"Organization"

The word 'organization' can become  a challenge or a rebuff.  Hey, don't 'people' expect crafters or artists to be a bit disorganized?  Isn't that part of our charm?

At this point in my life I find that I do better if I'm working in an organized area -- of course there's always 'stuff' around (supplies, unfinished projects, etc.) but even they can be organized.  Somehow 'organization' makes me feel like I might have a bit of control over at least  one part of my life. *smile*.

Each evening, as I leave my studio, I arrange everything to begin anew the next day. Its so easy to get sidetracked if I have to stop and 'go through stuff' before I even begin the actual punching.
Happy organization to you all!

"Organization isn't about perfection, its about efficiency. Reducing stress and clutter, saving time and energy and improving your overall quality of life." -  Christine Scal

Order out of Chaos

I recently looked around my studio and especially over at the hanging shelves just next to my desk.  It looked like hoarder lives here (at least to my eyes).  Boxes stuffed with "I might this sometime" things,  and more stuff stuffed here and there for lack of space in existing boxes.

What's a girl to do but get in and start sorting, and sorting and sorting. I don't have a lot compared to others but this took all day long.  There was the taking out and putting back or setting aside for donations and trash -- and then the putting saved items into proper boxes.  Of course there was a run to JoAnn's for newer, bigger boxes to replace the smaller, now scruffy ones I had been using.

Today I can look at these shelves and see nothing but neatly stacked boxes, each holding things I just know I need to have!

"One way to organize your thoughts is to tidy up, even if it's in places where it makes no sense at all." - Ursus Wehrli

Diary of a Mad Stitcher

Anyone walking into my studio these days would think I'd gone mad - especially given my usual reputation for organization.  Indeed - I've felt a bit 'mad' - not in the angry way, but in the crazy way.

In working on a new group of 'people' my ideas and thoughts have been in overdrive.  Trying to accommodate the style to the fabric that I have on hand wasn't working.  While  this pile of clothes might look like laundry to be done it is really men's shirts in wonderful fabrics that I found at the Goodwill Shop.  Buttons removed they are awaiting their washing, then staining and then who knows what.

Meanwhile, I suspect I'm going to have to tackle my work table as it seems to have a mind of its own lately or else its reflecting my insecurities and craziness.  

"To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now." - Samuel Beckett

Messy Me!

Over the past few weeks I've been bringing the Ladies of Lickety-Split alive and in the process my studio has pretty much been trashed!

Fabric stuffed willy-nilly into the wire baskets - no rhyme nor reason.  

Supplies jammed in pretty much wherever they will fit.

Paper rolled but not neatly and ending up with 'stuff' on top of it.

Who knows what lurks in this mess of paper stacked in every which way.

I promised myself that before the next "Lady" appears on the scene I would clean up, straighten up and pretty much get things in order (at least for a couple of days time - before it starts all over again).

After a fun morning of weeding through fabric, moving some into closed storage boxes and organizing by colors and patterns.  I had this.

My 'stuff' shelves became actually usable with a reordering and some things being carted off to the local thrift shop for donation.

 Now I can see what paper I have and it won't get more crinkled than it already has.

And how do you like this organization?  

I'd never take bets on how long this will last, but for now, I'll just enjoy it and enjoy the fact that now I can actually find what I know I already have.

"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos." - Stephen Sondheim

What A Mess!

I have boxes designated for 'things and stuff'.  I have jars which show the 'things and stuff'. I have drawers in which to store the 'things and stuff'.  I have shelves which actually hold 'things and stuff'.

But there is a corner of my desk that defies any organization that I might practice. Underneath it all is a metal basket which I put there to hold the items that I might be working with at any given time.

But then there is this.  I can hardly see the basket, and like a tidal wave the 'things and stuff' are spilling out over the edges.  They are piling up on top of each other.  And of course anything I might need is buried deep within this pile.

As I 'glean and gather' it all gets put in this same spot.  Oh well, its spring and perhaps the spring cleaning bug will bite me and I'll get it all nice and organized - or not!

"Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes it narrows the mind." - Francois Fenelon

Oh My!

You won't mind if I pat myself on the back will you?  If I send up a big 'high five' to myself?  If I hire a band and have a mini-parade?

This was what I had before.  Drawers filled with plastic bags.  Bags filled with skein upon skein of embroidery floss.  It was piled everywhere.  It was overflowing the drawers. It was a disaster when I wanted to begin a piece and had to strew it all over my work table to see what I had.

For some reason the 'organization bug' hit me at the end of the year and I started wrapping my floss around bobbins, labeling them with the proper color number and putting them into neat and tidy boxes.  All the green shades together here..

But many, many hours and colors and skeins to be  wrapped ahead.  A project not finished but truly started to my complete happiness.

"True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Messy Me!

Remember my great 'organization' of a few postings ago?  Looking at what is before me right now 'organization' seems to have fallen by the way!

I have to have 'every' possible/probable color of floss out on my table.  Mixing and matching and making a mess.

 

I have to have the exact threads I'm working with in my work space - along with the used up pieces of thread sitting in a small pottery bowl.

Time for clean up will come one day soon.  In the meantime I wonder 'how can one person be having so much fun'?

"I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun." - Katherine Hepburn

Moving Forward

Do you remember a blog I did quite awhile ago, where I proudly showed off my jars of floss and threads?  This, for a long time, was the way I stored these items.  Each time I started a new piece I would empty a jar, paw through it and dig out the colors/hues/tones that I wanted to use - then run off to the embroidery shop for more floss.

As I inch my way back into the play of punchneedle I decided that there was probably a better way, perhaps a more 'adult' 'organized' approach.  With this in mind I went shopping and found this inexpensive rolling set of drawers.  I liked it because the drawers were of a good size but flat rather than deep - much easier to see.

So the 'fun' began as I dumped, sorted, labeled baggies and put skein after skein into its carefully prepped new home.  Of course organization is always preceded by disorganization and I certainly accomplished that.

At this point I have bag after bag, drawer after drawer all ready for my perusal.  As a design is developed I can see at a glance what I have on hand and know what more I will need. 

Will it be as much fun as dumping the floss all over the table and going through it - probably not - but certainly I feel quite righteous in my organization! *smile*

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

"My" Colors

Recently I hit the paint chip section at the local building supply company.  By the time I left, I'm sure they must have thought that I either have no idea what colors I want my walls, therefore had to take a sample of everything -- or I have a VERY large house with lots of rooms waiting for paint.  Of course neither is true *smile*. 

Once home I went through the colors, laying them out in ways that pleased me.  In the coming months I will be leaning toward those warm, desert colors that so appeal to me.  Soft greens and deep rust - terra cotta and gold - some aqua blue and desert sand beige -in lots of shade and hues.  Just playing with the colors got my creative juices going.

Next step was to go through all my Wildflower threads and embroidery floss.  A daunting project I assure you.  I keep my threads in glass jars - by color - but when doing as much 'punching' as I've been doing lately, colors didn't always stay in their proper place.  And so the sorting began.  I discovered as I went that it could get a bit confusing when you have greens of every shade/hue/tint -- so I went through sorting out the greens that had yellow in them vs. the greens that had grey tints.  As I sorted I laid skeins against the colors on my table, comparing them and using the paint chips as my guidelines.

I know that a lot of you are much more organized than I am - carefully putting each skein, by number or color into their own little cubbie - for some reason I'm just drawn to putting each color selection into a jar. I like feeling the threads in my hands as I sort through them -- it might lose its magic for me if I could just reach in and find a neatly numbered skein.  So you see, I'm not alway as organized as I pretend to be. 

Such satisfaction to see everything lined up and ready to be placed into brand new stitcheries.

"In nature, light creates the color.  In the picture, color creates the light". - Hans Hoffmann

A Studio Clean-up

Once in awhile the whole thing gets away from me and it is time to heed those dreaded words 'clean the studio'.  I can happily report that my studio stays a lot neater in my life as a 'beader' than it did when I was working with book art -- BUT how those beads can get out of hand!!!  Then there are those 'things' that I've saved because someday I might use them.  I'm not a big saver or collector so I have to put on my 'art hat' the one that tells me 'don't just throw everything out'.  There is a 'law of disposal' you know -- that as soon as you get rid of it, you need it!!  I've been known to donate something to the thrift store and then go back and buy it back a week later (hoping its still there).

And so, with spring outside it was time for a clean sweep.  I went through each container of beads, I put all the colors together on shelves, I bought new plastic canisters to add to my collection. Note: the above picture is only a 'fraction' of my bead collection *smile*.


I love those decorated boxes that you can buy, I have LOTS of them - but I can't continue to stuff things into them, until their lids won't close anymore - so the lids came off and I sorted and folded and reorganized.  The fun thing about this is that I found items I had forgotten that I had.  Several of these came to rest on my worktable so that I can use them in something yet unplanned.

Now, you ask - did you also 'clean' your worktable?  Well, no -- I mean its 'sort of' organized - but I MUST leave things strewn hither and yon - bits and pieces of flotsam and jetsom to inspire me.  I love to stop a beading piece and just run my fingers through cabochons that are sitting in a bowl, or pick up the feather and shell that sit in another bowl.  No sterile work table for me.  But hey, I can now pick out beads from their color grouping without having to sort and sort and sort.  So that's enough progress for this spring -- after all there's always time to clean but right now I have to get back to beading.

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries". - A.A. Milne