moos

Lamos, I've used siporex blocks quite a bit for internal walls, and have found it great to work with. If you use the special mortar (comes in a big bag and you mix it like polyfilla) you can get very thin joints which scarcely show. Then seal the surface with pva and skim it. As I've quite liked the slightly gritty look, Ive skimmed it with a mix of white sand and lime, with a tiny bit of cement. If you've only got a small area to do, and you'r not keen on plastering/rendering, you you could smooth it out (if necessary) with a mason's toothed comb and then with a large decorators trowel or spatula, skim the holes etc with polyfilla.  

On the subject of cleaning wood burners. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to get rid of the inevitable tar build-up in the flue liner due to low level overnight burning? The local quincaillerie recommends a special "log" you put in overnight in the empty stove.This seems almost too good to be true.(Regular sweeping is probably the answer, but there's no handy access trap in the pipe, so that's not very easy). 

I'd endorse the Villager stove - the A model with flat top already mentioned. We brought ours out from the UK about 8 years ago, and are happy with it. You can easily cook on it too, and French neighbours are quite impressed with it. Another crucial thing is that it will easily accept 50cm logs. We did remove the rear firebricks and plumb in a stainless steel back boiler which feeds three upstairs radiators, but not very efficiently. You really have to turn two of them off to warm up one room! So not sure if that was a good idea or not. An oil boiler would I'm sure be better, but then I'm told you have to put the tank somewhere away from the house and they are pretty unsightly things. Any thoughts on that?   

My first thought is that a 12kw supply seems rather high,and therefore expensive. Are you sure you need all that? Our supply was 3kw when we first got the house (in the Gers) and we upped it to 6kw to see how that would be; and rather surprisingly its been fine; no trip-outs. We have a 13 amp electric oven, washing machine, small hot water immersion, hi-fi, occasional electric panel heaters (to supplement the woodburner), an arc-welder,and various power tools. We just don't use the washing machine when the oven is on, which isn't hard to remember. An electric kettle seems unecessarily extravagant if there's a gas hob to boil a kettle on. 6kw is quite a bit cheaper so worth trying.  Good luck

Hi,Scatterbrain. Not sure I can be very helpful, but here's my position at the moment: With the studio, I'm fortunate that I already have one in the house I share down in the Gers. My french is quite good, but I haven't yet tried to get an exhibition. I'm used to working to commission in the UK,but am trying to build up some work (stonecarving) and getting some decent publicity material to interest potential galleries. I've noticed at the various "vernissages" I've been to, that the french are very enthusiastic about art and its practioners, but not great buyers. But then I'm thinking of the rather remote countryside. It's probabably quite different in Paris or wealthy tourist towns. Good luck,anyway. Moos 

Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of registering as an artist in France? I'm a self-employed sculptor in the UK, living part-time in France. I'm keen to get more work in France, with the aim of moving there eventually. My income from my work is normally about £10,000 a year before tax.(and unlikely to improve much). I know that in general, taxation rates and social security contributions are higher in France, but how can I find out if these are likely to be higher than in the UK, before I take the plunge!? I'd really like to hear from anyone out there who's done this, or any similar self-employed activity.  Thanks