There is a magazine out on the stands now called Studios put out by “Cloth, Paper, Scissors”. It shows spacious lofts, innovative storage, and ample spaces, where there’s a place for everything. My studio will never appear in that magazine, unless they have a spread at some point on the world’s messiest sites for creativity. The space that I’ve carved out for myself is a spare bedroom, chock-a-block with all of my treasures. (Chock-a-block is a cool term from sailing days when the two blocks in a pulley system had been pulled so closely together, that there wasn’t any room between the two wheels.) I feel that the space is just cozy, but some people walk in and their eyes glaze over from all of my “stuff”.
The pinning board that you see in the above photo came from an idea that I got in taking a workshop with Nancy Crow very early on in my quilting experiences. She had us bring a piece of fiberboard to the class, which gave us a surface into which to easily pin our fabric. Her take was to view the work vertically as it was going to hang on the wall, and I still use that same board, over 30 years later. The yellow piece in progress that you see in the middle is about 25″W x 28″T (64cm W x 71cm T), which is about the limits of the size that I can work on and not have to put the work in a frame for the quilting process. That makes for a very portable size for traveling. However, if someone commissions a larger piece, then the accoutrements (read “treasures”) that have been slowly crawling in from the sides of the boards need to come down.
As I sit and type out this posting, I look out into the woods behind my suburban home. Spring is coming and the snowdrops are up, which soon will be followed by a “host of golden daffodils”. A few weeks ago, there were two male red foxes fighting over breeding rights for a young female , who was standing off to the side. She seemed to have gotten the worst of the encounter, however, as I saw her limping off later. Quite a bit of drama plays out also when the golden eagle perches for lunch out there, all in my suburban back yard here in Maryland, USA. I love having that window to watch what’s going on as the seasons change.
As I look to my right, you can see some of the shelves that house my buttons, beads, and fabric. Each shelf is color coded, so there’s the red shelf, the yellow/gold shelf, the green shelf, and the purple shelf among others. It is not without some degree of certainty that on the home page of my web site , I declare myself to be the “Self-proclaimed Button and Bead Queen of Maryland”. I know that after lookng at this photo, you’d at least allow that I’m in the running. Besides, when you give yourself the title, no one can take it away!
To shoot the photos for these blogs, I’ve set up an arrangement downstairs. The silver backing is a sheet of MRX therma insulation from a home improvement store. It’s light weight, I can pin quilts into it, and for $25 US can be replaced when it gets too filled with holes. The side lighting is supplied by two banks of four tube fluorescent lights intended for a garage or warehouse. They’re fastened to two upright 4x4s that have been shoved into metal post holders and then bolted onto a flat sheet of wood to hold them upright. Since I have my camera set on the RAW setting, I can tweak for color correction before I send the photos over to Photoshop for final editing. It’s a pretty low cost way of lighting. but I now need to take it down to store away for awhile, as company is coming. I hope that the 8′ x 4′ ( 2.45m x 1.2m) sheet of insulation will fit underneath a bed somewhere. (However, it didn’t, so it ended up on top of an extra refrigerator in the laundry room.)
On the left is where the majority of the work happens, in the chair in front of the TV where I do most of the beading and quilting. There’s a small folding TV tray where I clamp the quilt onto its surface so I have something to pull against as I sew. The box to the left in this photo is covered with little condiment cups whose lids usually seal the beads from spilling. However, sometimes they reach a critical mass and tumble to the floor, so I’ve made it a habit to listen for the snap to insure that the contents are secure. Out of sight, on the right of the chair is a sofa, filled with plastic shoe boxes of possible additions for embellishment. As I’ve said in previous posts, I have way more choices that I’ve chosen for consideration for additions than I have surface area on the quilt, so periodically, I pare down what’s on the sofa and take it back upstairs and store things away on the proper colored shelf. Underneath me is a carpet that is periodically vacuumed of the size 10 seed beads and thread snips that fall. However, I know that pounds of the stuff has worked its way down to the level of the carpet backing. Perhaps some future archaeologist will ponder over why 21st century people decorated the backings of their carpets, where nobody could see the embellishments. Also, they may note, how random were the additions and what did that mean?
As you can see, my passion for buttons, beads, and making art quilts spills all over the house. Fortunately, my two cats don’t seem to take much interest in the materials, except for the occasional forage into the trash can by my sewing chair. It seems one cat really likes the sound of the crunchy plastic wrapping that many of the beads come in, so he periodically dumps the basket over and I believe, rolls in the contents in the middle of the night. I guess that each of us derives our sensual pleasures where we can, so how can I deny him his fun?
How do you carve out your creative space? Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this piece. Please take a minute, fill it out the form, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!
You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com
To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.
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