send me $40 I have it. I have enough freinds in the art, engraving, craftsman communities that I should be able to realistically reach this goal. If you are willing to help me out I thank you. It doesn't matter if you are a fellow artist, a collector, a friend or just someone who appreciates artwork and wants to help me out, you have my heart felt thanks.
If I get ernough to do this project my plan is to put a new floor in my current 17ft camper, put all the stock equipment back in it and make all repairs. I will sell that camper, sell my boat, and sell anything else not tied down in my storage shed and put that money along with my current Tundra pickup toward buying a bigger truck to pull the new camper with. Any money above my goal amount will also be put toward that end. My current Tundra just doesn't have the umph to pull a camper any bigger than what I already have.
Here is my background story. I work as an artist, namely as a metal engraver. I also travel teaching engraving classes around the United States. I have a 17 ft camper that my daughter and I remodelled so that I would have an engraving bench in the camper and have small living space so that I would not have to spend money on hotel rooms as I traveled to teach classes. I have added a picture of the engraving bench we built in my 17ft camper.
I have been living and working full time out of this camper since my wife and I were divorced in March of 2014. I made this choice to allow me to put the money that I would normally spend on rent toward paying off the debt I was left with after the divorce. I have paid off several thousand dollars of that debt but still have a few thousand to go.
There are two issues with my current situation that I need to deal with. The first issue is space. Now, I have gotten along just fine as far as living in that small space. I don't require much in the way of comforts to live and for that part of it I am quite content. However, I desperately need more workspace. There are just some aspects of my artwork that I just can't do in that confined space. For example, I have not been able to do any fly rod work at my current bench. I need more bench space to allow for larger projects. I have also had to pass on several private instruciton opportunites in the past year because I just do have a space to do those lessons. The few private instructions I have done were possible because a friend or family member "loaned" me a place for it. That is several shousand dollars worth of income I have lost due to lack of space.
The second issue is that my current camper is falling apart. The floor needs to be replaced and after every trip I have several repairs to make. This is supossed to be a good brand of camper. however, I have realized that none of the modern campers are really built to be used as much as I use one. I need to get an older camper like mentioned above that is built to be lived in and used. Once I remodel it to suite my needs it should be fairly trouble free for years to come.
My "home base" is my parrents farm in Missouri. My father is a machinist and I have several craftsmen/craftswomen in the family. As you can see from the picture of the bench my daughter and I built, I have skills and I have freinds and family around me with the skills to do this. What I don't have is the funds to do it.
I have done my research. I have taken the average price I can find the type and size of camper that I am looking for, itemized a list of parts and appliances, added the 8% (5% fee and 2.9% transfer fee) that Gofundme charges. The total came up to right at $20,000.
I fully believe this is an attainable goal. If 1000 people can send me $20 or 500 people can send me $40 I have it. I have enough freinds in the art, engraving, craftsman communities that I should be able to realistically reach this goal. If you are willing to help me out I thank you. It doesn't matter if you are a fellow artist, a collector, a friend or just someone who appreciates artwork and wants to help me out, you have my heart felt thanks.
If I get ernough to do this project my plan is to put a new floor in my current 17ft camper, put all the stock equipment back in it and make all repairs. I will sell that camper, sell my boat, and sell anything else not tied down in my storage shed and put that money along with my current Tundra pickup toward buying a bigger truck to pull the new camper with. Any money above my goal amount will also be put toward that end. My current Tundra just doesn't have the umph to pull a camper any bigger than what I already have.
Organizer
Ray Cover
Organizer
Mineral Point, MO
