One New Year's Resolution kept

Like most people, I make resolutions on New Year's - and then within a few weeks it's gone by the wayside.  But this year I actually kept one!  I wanted to organize and clean my studio.  I had boxes of this and that stuck in corners, few things were labeled correctly, and my desk was a complete mess.  Now I have to admit that I am an organization nut, I love to have things sorted out, in their right place and labeled.  Does that make me weird?  Umm, probably!  I wish the rest of my house was as tidy and organized as this room.  Wanna see some pictures?  Of course you do!

This is my main desk area.  I know, a glass desk is not the most ideal work surface, especially since I use a heat gun alot, but it was all I had when I first put together my studio.  I keep the surface clean with a teflon non stick craft sheet, I love those things!  My tools are in the caddies to the right, my Friendly Plastic is in the drawers front and center, and the caddies in the corner hold my patina solutions, alcohol inks, paints, etc.  The little white cabinet is one that my grandpa made when I was a little girl.  This one was my younger sister's cabinet, it's half the size of mine.  My cabinet is in the guest bedroom, acting as a night table.  I remember us keeping our plastic tea party dishes in this cabinet. 

The left side of my desk holds my griddle, one of my most important tools when using Friendly Plastic.  Behind that is my nail polish collection, somewhere north of 100 bottles now.  Yikes!  Above that are my ribbon holders, which apparently no one ever tested in the real world because once it's hung on the wall, it's impossible to add a spool without everything falling out.  I have cussed a good many times over those things!  The drawers hold my tape, resin supplies, wire, and other assorted stuff. Below the desk are shelves with my Cricut machine, embossing machine, baking sheets, heat gun, and other odds and ends that I need to have near at hand. 

The cabinet on the right has all my findings - metal beads, filigree, clasps, jump rings, etc.  The baker's rack holds my scrap booking supplies, oversize ribbon spools, leather scraps, kumihimo, weaving, and silk fusion supplies.  An extra griddle, my electric skillet, and a small over for polymer clay stay out of the way near the closet.  Which is the next project, it's worse than the studio was!  I keep all my craft show supplies in there, it's crammed full.  Ugh!

 

Last, but not least, are my well organized beading supplies - all done by color.  For each color, there's a shoebox for mixed media (scraps of this and that and found objects) and a shoebox for yarn.  There is a bead box for pearls, one for pendants, another for crystal, and sometimes several boxes for the beads themselves, a mixture of stone and glass.  The little bins hold beads too big to fit in boxes or projects waiting for me to get to them (some have been waiting a looong time). 

I also have a little wooden rolling work bench/cart that my Dad made that he used for working on circuit boards, but it's in my bedroom right now acting as a table for my photography. It's so handy, it has an outlet built into it so I can use it an an extra workspace for a second griddle,a heat gun, an iron or my sewing machine.  When I'm not using it, I just roll it into the corner out of the way.

So there you have it, a quick tour of my 10' x 11' studio space.  I don't have any decorations up on the wall yet but that's coming.  When we move in a couple of years, I will have a studio space twice this size, hopefully, with lots of natural light, better ventilation, enough electric outlets - and no litter box!  Oh and a work surface that I don't have to worry about cracking.  Hope you enjoyed the tour.  This weekend I'll post something fun that I've been playing with - Tyvek beads!