My Cup Runneth Over

The studio, after a week of tidying.

Last week I managed what some would consider an Heroic Effort and (mostly) cleaned my studio.  I do not consider the effort heroic, because if I'd just clean it up each day, it wouldn't take a week! 

That wide expanse of work table, clear and ready to create, is captivating, motivating, and thrilling.  You'd think I would want to keep it that way, so I can create any time I want.  Why don't I?  That's probably a question best left to the professionals.

Perhaps it's this: each time I do The Overhaul, maybe once a quarter (optimistically), I rediscover all the different crafts, materials, and creative potential in that room.  I can make so many things there! My mind spins circles with ideas. I actually dream about them at night.  And all the projects shout; "Pick ME!"  In this one 11 x 12 ft room, I have materials for;

Quilting: (I did cull a good many books, planning some basic quilts and throws for our new house.)

General sewing: (garments, house goods, pet gear, doll clothes, you name it)

Rug Hooking: (books, TWO strip cutters, hooks, background fabric and shoes boxes of worms)

Wool applique: (bins of wool, freezer paper, and four giant shoe boxes of pearl cotton)

Doll making: (of course) with bins of fabric, little hats, glasses, baskets, even limb joints I've never learned how to use.  This includes material for cloth dolls with clay heads, mohair bears and critters, rag dolls with a giant bin of cotton stuffing, and another bin of poly stuffing.  Wooden bits for jointed dolls (dowel rods and toy blocks and sticks--oh my!)  Wigs, eyes, shoes.  I even still have the cedar wood shavings my friend Sheri Farley sent me a decade ago because I loved my Sheri-made Tansy Butternut doll so much.  Husband wouldn't quit smelling it--he's a fan of cedar.

Jewelry making: (and I don't even wear jewelry--but the dolls do, and daughters/friends)

Crochet: (knitting--someday) has recently added a great deal to the chaos with bins of yarn, and more than one loom for hats, socks, cords, and some long skinny loom, but I'm not sure what it's for.

Punch Needle: (with a small box of several sizes of needles and lots of embroidery hoops).

Hand Embroidery: (along with the pearl cotton, there is a rainbow of DMC).

Felting: A whole drawer with mohair for dolls and felting.  What, exactly, am I going to felt?

Pin-cushion and Make Do supplies:  I have this vision of tiny embroidered wool pin cushions, each in its own miniature tart pan.  Yes, I have a basket of tiny tart pans.  Also washed tuna and pea cans to make little sewing caddies for my Sewing Ladies who meet once a month. What about needle cases and scissors pockets? 
 
Stencils: I usually free-hand most of my furniture painting, but I have a small collection of stencils that I am planning to use for the new house.  Nothing big or busy, but yeah--stencils.

Wood Burning:  Why?  The last time I did any wood burning was eleven years ago when I did Celtic Knot Work patterns on our new cedar mail box post.  (Drawn there, thank you, using stencils.)  The post was beautiful, but why do I still have this???

Gourd Art:  Try as I might, and I have tried, I can't get rid of the gourds.  I put them in the Going to Sell Bin.  I even put them in the Donate to Thrift bin.  And each time I stole them out and put them back.  Because the potential of them calls to me. 

Painting, Painting, Painting: I could paint anything with the paint I have.  From miniatures to houses.  Furniture, walls, floors--even art canvases.  Water color, Gouache, Oil, Acrylic, Chalk.  Do you need something painted?  Come to my house, and we'll get started.  Want a particular finish or some antiquing?  Ooh--how about glitter?

Sculpting:  Of course.  Creative paper clay has long been my favorite, so I have culled supplies down to that for sculpting.  Except for a roll of cotton so (when I get to it) I can try spun cotton sculpting.  Because, you know--sculpting!  Only one set of sculpting tools, but I have armatures--foil, styrofoam balls, paper mache cones, you name it.  Sanding materials, of course.

Clay Molds and Cookie Cutters:  Don't forget those.  Because you never know when you'll need to make an ornament. Or ten.

Stamping and card making:  I gave away half the stamps and all the scrap booking stuff at least. But stamps are just so...clever and versatile! 

I saw a bumper sticker that read; She Who Dies With The Most Fabric--Wins!  But, when I do a quarterly clean and discover purse patterns I may never use, I have to doubt this is healthy.  Seriously! I culled a good deal of material out of this room just this year!  Minimalism reigns in the rest of the house now.  But in the studio...is there such thing as Maximalism? 

My bumper sticker would read; "Hello.  My name is Jan, and I'm a craft supplies junky."

But I have a new pile after last week's overhaul.  If you know anyone who wants to buy a wood burning tool, send 'em my way--otherwise it's going to charity.  Really!

Do you or don't you?

Question for the artists that share my little world. Julia Roberts asked Brad Pitt in The Mexican: "When is enough enough?"

When do you decide whether to give up on a project, to throw it away and not allow it to eat any more of your time? Do you ever get to that point with a project? The "right" answer for Julia was "never"...but that was romance. This is art.

Do we go with our heart, or listen to our head on some things? Jus' ponderin'.

I have a lot of doll projects in mind, and yet there is a shelf full of Works In Progress...in varying degrees of completion, from just a head to all-it-needs is arms and legs and a dress.  But not all of them appeal to me.  Some of them feel like a chore that, even if completed, will offer very little reward of satisfaction.

In some cases, enough really is enough, and I'm learning (hard lesson!) that to sacrifice time and energy for those particular projects is to take away from future growth as an artist.  I'll be honest and ruthless, and once in a while a little sentimental. 

So...when is enough enough for you? 
Do you ever scrap a project and refuse to allow it more of your time?

Studio Clean-up!

I am currently working on several life-changing issues at the same time...not always the best approach, but I'm either brave or stupid and decided to tackle it all.

First change: giving up daily coffee in favor of tea.  I am a truck driver's daughter with java for blood, so this is much more difficult than you might imagine.  The husband has considered running away from home.

Second change: stepping aside to let the husband manage his leather shop.  This is hard--both because of my control-freak tendencies, and because he works a full-time job so I feel I should do it, but it's his store.  He's taken more of an interest in it since he learned how to post a listing--recently working on new checkbook covers to list.  I still do the daily checking in stuff, (we won't tell him that I edit once in a while) but it's been good to share this part of the load.

Third change: I have been in training...learning how to put things up when I'm through using them.  Now, I'm almost 50 yrs old, and this is not a tough thing--in the rest of the house.  I've managed to run a household (I didn't say tidy household) for a number of years.

But my studio seems to be a different story.  Maybe I get caught up in the creative frenzy or something.  Many's the time the hub has found me working on a tray in my lap because the available workspace is taken up with this creative frenzy...bottles of paint, bits of clay, brushes, wire, tools, doweling, cloth, etc. etc. etc.  So my mission began after this last cleanup.  (Pictures of before and after below).

I've done pretty well so far, and the room is still essentially in good order.  But between the lack of coffee, the control issues w/ Phil's shop, and this effort to be a grownup in my playroom...it ain't been easy.  Whew! 
One day at a time has taken on a whole new meaning for me.

BEFORE: 

AFTER:

I realize as much stuff as I still have out it looks messy, but a lot of that is work-in-progress and has to be out.  The following pictures show some ways I've stored things I need to use/work with...this is an 11 x 12 room, and the huge white cabinets at the back are 20" x 47" x 6 ft and hold tons of fabric.  I make good use of plastic drawer sets found at the thrift shop. Labels help too, keeping shoe-boxes of antique lace and ribbon under control.  It'll never make the cover of "Where Women Create", but it works for me, and I'm enjoying the ability to walk in, sit down, and start working on something without wondering where I'll put my paint tray.

I'll always be messy during the creative process...but I am learning to pick up at the end of the day so I can get more done.

Okay, almost done.

I bit the big one...and actually cleaned my room today.  Well, almost cleaned it.  I still have to sort through

a. beading & jewelry supplies
b. sewing notions, buttons, and trim
c. add-ons/potential doll stuff

But considering the room was so crapped out there wasn't even room to put my paint plate on the table, I think it's a good start.  I had to fight like Superman against the Kryptonite of the dreaded distractions "....oh, but THIS could be used for..."  and "Oh COOL!  I didn't know I had THIS!"

Here are some pictures of the room.  On the left are two wall cabinets (first pic shows one) that hold maybe eight large plastic tubs of fabric, and above it are potential doll supplies, etc.  The right side is for sewing, the center table is where I sculpt/paint/build dolls.  The Hubs made a couple of peg-boards for me over the last couple years, so I have the Hobby Supplies all strung up everywhere, and ribbon goes on dowels.  It's an organized mess, but now I know where it all is, AND I can actually walk all the way around the central table.  :~)  HUGE difference from this morning.  :~)

From the door of the room...

Sewing desk, and the Hobby Supplies mess.  :~)

I got a CD rack for paint at the thrift shop last week.

Over-flow fabric in a plastic shoe organizer...

Ready to PAINT!

My Studio Buddy, Gibbons.