Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A Clean-ish Start

My studio will never be one of those beautiful, highly organized places that appear in magazines, but at least I have some clean surfaces for the moment. I tend to start my year with a big clean-up, but as soon as I start working, there will be piles again.

I am lucky to have a good-sized studio space. One half of the room is devoted to fabric.

The other half has my painting area. And my faithful bulldog, Jack.

I have a nice design wall behind my sewing machine, but I tend to accumulate notes and snippets of ideas there rather than design on it.

Because obviously my inspiration wall isn't enough.

I keep most of my fabric in these cabinets.

I always admire open shelves of fabric with neatly organized stacks of color. But the reality is my fabric looks like this once I've been working, and the closed doors are the only thing that keeps it looking neat.


I clear the surfaces between projects and as long as I have space to work, I'm happy.

I just signed up for a free online workshop with Traci Bautista. I've taken her classes in person, and she's always fun and playful. If you're interested, you can check it out here.

7 comments:

Jacky said...

That's a great start Robin, your studio looks a great work space...I can hardly squeeze into my art room at the moment. A lot of organization required in there.
Have fun in your online class with Traci.

Jacky xox

lynne h said...

beautiful new year to you, robin... i'll be smiling if you do show up in the blog world more often. : )

xoxo

Cotton Picker said...

The fabric stash inside your cabinet made me chuckle. It looks so familiar. You know, it's impossible to organize fabrics. Those pictures in magazines are fake, I'm sure. :)

Lynne with an e said...

Thanks for this peek into your studio. I always think that if a studio is too neat and tidy, there's not much creativity going on in there, usually when one is between projects. I'm like you,in preferring to clear the decks between mad bouts of creativity.

I am sorry for your loss of your beloved father. It's so good that he supplied you with the inspiration and strength (work ethic) to carry on through this difficult time with new projects and goals.

I wish you a creative 2012 full of artful discoveries.

Jan said...

The studio looks great. I don't know how anyone can have a clean studio if they are actually using it. Good luck with the class, I will look into it.

Anonymous said...

This is a fantastic studio - good size. Like all of us it starts tidy and then creativity kicks in and ...........

Robin Olsen said...

I guess I'm not alone in being suspicious of those perfectly tidy studios! :)