I’ve been taking advantage of the easter holiday to work on my studio area. I’ve been struggling a bit lately with nightmares and rashes and whatnot and I’ve figured out that one of the problems is that my studio area has been totally neglected lately and has become a dumping ground for boxes that I’ve moved out of the rest of the house. By Thursday last week I was losing it a bit so I decided to have a holiday at home this long weekend and I’ve ignored all my email and not picked up the phone for the duration. It has been good to have some uninterrupted time to focus! There’s always an awkward transition period for me in the immediate aftermath of being incredibly busy when suddenly I don’t have all these huge projects occupying my brain and everything I’ve been ignoring wells up and threatens to capsize me. Busy suits me a lot, my brain is like a big dog that needs a lot of exercise else it gets bored and restless and starts chewing on the furniture and digging under the house.So, in my usual obsessive way, I’ve been face painting (more pictures later), thinking, writing, crying, and sorting out the house. Occasionally I remember to eat. My sleep patterns have reverted to my ‘normal’ which is waking hours between noon to 3am. That’s going to hurt when Tafe starts up again. But, it’s been needed! Here is what my studio looked like a couple of days ago:

I wanted to sort things out properly, not just rearrange them out the way so I still wouldn’t be able to find anything. I like to box up different supplies and tools in shoe boxes and tins. This keeps everything related together, helps to stop me losing small items, and makes it easy to stack, locate, and lift the boxes. It does however take a lot longer when you’re still setting up. Today I got in my second shelf which is great and will get a lot of gear off the floor:

I’m using the built-in wardrobe are to stash more supplies, particularly those that are sensitive to light exposure such as rubber stamps and paint:

Labels!

Paints!

I sorted and hung clothes until I ran out of coathangers. How does one lose coathangers when moving? I am mystified.

I’ve also got in a cabinet for the dining room area. This gets all my linen off the floor and will look a bit better once I’ve put all the doors back on it. 🙂

So the upshot of all this is that I’ve found all my brushes, my fabric paints, and I’ve washed and dried two new pairs of shoes that have been ordered to be painted, ready to go. I can now walk into my studio without falling over which is pretty awesome and I’m looking forward to getting down to making some more art. Happy. 🙂