Creating space for creative projects

As part of my ongoing efforts to remake my living and working spaces, I've been focusing on my studio.

It is a complicated space. It started out as room to paint and make cards. Then it morphed into a guest room/studio. Then for a while, it was my retreat, bedroom, and studio. Each year brought more uses and more items into what was once an uncluttered space.

What it's become over time is a room Crowded with Stuff and Intentions.

Too much artwork hung on the walls.

Too many cool bits and pieces tacked to the bulletin board.

Too many mementos stuck behind the mirror of the dressing table and propped on flat surfaces.

And too many art supplies stored in ways that weren't efficient, logical, or functional.

Stacks of books, stacks of paper, stacks of plastic bins of all sorts of creative materials.

It looked bad. It felt bad. It was no longer my happy place.

And while I dream of one day having a space furnished and designed specifically for making art, the reality is that I will probably never have the money to install a workbench and storage units and cabinets with shallow drawers all designed to house paper, cardstock, paint, medium, canvas, hardware, ink, pens, pencils, brushes, markers, ribbon, fiber, adhesives, cutting tools, and the assorted jetsam and flotsam of mixed media art.

So my task is to work with what I have--an assortment of plastic bins and cubes and re-purposed furniture accumulated over many years. To the greatest extent possible, I wanted to take what I already have and use it better. I also want to reduce the visual stimulation in the room and not have so many things competing for my attention. As a result, I have taken nearly everything down off the walls and have pulled everything apart.

When I finish next week, I'll post some photos and provide more details. For now, I'll post a few of the final cards I made for my daughter while she was at camp:

I often call my Girl "Sugarcake," so I sketched this cupcake, inked and colored it, and heat embossed glitter to the frosting (which is invisible in this scan, sorry). I then made a dry embossed, specially colored swirly background to set the cupcake off.

On this one, I heat embossed the image of trees over my hand-painted background (acrylic paint on watercolor paper). A perfect card--natural and rustic--for a Girl spending two weeks in the mountains studying mycology (mushrooms).

This card is built around a section of specialty paper designed by K & Company. I loved the colors and layers, which I highlighted by creating a multi-color mat.

I'm currently working on a custom-card order for a repeat customer, but I still have items for sale in my Shop.

My studio redesign should breathe some fresh life into my art projects, so expect to see an expanded selection in my Shop soon.

Comments

[Susan Raihala]

V, this post is perfectly timed for me. I needed to hear your sensible approach to guide my own as I revitalize my craft space. My space is very, um, plastic. I'm dissatisfied with it in the extreme but cannot afford to buy new furniture or storage, except perhaps some track shelving.

Lovely art! I particularly love the painted background on the tree card!