Things I like

Thursday, April 7, 2016

No wall space? Build one!

I think I'm finally happy with my studio arrangement!

Sure, I've organized, re-organized, boxed up, donated or thrown away bunches in the past several years.  But one thing I realized: if it's not attractive to me, I can't accomplish anything in here.

I've been making lots of paper houses and working on a design that I can share.  That means lots and lots of trial cuts and changes, so that also means I have dozens of little houses.  And I want to SEE them, so I set up some displays just for me.  Not only do I like to look at what I've made, I get inspiration for more projects.  I found little people on eBay and of course, the houses have to fit the people, right?

But for my own satisfaction, I had to divide the studio into specific task areas. By that I mean separate the papercrafting area from the painting space.  To do that required a wall.  When this studio was built I never thought much about the need for wall space for displaying things, because I filled up the walls with shelves.  And I never thought about leaving space for a do-nothing area.  (Once in awhile I do need to turn my brain off and rest.)

I found some fence boards in the garage, left over from our new fence last year necessitated by a windstorm.  It occurred to me that I could use them to frame a pegboard wall, attach it to my workbench with a 2x2, and I even added a hinge to the wall so I could "open" it if I needed to expand one or more of the areas.   This pegboard wall is just for the latest thing I made, or painted, or collaged, until it finds its ultimate home.  Sometimes things need to "sit" awhile before I decide whether I'm going to add to it.  And sometimes I need to sit too!


The plastic you can see is hanging over from the painting area.  (I have learned to cover as much as possible when I'm slinging paint around.) I learned from Bob Burridge to use 4ply plastic and I use it for everything.

I also built a three-panel divider and covered it with burlap, and I pin more inspiration there.  So when I come into the tiny studio, I am met with reminders of why I do all this and not just stunned by the chaos!

In the first photos above, you see that I had to find places for my scroll saw as well as my cutters, which meant then I needed a work table smaller than I've used before.  For now it's a card table but that will probably change.  My original 30x72 table just wasn't working anymore.

There is just no way, with all the years of creating things and accumulating tools and materials, that I can have one of those little neat craft areas one finds on Pinterest!  That might work for someone just starting out, or someone who does only one type of activity.  In my case, I run a parchment craft supplies business, create greeting cards, and construct die cuts for papercraft packs soon to be offered on my site.  Which is why I've been behind on blogging.

I'll try and do better!