Changes Are A Coming!

Not too long ago, about a year or so, I rearranged my studio space.  I actually am very fortunate to have two rooms in our finished basement that are solely used for my creative indulgences.  One of the spaces is totally finished and has a built in desk area.  The other space is about twice as big as the first and it is not a finished space, the walls and ceiling are framing studs with cut Styrofoam pieces fitted between the framing to act as insulation and the floor is concrete.

The last reorganization was very helpful.  I organized by activity and divided the activities between the rooms by relationships.  The larger room contained all the sewing supplies, three sewing machines (regular sewing, embroidery machine and a serger), the computer and printer to use with the embroidery machine and a small area for soft soldering because I was just learning to make memory jewelry.  I also had all my stained glass supplies and any other needlecraft storage like yarn and tools, a knitting machine, a dress form, quilting supplies and basketry supplies.  And anything else that didn’t go in the other room, plus two bookcases for my library of craft publications. So this room has been mostly anything related to sewing or needle crafts, my library and a little stolen space for the soldering which was stuck in after the reorganization.  The room has worked fairly well except there is a need for a clean out/give away to free up some overflow.

The smaller room, with the built-in desk is where all the paper, paint, clay related items are kept.  That includes scrapbooking supplies, a tall mechanics tool chest filled with all my paint supplies, a lawyers cabinet filled with all kinds of stuff like envelopes, staplers, pocket folders, mailing boxes or whatever.  Other things stored in that room are mat board, one wall with rubber stamp shelves, laminating equipment, punches, a specially built shelf (originally meant to hold my library) that is being used to hold many plastic drawers containing all sorts of stuff, paper gluing systems,  paper racks and drawers, rolling files, cricut and computer on a rolling cart, cigar boxes stored at ceiling level along one wall, glass containers on shelves for all sorts of paper accessories, shelves for polymer clay storage, lots of tools for cutting, etc.  And a large easel.  Also, there is a small hutch that is my seven year old granddaughter’s crafting area with her own tools for when we craft together.

I guess I should mention that all my beading supplies are stored in the living room in a secretary, I usually only bead in the living room so that was more convenient for the storage.

Also worth mentioning, we have a huge laundry room with a five door lower cabinet that contains spray paints, tools, varnish, etc. and in the area under the basement stairs there are a couple shelves that have some other supplies such as my art projector, stamp carving materials, and gourds to work on.

My husband calls our basement Hobby Lobby.  I believe I could stay home for at least six months without buying anything new and be able to create the whole time without getting bored or running out of supplies.  I know, I think it is a bit sad, also.

During the past year I have started learning metalsmithing for jewelry.  So now I have a large amount of supplies that encompass that as well and they are currently being kept in the corner with the soldering and stained glass equipment and is not a very satisfactory arrangement.  So this is prompting me to change the layout once again.  

I think I am getting close to a very good setup for myself.  My main goal is to put all the metal, glass and clay into the smaller finished room and paper and sewing (and all that includes) with the library in the larger, unfinished room.  It makes sense to me, no paper or fabric near the torches is my main concern.  My main desire is to have everything not being used out of sight, or at least nicely displayed, get rid of superfluous items and make a less cluttered looking space that will allow me more time for creating and less for moving stuff out of the way.  This is going to be quite the undertaking because it will be done without my husband’s help.  He will make anything I want from wood when he has the time but his job keeps him unavailable most of the time right now.  I would love to surprise him when it is all done.  I have a fellow crafter who has offered to give me a hand when the time comes.  I would love to finish off the unfinished area but that will not happen.  I already have some peg board above some of the areas and I think I will continue with that in the areas that don’t have any yet. That will help to hide some of the framing and make things look neater, but the rest will just stay unfinished.  I would rather spend the money on supplies!  I have been playing with layouts for both rooms and think I have come up with a plan that will fit everything in the two rooms for a comfortable work area.

The question is, how soon can I start?  I have several out of town times coming up over the next few months, through the end of the year, actually.  I have several other big home projects I need to finish. Really need to finish!  I don’t know how long I can wait, things are in a mess right now and it is starting to get on my nerves, especially since “the plan” is rolling around in my head.  And I want to blog the process, as well.

We will see how things progress!