Redesigning a Studio Space

I’ve never had a dedicated studio space. That’s not to say I haven’t had a lot of studio space. I do. It’s just that it’s in every room in the house, a hall, a half a basement, parts of one bedroom; including one full closet. I’m sure that everyone spreads out when they work. But I clearly have not utilized my space well. If the majority of my hand tools are upstairs but I have to run down to the basement to use the foredom, then what good is that? Oh sure, it's good exercise but that's what I need, not want. Especially when I'm running down to drill one hole so I can come back up and rivet something. It doesn’t make any sense.

I’m redesigning the spaces and we will see how it goes. I need more space and better organized space. The first thing that needs to be done is switching out bins of beads to larger sizes. I have stashes that need purging into these bins. Mostly I sort out beads by color. When I'm looking for an accessory bead to match some concept it's nice to be able to go straight to a possible color combination. The original bins are overflowing and the entire system was tilting and ready to fall down.

So, today – We emptied one set of small bins of beads into larger ones – cleaned off “monster steel desk” – and dusted until I was sneezing. A desk top – Whoo Hoo. It’s been years since I’ve seen it empty. This is where I am starting, with a blank slate. As I add in the items that need to be there, so I can work more efficiently, I’ll take another photo for everyone to see. The first thing I needed was a place to throw my pliers. Admittedly I'm a tool addict - look at those pliers. They're not even all on there yet! I've always used something like this. Either in the form of a towel rack or board. It's a lot easier to grab what you need when you can see the tips of the pliers. It also makes for easy clean-up.

It's all beginning to come together. It will take a while because the studio items are spread so equally about the house. About the only place you won't find a tool is in the bedroom and bathroom. If you have some hints about ways to make this more efficient please email me. I will gladly take any suggestions. Off to fill up that table and sort out some of that pile I moved to the floor. Do you like the old sherbet container with the UFO's (unfinished objects) marked "finish me"? Maybe those can go into the closet!