Tag Archives: studio

And Now it is November

Posted on by

I am in mourning for our country and democracy but will not bore you with my angst. I will try to keep this space positive. It will be a challenge.

I pulled out my bin of tattooed men parts, right after I cleaned up the tiny world mess- and it was a huge mess. And then several things happened to distract me.

Firstly, 2 of my kids came over and we rearranged my studio. Now that I’ve been working a while, I knew it wasn’t the best layout. Here are some new photos-

Rearranging everything untied my organizational knot. I got a lot of things stored away and am feeling much better about my space.

The next distraction was that I discovered that my houseplants had thrips. If you are a plant-nutter like me, you will understand my anguish. I spent many, many, hours dealing with that mess. Some plants didn’t survive :-( Now I am keeping an eagle-eye on my house jungle.

I was doing some doll work through this all- just very slowly. Next up was cleaning up my garden and bringing plants inside (without new bugs I hope!). That’s when I decided that I needed to put up a window plant shelf. That involved actually painting the windows which I had been procrastinating about. Here is where I am at with that project-

I’m getting there. I really had to do this now because the weather is cool but not freezing yet. I can still open the windows, but in the summer it would have been too hot. So the studio is still a messy project but progress is being made. And I finished a tattooed man!

I don’t know what this imagery is actually called- it is skeleton Christmas.

So hopefully, more will be coming soon. Take care of yourself.

And photos from Today

Posted on by

As you will see, it is still very much a work in progress. The photos are not great because it was a very wet and dark day today.

I have been bringing plants over whenever the temperatures are moderate. I was/am worried about moving them in Chicago winter when the apartment is finally ready. I got rid of the regular size fridge and got a little one.

The kitchen area- I took off the doors of the upper cabinets and will use the shelves as display space. The unit has 10 ft ceilings so I was never going to use them for storage.

I am still unpacking boxes and trying to find places for everything. Yesterday I put up the track and bracket shelves- more room for all my treasures! Mid-photo is my sewing machine, ready to get back to work. Actually, I already made myself 2 smock tops last week. It was sort of a clothing emergency!

You can see that I’ve got a table set up in the middle of the room- our former dining room table. And to the left of that is my flat file where I store my felt and buttons.

And here you can see into the former “sleeping nook” (that’s how it was described in the listing). My IKEA unit is mostly filled up, no surprise!

There will be a lot of rearranging in the next year or so as I settle into the space but it already feels like my place. It is making me so happy.

Studio Makeover

Posted on by

Some photos of the studio transformation.

All the orange is gone and the trim needs to be painted. I scheduled the movers for 10 days after the closing and Thanksgiving was in the middle of that, so the schedule was very tight.

I will admit that the trim only got painted where I knew I was putting things… The rest is still on the to-do list.

This was halfway through the load in. The movers completely covered the rug with my stuff.

And then I went to IKEA and spent some $. Perfect fit!

And here is the big day when I brought my sewing machine to her new home :-)

Here is a short video of the mess.

studio reshuffle

Posted on by

It’s that time of year. The studio needs to be cleaned and the Stuff needs reorganizing. I try to figure out what I am actually using and make it easily accessible. I also try to go through all the fabric regularly, getting rid of things I will probably never use. I call this turning the compost. It’s only kind of a joke. I now have three bags of fabric that I’ll be taking to my crafty meet-up next week. Give-away time!

Here are some in progress photos because it’ll be a while before everything settles into place again.

It all started with a large bookcase that needed to be moved out of another room. I always need more shelves so I took out the measuring tape to see if I could fit it into my studio. The reshuffle began! I moved the bureau towards the window (of course there was already something there- out into the hall that stuff went). The bookcase that was already in my room was emptied and moved across to it’s new place by the closet.

It is now filled with books, tea cups and cotton fabrics, mostly toiles and other tattooed people components.

The new (to my room), bigger bookshelf fits perfectly. I’m filling it back up with the books that were in the other bookcase plus other things of course.

Then I decided that I needed a new way to store all my other cotton fabrics. I have been using them a lot more this year and the bins under the table system was just not working. One trip to Ikea later and you can see my new drawers. Here is a better photo-

This is great! I can see all the fabric easily and there are enough baskets to put all kinds of goodies that have been in piles or in bins that I trip over every time I walked through the room.

The plastic drawer bins and the small wooden bookcase on top of the fabric drawers used to be where the bureau is now. Are you confused yet?

I have had this little set of metal drawers sitting on the floor for about 1 1/2 years and I now finally have a place for it. I filled it up with beads, charms, sewing notions I’ve collected for robots and papers for making tiny books.

There are lots of little problems that I haven’t quite figured out yet. An example is my thread rack- I like it where it is but I know it will slide right off at the worst possible moment so I need to figure out how to attach it to something. And then actually do it.

And some real life desk pictures. I started working on some tiny worlds. Then I moved on to something else. Yep, I just piled them up, as much out of the way as I could push them without bothering to put them away. Because I’ll get back to them any minute, right? Okay then.

And that poor tattooed lady. I have a ridiculous number of unfinished dolls in my studio right now. I should try to focus on finishing them up. Somehow it is sad to see them all waiting for me. If I just worked on finishing things I would probably be busy though February at least! It’s good though too- it is an easy way to start in again because a lot of the decisions are already made. So, time to get back to work!

 

in progress…

Posted on by

This is one of those weeks where there is a lot going on and not much gets finished in my studio. I’ve got things started- things that I hope will move forward with short periods of focus. There are 9 babies started-

After I’d cut them out and sewed them up, I realized that I only had one roll of wool stuffing left (2 1/2 lbs). Uh-oh! I had to call up and order more stuffing, first thing on Monday morning.

And,  a pile of fish. My idea was to sew them together and then I could trim them, turn them and stuff them as I sit around with family over the next week or so. My daughter has arrived today and as of this evening, I have them trimmed and turned.

So, between the shopping, the cleaning, the cooking, the extra people in the house, I am hoping to get a little bit of work done and not feel too crazy by next Monday.

studio photos

Posted on by

Yesterday morning-

I feel like I am running in place here- lots of things started and I am not sure what direction to go in. I am working on the Luv-able and Hug-able pieces in a very different way then usual, since I am making one of this and one of that- not my usual practice. I should be back on track soon though. And back to the pattern. Well, as soon as I’ve gotten over this bad cold. Then I’ll see if I can figure out how to use the new scanner.

Here is my desk today. I am making a kitty with a skirt made of the vintage fabric in the bottom photo.

Amazing, isn’t it!

I have one piece almost finished but with my head feeling all fogged in, I can’t decide if she is good yet. I might have to change her face.

buntings, or garlands or whatever they are called

Posted on by

I’ve started a carry-around-project bag to stick in my purse. I seem to have a number of appointments lined up on the calendar and I like to have something to work on as I sit in the waiting room. I am cutting out circles.

This is a garland that I made in the first batch, before I went to Renegade Brooklyn. You can see it hanging in my tent, here.

I am trying out some single hue strings- pinks

blues-

reds-

Which do you like better?

They have 100 dots per strand. That is about 12 feet.

My studio is once again a complete disaster. I’ve got way too many things going on right now. I am cutting and sewing a range of dolls (with the help of Sage) and will then finish them over the course of the Autumn. The result is stuff everywhere, every surface covered, entering the room is a challenge…  but hey! I am getting lots done. I’ll clean it up another day.

busy times

Posted on by

That week flew by. And now a new one begins. Happy Mothers Day!

My tree peony bloomed- always a treat.

We’ve had some crazy weather in the few days since I took the photos- wild thunderstorm, torrential rain and now some very windy weather. The plant is looking a bit tussled today. The flowers rarely last more then a week so I appreciate them while I can.

On Friday night I went to the MassArt Senior Fashion Show: Current 2010.  I was offered complimentary tickets (not sure how I got on that list!)- it is not something I would ordinarily think of going to. Well, it was so much fun! I have never been to anything like it- there was the runway, the models, the collections. I tried to find photos but there wasn’t much. I did find this one of my favorite dress of the evening. I hope I can go next year- it was a blast!

Saturday, doll club. We did needle felting. I will not be changing over to needle felting any time soon. Sorry about no pics- the photos I took were too awful to post.

And today. Working on- gladiator sandals.

Maybe too much fiddly work. Piled on the table are men in progress, paper pattern pieces, fabric marking tools, trims…

And the desk, looking cleaner then usual.

This coming week will focus on finishing those guys and then I’m off to Minneapolis on Thursday for J’s graduation. Life seems to have suddenly shifted to high speed.

desk- 1/27/10 morning

Posted on by

This is how my desk really looks when I am working.

Can you see? Yep, I am making some new tattooed men. It has been more than a year. I spent the whole day trying to organize my accounts so they haven’t progressed yet today. Except that I took the hair off that one guy. You can see this photo BIG over here– and click on all sizes.