Rain's Thursday Art Date: The Workshop

 

It's Thursday, which means it's time to join Rain's Thursday Art Date, which this week is The Workshop.   

I've always said my entire home is a craft area, and today I'll show you various areas which prove it.  Just outside my craft room door is an antique enclosed serpentine map chest that has 14 slots.  I keep papers I've painted or created in some way in it.  It easily holds 12" X 12" paper, as well as my shaving cream, paste, and other background papers.  The shallow shelves are perfect for everything that doesn't fit in a regular cabinet.  It is especially handy for storing large sized artwork and prints, too. 

 

On the other side of the door is my antique lawyer's (sometimes called Barrister) bookcase.  It holds books I plan to alter, or ones I use for word poetry.  To its right is a sampling of my altered books.  Both cats love to play in them, so I'm surprised they've lasted this long.  Other items I collect include letter openers, scales, weights, and musical instruments.

Of course, there's always a rocking horse (or twenty) nearby.

But now it's time to enter the craft room.  My studio is in the basement, but the craft room is where I seem to spend most of my time unless I'm creating an assemblage, or fighting with my gelli plate.
 

Put together from items given me, or ones I've had in my home forever, 

this room will never win awards or even accolades.  But as a working, functioning craft area,

it works for me.  And that's what I tell people.  If you try to set up a studio or craft space like mine, it will probably not work.  What works for me, may not work for you.  And be aware, if you don't like the way an area is working, change it, but document the move.  If you don't, you'll return to the previous place and spend time hunting down whatever you are looking for.

 

Before we leave, here is where I keep my inexpensive craft paints and other goodies I use in my journal pages.  I can see both the paint colors and the amount in the containers, too.  Many of those other goodies on the top two shelves came from the Household Hazardous Waste Swap and Shop, where I can get these types of supplies free because I live in the county.

 

You can tell this is a very old photo of my handmade (by me) paper.  I've either used or gifted most of it and the shelves are now almost bare.

 

Now let's head to my basement studio.

 

This is what you see when you open the door to my basement studio.

 

Look who came to visit me.  Yes, it's definitely the face of our blog.  Not the best image in the world, but he sometimes comes to the basement with me, while Squiggles has never been past the door heading out back or to the basement.

 

Now it's time to see the rest of the room.  Note how many items are on wheels, which means I can move them around if they are in the way.

As you walk through the door, you see this row of shelves.   The top shelf holds a gag gift, my crayon maker, as well as my hot glue gun and various glues.  I also keep all my glass paint there.  On the right top shelf is my gifted electric heat tray/griddle.  I use it when I'm melting crayons or to keep encaustics warm.  On top of the griddle is a gifted mat cutter.

The next shelf holds my gifted dedicated toaster oven I use for polymer clay.  On top of it is my pasta maker dedicated to polymer clay.  On the right of the oven is a container that holds polymer clay in their original packages.  On the right is my mouse sander.  When I took this photo several years ago, I didn't yet own my gel plate.  That's where it now sits, along with brayers and marking tools.

The third shelf holds my cutting and soldering tools, many left over from when I worked in industry as a metrologist (metrology is the science of numbers and I ran a lab testing various products, some of which were soldered).

 

The fourth shelf holds my encaustics and UTEE, as well as my crock pot that heats beeswax and two Ranger Melting Pots.  My metal pot is used to make soap, and eco-dyeing.  Encaustic pigments, beeswax pellets, and dammar resin sit inside the blue bowl in the pot.  Maybe you can see the blue pot has a label on it telling what is inside.

On the right, next to the solder equipment, I saw something I couldn't determine what it was.  All I knew was it was yellow and green.  When Scott and I were in the basement studio for another reason on Sunday,

I found I had moved it.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Scott pulled it down for me, and I took a photo of my airbrush pen.  I have no idea where I got it, but I know I didn't buy it.

 

My laminating machine, a gift, sits on the top shelf you can see.  It is also where my gel plate and marking tools now sit.  The top boxes on the right hold dress patterns.

 

It was also while Scott and I were in the basement, I decided to take a photo of my gel plate, which I've only used twice since I bought it many years ago.  I applaud those who like theirs.  I'm not in love with mine.  

 

The reason Scott was in the basement was because I asked him to get the Twirl-O-Paint down for me, so I didn't have to climb on the ladder.  At 6'5", he comes in handy for reaching things I can't.

 

Above that are candy molds I use for polyclay, but never candy.   The "cubby" holds a fold up table and decorative glass bottles in containers.  My old iron came to the basement when I got a nicer one at the thrift store one year.  It's great for encaustics and if I think to iron a piece of fabric before I bring it to my craft room upstairs.  Lots of old jewelry can be found in the various containers on the shelves.

 

Why a microwave in my basement studio, you ask?  For low immersion dyeing, of course.

Out of sequence, but that's my fault, not blogger's.  The candy molds I mentioned before are in the white plastic bag on the top shelf.

 

I got a "good deal" on a bunch of in/out stackables at a garage sale years ago.  They now live on the next two shelves (one of which is behind the microwave) and as far as I'm concerned, they are nothing but junk collectors.

Just to the right of the "cubby" are all the bits and pieces of old jewelry I was talking about before.  I helped a friend clean out his mother's storage shed.  She had tons of jewelry and she was also an artist.  He was going to throw everything away.  New things like pastels and watercolor pencils, etc.  I was not yet into art, but I thought I might try playing with a few of these things one day.  Boy am I glad I saved all this "trash" as he called it.

The desk area where I never sit.  You can see my other heat tool.  No sense in having just one if I have two craft areas.  I actually use this quite often, mostly for encaustics and embossing.  Extra decorative ink pens are stored here, too.  I'm curious what month and year I took that photo based on the calendar page that's open.

A better look at my desk and gifted full spectrum OTT light.

One of the containers on the desk that holds junk I turn into jewelry brooches.  I truly love that saying, too.   It should be my mantra!

I have a friend who decided to make a quilt.  She bought all the required supplies and this roll around table and huge wonderful mat.  She paid for classes, but never finished the quilt because she told me the instructor didn't provide enough time for her to learn before going onto something else.  She said she and a few of the women in the class who had never done any sewing and piecing before were placed with experienced seamstresses who just wanted to make the quilt and paid for the class to get the pattern and knowledge of how to assemble the quilt blocks.  She was so discouraged, she gave me her cutting supplies, which included the table and mat.  I have no idea what she did with her completed quilt blocks, but knowing her, she probably paid someone to finish the quilt for her.

I, on the other hand, bought the portable ironing board for $3.00 (USD).  Not to iron, mind you, but to have a pad for stamping on fabric.  Of course, I could use it as an ironing board in a pinch.

I would be here all day explaining everything on these shelves.  They include candle making, soap making, wind chime repair parts, and assemblage fodder to name a few.

I also have my essential oils, a lot of picture frames, and a few decorative bottles stored there.

Along the east wall I have my gifted beads and more beads.  They brighten a dark corner with their various colors.  Also on that shelving unit are all my flower making, flower arranging, and flower drying equipment I purchased in the late 1980s.  They came with me when I moved here.

Over-the-door shoe hangers hold various tools, mostly for pounding and drilling.  This one also holds chalkboard pens and other pens, too.

This is possibly a better view of these shelves.  I keep moving the jars around every time I pull several jars off the shelves.

When the carpenter rebuilt my basement studio after the flood, I asked him to enclose the walk through that was between the closet and the load bearing beam.  Now I have useful space that holds shelving, where before I had a small walk through that hindered the reverse side of the wall, too.

 

I could spend all day talking about what is in each of the drawers in the black and clear plastic cart, or the very useful gifted fishing container, but I will save you the time.  Instead, think detritus.  Note everything stored in shoe boxes is labeled, though.

Again, much of what you see here, I was given or worked for.  I have spent very little cash outlay, although I have a lot of "stuff."  Things I purchased include my pasta maker for polyclay, my polyclay, my nippers, my glue gun, my soldering irons, my mouse sander, my old iron, my heat tool, my encaustics, my two heat pots, my gel plate, and my shelving that I accumulated over time.  Even the microwave was given to me when my dear friend Joseph moved to California.  You'll find I spend most of my money on tools, not supplies.

 

This is (or these are) my workshop.  I look forward to seeing your take on this prompt.   I spent four days getting this post together, and I could have written tons more.   Bleubeard remembers those pre-Squiggles days fondly when he could join me daily in the basement studio.    

 

Thank you beyond belief for stopping by.  I am truly grateful to you, my dear friends, followers, readers, and lurkers for visiting.  Please also join Bleubeard and me at Rain's Thursday Art Date with your own Workshop.

 

This is Day 4 of AEDM, where I showed photos of my main floor craft space and my basement studio.