I have been feeling very dis-organised and overwhelmed in my studio over the last little while. Things have been disappearing under the piles and just generally around the place. My work was getting out of control - what I was doing and all the bits that belonged together were all getting spread thinly and sometimes quite thickly on all surfaces. It's funny how sometimes the words of others come back to me at the oddest times. Thinking about my studio and my seeming lack of organisation prompted me to think about my friend Julie Coffey, who by the way has also lately had a tidy up. I remembered about having project boxes or containers and labeling them and tidying everything away. Now most of my surfaces are clear and I can find work. My desk - woohoo. So much easier to work on and find things. And my sewing table. And my project bins. As I went down through the layers I found about six different projects, I decided four was enough at any one time so I have a couple of loose projects still lurking. Two paper concertina books I found. These are currently waiting for a vacant box. And a silk throw, made from pieces from old kimonos, waiting to be stitched in a plastic bag (next step a project box). And I was able to complete my piece of work for the Suffrage Project, a bit late but I was very pleased in the end. It was about my Mum who was a well known painter and print maker in Whangarei in the 60's and 70's. She also worked hard to support art in the community and was instrumental in organising Reyburn House as a local art center and gallery. I had a container to keep it all in and I could keep my other work out of the way. As I look around now it has all got a bit messy again but it shouldn't be too hard to restore some order and a finished project is exciting. I have found that I like to come out here in the morning with something waiting here for me to work on which is not really conducive to tidying each night.
How do you organise your work, with project containers of some sort or do you have one project on the go at a time? How do you keep your work space tidy? |
"I paint flowers so they do not die." Frida Kahlo
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