JANE KOOPMAN ART AND JEWELRY

Messy Rest

ideas and observations about everyday wonders
from a girl who has never been able to keep her room clean
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1/31/2014

Organization Ideas for the Art Studio (and anywhere else, for that matter)

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So, January's nearly over, and my daunting art studio organization project is nearly done. Next week, I'll do the dramatic "reveal" of my new space, and in the mean time, I thought I'd share some of the tricks I've used to get there. I've gleaned many of the ideas from books and Pinterest, and some I even came up with all by myself.

Cutting Through the Clutter

art studio organization
This idea from Kathi Lipp's book The Get Yourself Organized Project helped me feel less overwhelmed as I approached the chaos in my art studio. Lipp suggests that, when you begin to clean up and organize a room, you have ready three boxes and two bags. In Box 1 you place anything lying around that needs to be put away within the room. In Box 2, you place the things that belong in other rooms of the house. Box 3 is for the things you want to give away. The two bags are for garbage and recycling.

In the photo, you can see my three boxes. Using this little system cleared the clutter so that I could focus on organizing my space. After all, what's the point of putting things away if you don't know where you're going to put them? The three boxes also kept me on task. Instead of getting side-tracked by putting things away in other parts of the house, I just put them in my "other rooms" box to deal with later.

Scrap Paper Organization

scrap paper organization
I have a lot of scrap paper, and keeping it organized has always raised my blood pressure. I never know where to put it, and more so, I don't know how to find the pieces I want to use when I need them. 

I came up with this idea, and I'll see how it works: I sorted all the scrap paper by colour, assigned each colour a binder, and organized the paper in each binder with page protectors. The page protectors help me organize the scraps into similar sizes and shapes - as you can see below - so that I can find exactly what I need when I'm working on cards and art. 

I adhered coloured stickers to each binder's spine so that I can easily pull the binder I need off the shelf when I want to use some paper or put it away. As you might have guessed, the white binder stores white and off-white papers. The binders are within easy reach of my art desk to accommodate my laziness.

scrap paper organization
scrap paper organization

Mmmm . . . Wine Boxes

wine boxes
Wine boxes are great for storage. They look nice, they have lids, they have handles, and they have compartments. And if you're lucky, they smell like wine.
wine box storage

Herding the Hoard of Ribbon Scraps

Like scrap paper, I have a lot of ribbon scraps. They have sat overflowing in a plastic container in a tangled mess that looks like a bowl of spaghetti. To start sorting this out, I untangled and unknotted the ribbon spaghetti, and sorted it into different types, like fabric, wired, gift-wrapping ribbon, string, etc. I had an empty small storage unit with fabric boxes and figured this would be great for keeping the ribbon organized. 

I wrapped long pieces of ribbon around toilet paper rolls, fastening them with tape. I had some sections of narrow cardboard tube (no idea where I got them), and they were perfect for wrapping short pieces of gift-wrapping ribbon. Short pieces of fabric ribbon got wrapped around clothespins, an idea snagged from Pinterest. 

It took a while to do all this, but now that it's done, I think it will be pretty simple to prevent ribbon spaghetti in the future.
ribbon organization
ribbon organization
ribbon storage
photo, craftstorageideas.com

Organization for Lazy People

I will be the first to admit that I am bad at putting things away. If something can't be put away quickly, I put it off. There. I said it.

So rather than fight it, I am arranging things in my studio to accommodate my laziness. One way of doing this is to employ what I will call the piggy bank tactic. When I'm sorting out my upcycled materials, I find it tedious to pull containers off shelves and open lids to put things away. I realize how ridiculous that sounds. Nevertheless, I thought I would make life easier for myself by cutting slots into the lids of containers so that I can just drop items into their proper places, like putting coins in a piggy bank.
I use postage stamps in my artwork, and I have a lot of them. I store most of them in ice cream containers organized by country or continent (clearly, I eat a lot of ice cream, and I'm not ashamed). With a slot cut into the lid of each container, I don't need to pull anything off the shelf when I put my stamps away. I just deposit each stamp into its designated container.
art studio organization
Similarly, I have a giant hoard of bottle caps that I use in art and jewelry. I keep the caps in a large flat box so I can easily pick through them when I work on a project. When I'm not using the caps, the container sits on a shelf under a stack of other containers, so it's a little tricky to get to. I cut a slot into the lid so I don't have to unearth that large container each time I put away bottle caps.
art studio organization
Over the next few months as I work away in my studio, these organization ideas will be put to the test. I have high hopes that they'll help me stay organized and make my work easier. 

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1/21/2014

A January Project: Organize my Art Studio

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art studio organization
I've been sort of dragging my feet into the new year because, throughout the closing months of 2013, I resolved to dedicate the month of January to getting myself organized. I'm not one for new year's resolutions (because I know I won't keep them), but January is the natural time to take stock of how last year went in my home and with my business, and determine what needs to get done in the months ahead. November and December were a flurry of activity, and I looked forward to January when I could take some time to assess. Now that January is here . . . I feel pretty sluggish about making plans and getting organized.

Besides business planning and attending to some household projects, I am trying to reorganize my art studio this January. Not that I didn't try, oh, maybe eight times already in 2013. Each time I went through a crazy busy few weeks, I got frustrated with the clutter and chaos that accumulated (see evidence above). This month, I'm determined to devote the time and energy to designing a creative space that will really work, that needs only minor adjustments in the year ahead. As I embark, it feels a little insurmountable.

See Jane Get Organized.

So, I've decided to document my haphazard journey through the headaches, blank stares, and exasperated sighs of sorting out a busy space so that others - especially other messy creatives like myself - might learn some things along with me.

I've thought a lot about what I need my art studio space to be. I've done a lot of research about storage ideas and room layouts (oh, how I love you, Pinterest), but when it comes down to it, the most clever or most beautiful ideas won't work if they don't suit my space and my work habits. So, I've come up with three qualities that my art studio must have: 
art studio
markers

1. Practicality

The things I use the most must be within easy reach (in close proximity to where I work, at a shelf height I can reach).

I need some empty spaces where unfinished projects or odds and ends can reside until I have time to put them away. Several organization blogs and books I've read say that you shouldn't have empty spaces where clutter can accumulate. Clearly, those authors are not as flawed as I am: my reality is not so orderly, so I'm going to accommodate my more casual working style. So there.

I have a lot of things to store in my studio: upcycled materials, tools, art supplies, books, shipping and packaging supplies, and jewelry making supplies, to name a few. I want to group them together according to their purpose so that it's easier for me to find things.

2. The Capability to Evolve

My work habits and projects change over time, so my storage and organization can't be so permanent that they can't be altered. That is to say, I don't think I'll ever have a studio with spiffy built-ins or wall-mounted shelves, a la HGTV. I opt for open shelves and an eclectic hoard of different sized containers that can accommodate my changing work.

3. Inspiration

art studio organization
I spend a lot of time in my studio, obviously, so it needs to be a space in which I want to spend time. It must be bright and comfortable, and most importantly, it must inspire my creative senses. For me, that means using quirky upcycled storage pieces, hanging other people's artwork on the walls, taking some time to add decorative flourishes to mundane storage items, and having an idea board where I can tack up random images/objects that tickle my fancy.

Starting at the End

It's hard to know where to start when I survey the mess of bits and pieces that call my studio home. So, I have tried to picture what I want the end result to be. My hours of Pinterest perusing have shown several possibilities that usually fall under two extremes.
The Magazine Art Studio Perfectly Staged for Creating . . . um . . . Conversation?
craft room
source: Pinterest
Seriously? White shag carpet? Imagine it in six months with paint globs, glue gobs and tiny pieces of paper all through it. Certainly, there is a place for everything, but as soon as the occupant of this idyllic aqua oasis takes anything out of a mason jar to do some work, they'll have nowhere to put it. Unless they wear a giant apron with big pockets. But that would be rather uncomfortable.
A Real Artist's Studio Where Chaos is its Own Form of Organization
Picture
source: littlemichaelbigworld
True, this is more representative of my sense of order, but I would cry if I had to work in here. This is the art studio of twentieth century Irish artist Francis Bacon. I get a little short of breath just looking at this photo. How did this guy find anything? Perhaps he knew what was in and under each heap of stuff. I often use my creative nature as an excuse for my messiness, but this is a little extreme even for me.
I'd like my studio to be something in between these two extremes. I can sort of see it, so I've started setting to work. I'll keep you posted . . . .

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