A while back Handwoven did a theme about studio spaces. I declined to participate because I didn’t want the world to see what a cramped messy place my studio is in reality.
back view of work table as of 3 pm today – green tubes to be wound onto pirns, plum tubes to be wound into a placemat warp. Box with bobbins and misc. junque, pile of bobbins, bags with yarn samples for Big Project, cloth samples waiting to be cut up draped over back – bins in background are in foreground of next photo…
pirn winder in background, neatly barricaded behind stack of bins with samples for Big Project, box of yarn peeking out from behind chair with misc clutter in and on bin and yarn awaiting a project draped over chair back
some of the bins of surplus samples left over from Magic in the Water. I’ve offered a box full to the Seattle Weavers Guild to be sold in benefit of their library. I need Doug’s help to pack the samples into the box. The rest of the samples will be – finally – disposed of, freeing up those bins for the rest of the samples for the Big Project (and other storage) – there are two more bins with samples still upstairs that need to be carried down
electric stapler and two boxes of card stock to staple samples onto – table to the right is still covered with misc. clutter – it will be cleared off and used during stapling
stack of yarns, bobbin lace materials and on the shelf and on the very bottom of the pile – more shawls needing to be fringe twisted with a box of misc. yarns that need to be either used up or recycled in some way…
I don’t encourage customers to come to the studio and those that do are warned that it is a working studio and is always in a state of creative chaos. These photos don’t even show all of it. There is also the warping board set up to wind the 2nd half of a towel warp, the plastic bin with the first half already wound, the Woolhouse loom with the bookmark warp Mizz B set up on it two years ago and that hasn’t been touched since, various counters with more clutter on them.
Part of the reason for all the untidyness is that I do so many different things, have a stash that cannot be contained in the store room, which is also in a mess. I need yarn and stuff for production, more yarn and stuff for publications (like the Big Project), yarn and even more stuff for teaching. The office is similarly full of clutter and creative chaos. Part of the reason for that is I am loathe to throw anything away because I just know the day after it gets tossed I’ll need it.
Fortunately Doug is as much of a packrat as I am. Or perhaps I ought to say ‘unfortunately’! Mostly he keeps his stuff contained in the laundry/storage area and the garage (which has never in it’s life seen a car – he moved his tools and woodworking stuff in and his clutter and mess has expanded to fill it, entirely.)
I’m not sure what will happen to all this ‘stuff’ as we get older. In the meantime I’ll continue to live with the Mess Fairies, the Clutter Elves and the Lord (and Lady) of Creative Chaos.
Currently reading The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin – I set Peter Robinson’s aside until I get home from my trip – too many library books to read before I leave. 🙂