Studio Tour: Up close, personal, and un-edited.

I'm a lucky girl: I finally have a room of my own, and it's even heated.  The house we bought in Milwaukee is a duplex that we use as a single family home.  My studio is the upstairs kitchen, which means it's got oodles of cabinets, a double sink, and lots of space.

 My workbench is nestled in the nook where the stove should go.  Love the task lighting!

 Lots of Dictionary Sacrifice earrings on the bench block today.  (I finally got wise and schlepped a concrete block upstairs to use under the bench block.  Before that, I was doing all my metal stamping on the concrete floor of the basement.)

Beads hang out on the bench with me-made findings.

A repurposed  rake provides storage for strands of beads and wire spools.

 This is pretty much the way it always looks.  There's never just one project going at a time...


Between craft fairs, I keep everything set up in my "showroom."  Makes it easier to find items when they sell, and also gives me the opportunity to switch things up if need be.

 This is where the heavy drilling and cutting happens.  Right now, I'm trying to put together some storage for my metal stamps.  Naturally, I can't find the right size drill bit...which means it's time to hit my neighborhood hardware store.  The blow dryer is handy for drying off findings after they've been tumbled.

 Here's my trusty $3 paper cutter.  Bought it from friends at a yard sale years ago, and have probably used it more than any other piece of equipment I own.  More than my money's worth...

 I have a (ridiculous) collection of tool boxes and jewelry boxes, which hold everything I need until I need it.  Or until I forget about it...

 The south wall is where all of the cabinets live.  Original to the house. Awesome, no?

 The kids like to hang out with me, so they have their own work table smack in the middle of the room.

 Reclaimed heat register---sprayed silver, and used for storage.

There you have it---my little haven o'craft, Milwaukee-style.  Where do you get crafty?

Her Creative Space

I have a work area set up for the kiddos in my studio, mostly to keep us all from losing it.  But last week, while I was getting ready for show #2, I put a couple of displays on their work table.  So Shani was left to her own devices when it came to finding a place to work.  Luckily, she's a resourceful little thing.

My Creative Space: All Work and No Play.

Busy as a little bee getting these goodies into the shop!

Need a name for these.  Anyone?

My Creative Space: Sniff.

The germies have won this war.  Whatever little virus my kidlets have been passing around has hit the mama, and she's fallen, hard.  My throat is raw, my ears are itchy, and I have a hacking cough that makes me sound like an 80 year old man.  Jealous?  And in spite of it all, I'm plugging away, trying to get the shop back on track.  "All very nice," you say?  "Show us the craft," you implore?

So here it is.

I'm planning to do my first craft show next Sunday, and I needed to come up with a quick and cheap way to display my jewelry.   So I raided the garage and came up with a trio of collage frames that lost their glass in the move, and sprayed them with my old standby, Dark Walnut.  Then I cut foamcore to fit the frames and covered it with a piece of coffee sack I had left over from another project.  I stapled the burlapped  boards in place, and started playing around with display setups.    (Don't worry---this is just a portion of what I've got to sell.  There will be a rash of impromptu display-making throughout the week, I'm sure. 

See?  I just used some shiny little sewing pins to hold them in place---nice and flexible for ADD Girl's constantly changing idea-go-round.

More spaces here.

My Creative Space: still unpacking

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The side of our house gets a nice batch of empty boxes each day, as I slowly sift through the stuff we've yet to unpack.  Most of the boxes that remain underground are labeled "Art" or "Kids' Books,"  and I'm attempting to purge both collections as I bring them into the light of day. 

Not an easy task, mind you, considering the years I've spent amassing each, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that I can't hang on to everything.  So, yeah, if you're looking for a Boxcar Children book, I'm your man.  Also if you have need of a bunch of presser feet, a large, laminated Ben Franklin, or an assortment of bulldog clips.  Because we arty folks never know when something might come in useful, isn't that right?

For more creative (and less cluttered) spaces...

My Creative Space: Before and After

When we moved into our house in Rochester, a pair of these nifty little night tables were part of the package.

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They proved useful, if not comely.  

Since it's been unseasonably warm this week, I decided to bite the bullet and make them less hideous.  (Yes, there was spray paint involved.  What, did you think I was actually going to use paint stripper and other scary stuff like that to refinish something?  Really?)

We started with the traditional nightstand-in-the-kiddie-pool-cum-paint-dropcloth scenario, as usual.  (Seriously, BEST dropcloth ever.)

A couple of coats of primer and things were looking good.  (Well, better, anyway.)

But here's the real improvement:

Even The Huz, who is violently opposed to the painting of wood, voiced his approval.

~If anyone's wondering, I used Rust-Oleum's Dark Walnut and Stainless Steel.~

My Creative Space: Hoppin'!

Lots and lots of busy-ness this week's space.  In addition to the new goodies I've listed in the shop, there's been some serious of penny-punching going on.

There's been a significant amount of camp-prep taking place, too...some shopping, some sorting, and a whole lot of packing.  If you've never had the chance to cram seven people and a summer's-worth of their assorted belongings into an 8 passenger van for a 15 hour drive, I strongly encourage you to do just that.  I can assure you, you'll emerge from the experience both stronger and wiser.  (And exhibiting multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, no doubt.)

We've been privy to some gorgeous spring weather (finally!) and a smattering of May flowers.

(photo by Moshe Yosef)

More creative spaces here.

My Creative Space: Whoa.

Something bizarre happened today.  I made myself a present, something expressly intended NOT to be put in the shop.  Then I blogged about it.  And lots and lots of people asked me to make them one.  Which is surprising.  And flattering.  And,really, kind of wonderful.  Isn't it?

My Creative Space: Minimal!

There's been a lot less crafting time around here this week, as we're cleaning and preparing for Passover with a vengeance.  Luckily, the weather has been cooperative, so we were able to tackle the cars with the help of my munchkins.

 

I have been able to sneak a little jewelry-making in after the bulk of the housework has been done, though.  Lots of custom orders for Dictionary Sacrifice earrings coming in, and my first two orders from complete strangers! 

Don't forget to put your name in the hat for my giveaway...the drawing will be on the 21st

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My Creative Space: Roadtrippin'

The Huz, the Munchkin and I set out this morning for some serious Pesach shopping in Chicago---a prospect that filled each and every chamber of my heart with glee.  First and foremost, I was guaranteed 90 minutes of travel time in each direction, which translated into three hours spent making findings and components without stopping to wash dishes, flip the laundry, answer the phone, or help a certain small person with her "paperwork." 

Furthermore, Chicago has a kosher Dunkin' Donuts.

And a kosher Subway.

And a Chinese take-out joint, among others.

 We availed ourselves, astonishingly, of all three.
  
The actual shopping part of our day was close to painless, though it did involve three shopping carts and an appalling amount of back and forth on the merits of frozen fish vs. fresh.  And a really patient cashier, and a remarkably tenacious young man who helped load all of those groceries into my van, which seemed suddenly smaller once confronted by the bevy of bags we hoped to pack inside.


Anyhoo, the creative bit of this journey happened on the way home---sleeping baby, NPR droning ceaselessly in the background---and suddenly a design I've been working on just clicked.  I am completely and utterly spatially challenged, and things that are glaringly obvious to most folks tend to come a little slower to me.  So I'm sitting there, wire-doodling, and all of a sudden, boom.  Big lightbulb moment.  It'll be in the shop tomorrow...

Speaking of the shop, when I got home and put the multitude of groceries away, I checked my Etsy.  Wonder of wonders, my Magic Onion earrings had been featured in a treasury!  Much happiness ensued.

More stationary (and less gluttonous) creative spaces here.

My Creative Space: Etsy!

It's done.  For all of you who've been listening to me whine and moan about the rigors of Etsy-shop-creation, here is the fruit of our labor!  My teeny little shop, always greener, opened its virtual doors very quietly last week, and made its first sale while its keyboard-ravaged proprietress slumbered last night.  (Thanks, Nic!)

I hope your creative space has been as exhilarating as mine has this week...

(And on a more humble note, check out my gap-toothed daughter!)