Monday, November 26, 2012

Studio Put Away

We have certainly visited this subject before.  There comes a time when the clutter in the studio gets in the way of a calm and creative experience and that time had arrived and hung around for awhile while I finished my last bead  travels of the year.




The day before I left the new table arrived, the one where I can seat 12 around one table!  It has two leaves that make that possible and without them 8 will be a really comfortable number.  Right now I have been using black Italian leather chairs that were dining chairs from when I lived in Santa Cruz so they have served me well and will need to continue to do so for a bit more.  So here is the plan, I will search consignment stores to find odd wooden chairs that I can bring home and paint black.  Eventually I hope to replace all of the old chairs, but this way, at least as each new one arrives it can co mingle with the existing.  Twelve is a lot of chairs and buying new ones is just not an option.

So while cleaning the studio yesterday, I also did a lot of chatting with facebook friends.  The majority are also bead girls, so they had useful advice when I posted how the odd bits were the hardest to find places for.  Amy suggested the 'land of odds' bin where all the odd bits would live and that is where you would look for them.  So I give you my land of odds bin.




She also suggested a put away bin for those tubes of seed beads that came off the wall and needed to go back.  The problem is I have one of, ahem, two of them, and it has become daunting.  Her advice was so obvious, the go back bin needs to be small, so you are forced to empty it more often.  Pretty smart, heh?  I should have thought of that.  In the meantime, the go backs are currently hidden out of sight....who knows, some day I may just feel like tackling that job.  But what I did do was put away every new color of seed bead.



My newly organized, clean studio awaits me.  I have a local bead group who will be visiting this week to christen the table.  It will also welcome a Bead Society class in January, the first workshop to be held where I don't have to scavenge enough tables and try to organize an efficient environment.  I hope to fine tune it over time as I would love to host workshops once or twice a year with guest artists.


8 comments:

joycemayerclark said...

I love your cabinets! Are they from Ikea? Also, is that a turquoise typewriter? And thanks for the tip about using a smaller bin for put always!

Best, Joyce Mayer Clark

Marcia DeCoster said...

Joyce, yes it is all IKEA except for the new table. and yes it is a turquoise typewrite which I love!

Cindy Hulsey said...

Beautiful studio, Maggie. Love the "living" space appeal. Very creative and learning space.

Karen Firnberg said...

It all looks fabulous, Marcia! I would love wall storage like that. I'll just have to make do with my filing cabinet full of beads for now. Enjoy your neat clean space!

The bad Liz said...

I also like the put away bin. I have a muffin tun with 6 openings that might do the trick. Semi organized in the tin....

joycemayerclark said...

I love the typewriter! It all looks great, Marcia!

ellen said...

Thanks for the bead room view and clutter taming tips. I recognized the Harold Clooney bead collection- especially the black & white spiral, which I also have. It's hanging in my beading, polymer claying, and idea generating room with the sketch of a necklace idea taped to it. Project number...? Also, I really like Jean Power's new book and am following Kate's blog in anticipation of hers.

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

this is a wonderful post! I feel inspired! I guess you do that for so many of us in more ways than one!

xox jean