Absence vs. Fulfillment

Walking into my studio one morning recently -- looking at the most tidy of work tables.  Everything was 'put away', everything was neat.

A feeling of the blah's came over me.  Instead of being happy with this neat and tidy area I felt like something was missing.  It was not a feeling of satisfaction about having cleaned up a mess but a feeling that I most definitely needed to make a 'new' mess.

And so I proceeded to do just that.  I put 'stuff' here and there, I played with colors and images and thoughts of what I wanted to do next.  I made a joyful mess.

The next time you chastise yourself about not being 'tidy' or 'organized', pat yourself on the back and let your imagination take over. Each piece to be 'put away' may inspire you to start something new.  It worked for me...

"The happiness of  a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions." - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Stuff and Nonsense

Is there anything more enticing than a worktable filled with 'stuff' - unfinished, hardly begun, anticipatory 'stuff'?

I love to walk into my studio in the morning and see all sorts of 'goings on' - things that will keep these hands and this imagination going for some time to come.
 

Of course there does come a time when the 'stuff' overwhelms me and then my hands have to get busy and do a major clean up.  Meanwhile just think of the possibilities!

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.  The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." - Ray Bradbury

Light and Shadow

I have a new view in my studio, now that everything has been changed around.  The morning sun comes sneaking in -- leaving lovely light and shadow across my work and my work desk.

I am in heaven!!!

"Shadow is a coulour as light is, but less brillians; light and shadow are only the relations of two tones." - Paul Cezanne

A Whole New Space

It was time!  Time to find different ways to use my space. I decided I'd like work stations -- especially to use the window at the end of the room for natural light. Also I needed more shelving for all of my 'stuff' - but then who doesn't! 

With the help of IKEA and my trusty handiman husband (thank heavens for him) we embarked on a major readjustment.  Tom says that the worst words in the world are "some assembly required" and when I opened this box where my soon-to-be chair resided in pieces I almost flinched back in horror.  There were all these bits and pieces, several screws of different sizes and everything in black so it looks alike.  YIKES!

But with effort and patience it all came together.  I now have a space where I can divide my work properly between visits with you at the computer and joyously stitching in a special spot.  I love having my sewing space in front of the window, with natural light in the morning and the frogs in the little pond outside serenading me.

"Change brings opportunity." -  Nido Qubein

Work Awaiting...

This is what I like to see -- stitching work waiting for my hands to take it up and create something new.  I have filled to the brim the small table in my studio.  There are two punchneedle projects (a bird and a picture); there are two art dolls (one all ready for embellishing, the other languishing upon a pile of fabric that will one day become her body). 

I have finally come to a point in my life where seeing all of this sitting here doesn't bother me.  I don't feel compelled to get busy and 'clean off that table'.  This is a big break through for me.  Now those piles of fabric and thread and floss and fibers are gifts waiting to be opened and they are all for ME!! 

One day soon I will want to add another pile to the table but that will mean that I have turned one stack of goodies into a finished piece.  I'm so thankful for this small space filled to the brim with 'pieces to be'!

"We can only be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures". - Thornton Wilder

My Little Space

I'm not sure which season keeps me inside my studio more -- winter, with the cold air and snow or summer, with the heat and humidity.  I'm so lucky!!!  I have a wonderful space in which to sit day after day and do what I love - stitching, stitching, stitching.  A place that keeps me warm in the winter and cool in the summer. 

So here is my worktable in all its messy glory!  This is my nest, my solitude and my solace.  I have little dishes all over the top of the table in which bits and pieces of collected items sit waiting to inspire me.  I only allow the things I love to grace this space -- no bills are allowed, no to-do lists, not even bad thoughts.  This is where creating is supposed to take place, where ideas are supposed to thrive and this is where I seat myself almost each and every day to make 'stuff'.  Sometimes I feel like a hermit -- and then I know that I need to get away from this table, at least for a bit, to soak up inspiration in other places.

Where are those other places?  Art galleries (or any place else where art is exhibited), fabric and fiber shops (oh the colors and textures and patterns), lunch with a creative friend (good food can be considered inspirational).  After getting out I am usually ready to get back to 'work' - did I say work?  Of course not - I am not only lucky to have such a wonderful space in which to ply my trade -- but I'm also lucky to be able to play, play, play.

What are you playing with today?

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older". - Tom Stoppard

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

Ready, Set, Go!

These have been hectic days for me.  As a matter of fact, the last six months have been pretty hectic as it pertains to the Open Studio Tour for artists in Henderson County (North Carolina).  I was on the steering team which meant that meetings and preparation began last March.  Finally, things settled down after the brochure had gone to the printer and I could focus more on my own studio which would be part of the overall tour. 

I completed a couple of the larger projects I'd been working on and started some less time consuming pieces to place on the shelves.  As I was finishing up the last of these I decided that perhaps I should have some even less time consuming (translate lower priced to the visitor) pieces.  And so I created these 'trinkets'.  They are beaded front and back and then hung on silk ribbon.  Thanks to the instructions in "Beaded Embellishment" I was able to use the spiral stitch on each piece.  I made a variety by choosing three different shapes and several different colors.  I admit that when I started my goal was to make 12 -- just to have them hanging and as an option to the more expensive pieces -- but time, my finger tips and the fact that I'd spiral stitched my way through 8 pieces I decided that it was time to say 'enough'.  So I only ended up with eight.  Perhaps the next 'brilliant' idea I come up with won't be at the last minute.

Here is a picture of one of my shelf units -- I have hung the 'trinkets' from pegs and have set out some of my beading.  My most precious collection of silk ribbons and other fibers takes up the bottom area.

The nice side effect to all of this hullabaloo is that my studio is quite neat and tidy now with everything 'in its place' (for now) and I'm ready to greet visitors this weekend. 

"Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now." - Alan Lakein