At last, my love has come along!

Well, OK, maybe that's overstating it a little, but I finished rearranging my working space and I really did feel like breaking out in song at the end. I love it that much.


You may remember that in a recent post, I explained how my space wasn't really working and asked for suggestions about how to make it better. Thanks to everyone who weighed in - several of you in Facebook chats, asking great questions! I spent three full days moving furniture, sorting and tossing, and rearranging all my storage, and I could not be happier about how it turned out. There are a few small things that still need to be done, most of which require a trip to Home Depot or Lowes, but it looks good enough that I can give you a quick tour.

At the entrance to my area. The chair is at my desk, and the table to the left is a new addition, where I'll be able to do mixed media work. To the left of the mixed media center, you can see the back side of my soldering station, which I moved to the middle of that long wall - and now I have access to all that great storage!

Better view of the back side of the soldering station. I have my HEPA air filtration unit on the end (the silver box behind the fire extinguisher) and a fume extractor on top. Need to take good care of my lungs! The shelves underneath and on the cart (under the table) contain mixed media supplies - paints, paper, ephemera.

Behind the soldering station is my metals area. That table under the painting is another new addition, which will hold all my large equipment. (It used to be behind my desk area, which was a serious pain in the butt to get to.)

Continuing around the area, you can see the coffee station that Gail and I share (essential to the creative flow, I tell you!). I put that taller cabinet, which contains a lot of my glass, next to my bead storage and sliding door storage - I didn't dare move those!

Standing in front of the glass storage, looking back at the desk area.

And a little closer. It feels much roomier, I think because I removed the equipment table from behind my chair.

My metals area. Sigh! I just love it - everything is within reach, and yet there's tons of room to lay things out. Underneath the soldering station, on the metal's side of things, I put up hooks and hung all my wire coils up where I could get to them easily. And you can see that the kiln is still there, but the huge table it was on is gone - this is much more accessible for enameling and small glass work.

A better look at the equipment table. You can see that the rolling mill (left) has been bolted to a piece of wood which is clamped to the table. I have to do that with the arbor mill and the bench shear, but need to get the wood first.

I have (from left to right) metals storage, enamels storage, and glass storage underneath this run of tables - it's all on casters and pulls out for easy access. Hanging over the back of my metals chair, you can see my bench apron - it's going to be mounted to the table under the vise, so it will cover the enamels and glass storage, but it swings out for easy access to whatever is behind it. It will keep all my hammers close at hand. (I broke the hinge trying to install it and need to get a replacement. Ugh.)

Another look at all the awesome storage under the soldering station, on the mixed media/office side of things. I am so happy to have a dedicated space to work on non-jewelry things!

So there you have it: a completely reworked space that actually has more working surface area than when I started. I literally giggled when I took these pictures - it makes me that happy. Of course, it won't stay this clean for long. I have a zillion deadlines that slid last week while I was working on this so I have to buckle down and get to work... STAT!

I hope this studio tour inspires you to take a second look at your studio. How can you optimize the space and storage you have? Is there some one storage-related investment you can make now that would be a game-changer? (For me, it was moving that soldering station and adding two more tables around the perimeter of the area.) What would make your workflow better and your space more enjoyable to work in? What's stopping you from taking that step?

Looking forward to hearing about what changes you make in your spaces! 

Until next time -

Dysfunctional Studio Tour

I've been "living" in my new Roadhouse Arts studio space for almost four months now, and while there's a lot that I really love about it, there are also some things that aren't working for me.

My little admin area needs to be reworked. I spent a huge chunk of the day yesterday working through the paperwork that had accumulated, both for my own business and the Roadhouse side of things, and everything is caught up. While that makes me happy, I think the backlog started because the workflow wasn't well-organized to begin with.

I have two file boxes now, and the segregation of things will help. The smaller one contains the stuff I get into more frequently; the larger one is longer-term. But I still don't have the right space to stash either of them - my camera bag and equipment is taking up two entire cubbies in my wall unit. And I don't like the nest of cables and power strips on top of the desk. I just ordered this remote switch and I'm hoping it will solve the problem while still allowing me to turn lights on and off without having to crawl under my desk.

My metals and fabrication area would benefit from a little tweaking. I have an Ikea kitchen island set up for sawing and soldering, so I can see things close up without having to bend over or wear my magnifiers.  The problem is that most of the great storage the unit includes (two metal shelves) is pushed up against the wall so I can't get to it.

I also have two old science tables pushed back-to-back that are supposed to be for layout, design and fabrication work, but as you can see from the photo, they wind up being a collection area for all manner of flotsam and jetsam that have little to do with current projects.

I had convinced myself that rolling my chair between the two stations would be fine, but the truth is that the floors in this old building are so unlevel that "rolling" is an exercise in frustration. This also makes pulling the island unit out to get at the long-term storage a serious pain in the neck, because everything (and I mean every.single.thing) has to be shimmed to within an inch of its life in order to avoid punches, beads, wire and any other curved or roll-ey thing from just making a run for it the moment it gets set down.

And then there's my kiln and glass area, which just sort of squat in the corner taking up a bunch of room. I don't think it's an efficient use of space, but I'm kind of stuck because that's where I had the dedicated plug installed for the kiln. And I don't think I'm making the best use of the space along the one main wall.

I'm considering a pretty significant reorganization that includes separating the two science tables and using one to create an "L" shape with the island sticking out into the space. This would put the storage shelves on the island facing my admin area, where I could use the extra storage. The other science table would go where the island was and be primarily for mixed media work. (That's a subject for another post. "Living" with mixed media artists is starting to mess with my head, I tell you!!) I could also use it for larger project layouts, when I have multiple or complex pieces going.

So... any suggestions? I'm really open to any and everything - the space just isn't working well, and it's not because I don't have enough to work with. Let me know what you think and I'll update you in a future post.

Until next time -

Favourite Creative Spaces...

You might remember a few weeks back that I wrote about the frustrations of outgrowing my creative workspace and that the time had maybe come to think about doing something about it. Well this is one issue I didn't procrastinate over for too long and earlier this week I took a deep breathe and hired a contractor to do the work for me. All being well it will start on April 15th and I'll be in by May 1st.

This is a very rough plan ( not very techy and a bit off scale) I did when I was getting my head around the idea but it's changed a little now, mainly because I tried very hard to focus on the practical aspects and this will lead to a slightly smaller studio design (now in the hands of the builder) which allows for my ridiculously small, dog leg shaped kitchen to be squared off and enlarged a little.

I will lose the area at the back indicated by the freezer but although the studio will be a little smaller I won't have to have appliances in there so that's a bonus and, I have to think of the resale value of the house since it's unlikely that any future buyer will be a bead freak who'll prefer studio space over kitchen space...unless I sold it through here of course!

For me the most exciting thing is the simple prospect of a sink with running water, a workbench long enough to have several activities on the go at once and a design desk with natural light from a big window. And then of course there is the fun of fitting it all out. As it links to the kitchen and both areas need to be functional, the plan is to refit both spaces to match so needless to say I have been pouring over designer kitchen websites looking at cabinets work tops, sinks (I so want a butlers/Belfast sink), flooring etc. The layout will pretty much be determined by the space itself but the style could be anything and I have no idea which way to go yet.

It's inevitable then that I've also been surfing the web for other studio ideas and there are some fantastic spaces out there, all-be-it that many of them are totally beyond anything I could do. It seems some of my AJE team mates are also avid collectors of 'studio porn' ( I hope that doesn't have connotations I'm unaware off...) so I thought for today's post we'd take a leisurely stroll through some favourite creative spaces and ideas...just click on the photos to find out more.

Linda has a Pinterest board dedicate to this subject with some pretty aspirational finds - who wouldn't want to work in surroundings like this and how cool is that light shade...?

This is one of my favourite finds and I just love the utilitarian, urban feel it has with a pinch of shabby chic thrown in for good measure. Great colours too.

Jo's favourites included some great ideas for small spaces. This muffin tin idea is such an ingenious and practical way of storing all those bits and bobs you need close at hand but (in my case) can never find when you need them.

 And how about this for maximising space in a small area...?

Another one from Linda here that's much closer to what most of us are probably used to and the little things that catch my eye here are the fabric swatches wrapped around the table legs and that huge rack for pliers...I NEED one of those!

This next one is from Jenny and I love it for two reasons. I really like storage that keeps your work surface clear of clutter but has everything close at hand and I want to make use of the wall above my new workbench in this way. But also, this really reminds me of my Grandfathers shed where he took pride in keeping all his cabinet making tools in pristine condition and with a place for everything and everything in it's place.

Here's another one for those who are very short on space - a omplete creative nook in a closet!

Some more great utilitarian storage here from Linda's collection...This appeals to me for storing small items because I hate having to move things around to get to the item I want...just far too disruptive to the creative flow!

My final selection comes from Jenny and is my favourite because this is where I see myself in my daydreams - in a proper jewellers workshop surrounded by amazing tools for every conceivable need that are worn and polished from years of dedicated creativity...good lord just look at those bench blocks! Ah well, what would life be without dreams...

Will my new studio have any of these concepts in them? I don't know yet but I will be posting a daily blog throughout the development over at the 'The Gossiping Goddess' and I'll be sure to keep you updated here to.

In the meantime - happy creating.

Lesley