There's a fine line between creativity and clutter -- and I walk it every day. Sometimes I'm on the creativity side, sometimes I'm on the clutter side -- mostly I straddle them both.
Since I've recently had the excellent talents of my technical designer brother Jeremy at my disposal (he's since taken a full-time job in addition to his growing business and abandoned me, but that's another story), I took full advantage. I waved my arms around to explain my ideas of creating systems that would support my work, and he interpreted those dreams into realities of wood, hardware, and paint! (I'm so grateful to have his shaman-like ability tempering my creative visions with his engineering-ness -- and encouraging me in the process. I LOVE this guy to pieces!)
You saw the Wall-o-Jars that I posted a few blogs back. Well, here are two more ideas that have already boosted my ratio of creativity to wallowing-in-stuff-I-can't-get-to:
Precious Finds at a Glance: A set of shallow and narrow shelves that hold all my one-of-a-kind found bijoux. Since I work my found objects in jewelry sizes (smaller goodies than my assemblage buddies), I could afford to gather them in one area where I could see the whole collection at a glance. The shelves' placement in my studio also serves to engage my moodling mind with future projects each time I walk by.
(Here's a close-up: noisemakers, vintage buttons, toy wheels, pipe-cleaner chicks and Eight Balls galore.)
On-Deck Works: I enjoy playing with a number of projects simultaneously. I group components for budding jewelry pieces in these black trays where they audition (this is my friend and studio assistant Becky's term). They remain there until they "get the part" to work on a portion of them at a time. Some never make the cut and their components go back on the narrow shelves or into beading inventory.
Note how the trays slope down from the wall (like the magazine racks at your local library), so that they, too, are in prime moodling position!
