Okay...as promised, here is the clean studio! Products left from the Christmas rush reside on this shelving system. Clients will come to my house, come up to the studio and shop right from the shelves. Many times they will become inspired by something to which I allow them to paw through my buttons and beads selecting desired colors and such. I will then make their piece for them right before their eyes. I have one particular client that does this on a regular basis. Just before Christmas, she came over announcing that it was her daughter's birthday that day and needed something special for the day. I promise you, she left happy with her daughter's birthday present!
This is where most the bead work and sewing gets done. I have the treadle machine stand to the left (the original head is in the basement) and put my regular sewing machine away when it is not in use. When I am not sewing, it usually serves as a laptop stand for my music files to fill the studio! The desk is an old computer table, but the sliding component under the top where you would normally put your keyboard makes a perfect beading board. If I'm not finished with a project, I simply slide it away and fear not for anything getting messed or damaged! My bead stash is stored to the left on the wall and in sliding drawers on the table top.
And, of course, the tools, more beads and misc. stuff. The basket is buttons that have to be sorted and put away.
Now, for the button area. The dresser stores my personal button collection. This is the collection that gives me pleasure and would rather die than use them for work! I'll do a post about this later. On top of the dresser is jars and jars of work buttons. These are mainly plastics sorted by color, wood, shell, celluloid, Bakelite, vegetable ivory, and fabrics. My rhinestones are stored in a small wood box on the floor to the right of the dresser.
Closer view of my jars. I love them because they remind me of an old-time store with jars filled to the top with candy!
To the left of the dresser, you will notice a grey metal box. This is an old, old button sales box I picked up at a button auction years ago. The box is full of buttons to use for work including glass, black glass, ceramics, metal, horn, rubber, shell, wood; all sorted by size. The above picture shows the size of the drawers when they are pulled out. It took me literally forever to sort all these buttons as you can imagine!
one of the drawers...
another drawer...
Now, for the closet. In the closet, I store my fabrics, embellishments, jewelry wire, batting, trims....tons of stuff.
This closet is completely jam packed. To hid it when company needs the bed, I made a curtain from light blue vintage print calico fabric in which I have tied back right now.
And, of course, the dresser is filled with my fabric stash! I receive lots of comments about how much stuff I have. Please understand that this is the culmination of years of collecting this stuff (garage sales, estate sales, button auctions, mom's stash reductions and the many trips to Joann Fabrics or Hobby Lobby!) All of this used to reside in boxes in the basement until I finally got to the point in my business where I needed an actual working space to keep this stuff from infiltrating the rest of the house. I can't think of a more fun addiction than to crafting stuff!
And, of course, we can't forget the infamous bed! I made the headboard out of plywood cut in an art-deco design (the pillows kind of hide it). I lined it with super thick synthetic batting and covered it with a sage green suede cloth that is pulled tight and stapled to the back. I made the quilt out of an old vintage quilt top my mother picked up at an antique shop. I used a light blue backing and wool batting, then hand-quilted around all the Dresden plates, hand-quilted a rope pattern on the blue strips and tied a bunch of french knots in yellow embroidery floss on the crosses in the middle of the Dresden plates. As for the throw pillows, I took some of the left over sage suede cloth, cut them into large circles and appliqued old doilies on top of each other on the top of the pillow. Sew them together, fill with polyfill and Bang! Coordinating throw pillows!
Well, if you have lasted this long in this post, I commend you! I apologize for the length, but it is so picture-heavy!
So now, get in your studio, take some pics and write a post about it! I would love to see your studio, too! Show me where you indulge in your creative splendour!
