Studio Organization

The studio has been in a state of flux since the move-in, a year ago. I've been arranging and re-arranging for most of that time but never quite got it together. With company coming this week, I finally made some serious progress.

Here is a clockwise tour of the room.

The door to the room is to the left, opposite the window.  An old desk has been re-purposed as a worktable.  It is in a good position, near the window, and with a couple of adjustable lamps and the ceiling light, there is all the light I need. The room is carpeted, but the Roomba keeps it relatively tidy. 

Moving around the room in a clockwise direction, this is the view from the doorway. I have a stool stashed out of sight that I use when working on the house. This U-shaped works pace is user friendly. (The luggage rack is awaiting the arrival of my guest. It is not usually in the room.)

The house in progress, the Beacon Hill is sitting on a piece of corrugated cardboard. It slides easily on the table, so the house can be turned around with no fuss. Beneath the table are tubs holding bits and pieces of the BH -- stairs, roof sections, electrical components, etc., that are completed and ready for installation. One tub  holds landscape materials. The egg crate holds moldings and other strip wood. The table under the TV is actually a drafting table, but it is most useful as a flat surface holding a couple of kits. It is a place to put components to one side while glue dries. The tub below holds fabric.

The door leads to the closet. The 6" shelves above the table hold furnishings and accessories, mainly for the Beacon Hill. Below the table, along with a couple storage boxes,  is a lid from a cardboard banker's box that holds materials that can be moved to the desk when needed and tucked away when not needed. I've been mostly sanding and prepping components, so it holds emery boards, gesso, stain, brushes, Exacto knives, etc. The door to the room is immediately to the right of the shelves.

The closet is organized with plastic drawer units from Walmart. The space to the right is 48" wide and holds two units. The bit of pink plastic is part of the second unit. These are not totally useful. Heavier items, like paint, tend to cause the unit to sag, which makes the drawers stick. I'm considering removing the upper shelf and replacing the draw units with wire shelving. The drawers would be stored on the shelves, easy to get to their contents. A couple of the drawers hold bits and pieces of the Beacon Hill, things like windows, shutters, trim, etc., organized and labeled in plastic bags. One drawer holds the bits that were punched out of the sheets; the other holds the bits that have been sanded. 

Shelves and tubs in the garage hold power tools and a makeshift spray booth, a re-purposed large cardboard box. It is still a work in progress. I'd like to add pegboard above the worktable and perhaps get a proper wooden work bench with a vice, but for now the makeshift arrangement suffices. The only power tool in the studio is the pistol-grip Dremel.

Reorganized Workshop/Office & Museum

As some of you may know, my dear husband Lloyd passed away the beginning of February. I miss him. Looking through the rich body of work he left behind keeps him close and brings me comfort. I've been sorting through his art and art supplies and reorganizing the studio space we shared into one dedicated to my own interests, miniatures and genealogy. Thanks to the unwavering support of dear friend and fellow miniaturist NJ from Missouri, the new workspace is looking good. There's still a lot of sorting and sifting going on behind the scenes, but there is a lovely clean space to get the jobs done.

Two miniatures moved from our storage unit to the studio, so all of my houses are currently under one roof. Marie Laveau's Cottage, the Halloween House and the Christmas House are in other rooms one each in the living room, dining room and bedroom, with the remainder in the studio. (Click on the photos to see a larger version.)

This is the view into the studio from the hallway that leads to the rest of the condo. I love being able to see the Hemmerling print of the baptism from a distance.

The houseboat sits on a table with storage beneath. The houseboat came over from the storage unit. I was pleased to see that after its move from Missouri and a year in storage, the lights went on at the first click of the switch. I like that it is possible to see both sides of the boat, since it was bashed from a 1:12 kit to a 1:24 boat and has rooms opening on both sides. The orchids are perched on the end of the file cabinet in the south-facing window. From my desk chair, I can easily see out of the windows on either side and also out to the "back forty."

The next photo shows the view out the back door, where Lloyd enjoyed growing plants on the little patio space that he dubbed the "back forty" -- forty square feet, that is, not forty acres.  The Beacon Hill is close to the worktable. The skirt on its table hides dollhouse supplies. The quilt shop is beside it. The boxes by the door are on their way to the dumpster; they didn't get the clean-up-for-picture-time message. 

The corner opposite the desk holds the TV and bookshelves. They are the cheap chipboard shelf units that I sprayed dark brown. Cloth "drawers" hold office supplies and other items. To the right is a TV table on a dolly with rollers that supports the pottery shop. To its right is the beginnings of the Greenleaf Pierce/Bohemian Inn that came over from storage. Almost hidden in the bright blur by the window is Lloyd's most recent papiér maché sculpture, one of the Yoruba gods. The ceramic panel mounted on wood that is leaning under the pottery shop is a memorial made by one of Lloyd's former students and signed by several of them. They presented it to me recently. It will hang as soon as I get a sturdy wire attached; it is heavy!

In this long view of the room you can see the mix of artwork on the wall -- some of Lloyd's, some of mine, and a few other artists. The Pierce/Bohemian Inn is also handy to the worktable.

The worktable has a couple of lights, along with a couple of small roller carts that hold often used items. 

Then there is the adjacent storeroom, where most of the behind-the-scenes, yet-to-be-tackled challenges lie. Lloyd was never happier than when "organizing" his notebooks. Each one needs to be vetted for important papers, artwork, photos, and who knows what else. One day at a time, I'm telling myself. 

The new shelf unit below the notebooks holds a dozen tool boxes in addition to my own. They are labeled, but after opening a few, I realized that the label doesn't necessarily identify the contents. More one day at a time activity here. The boxes within the orange box hold more papers and photos, all of which needs to be handled one piece at a time. 

Across from the notebook shelves are some rolling arts and more boxes on shelves. The black bag hold empty boxes, primarily candy boxes, that Lloyd saved because "they are a good size for storing stuff." To tell the truth, I've been mining the bags as I reorganize, but I do believe most of those left will be heading for the dumpster.

The wall between the notebooks and the roll-arounds has some build-in shelves that hold miscellaneous items as well as a set of books that I published years ago, when I organized and ran Rockbridge Publishing Company as a desktop book publisher. The seasonal front door wreaths are also stored here. 

Now that the studio is reorganized, I'm looking forward to getting back to work on minis. The residents of the Beacon Hill and Pierce are all clamoring for attention!