Spring in the mountains of Western North Carolina can be a busy time of year. The countryside is coming to life with flowers, new lambs and gardens begging to be created. Keeping up with it all can be a daunting task, but we are moving steadily along. Evening hours are dedicated to making the Craft Space more tidy and with greater accessibility to supplies. We are almost there!
Watercolor and oil paints are also on this rack along with giftwrap, tags, bags and papers as well as sewing supplies located on the lower shelves.
The next rack has beading supplies mostly but also some items that rather form a transition to the rack that is along the side of the next wall. This space is dedicated to tatting on the upper shelves and paper crafting on the lower shelves The large carrying case with the pink top has more beading items including findings that merge tatting with jewelry making.
Across the room is this:
The lateral file holds my tatting books and reference materials. The desk over it has a tempered glass top which eliminates any need for a glass mat for applying inks when I am paper crafting and the cutting mat has a grid that allows me to make measurements as needed for determining sizes when considering smaller paper and mixed media items. Most of my brushes, markers, pens and pencils as well as pallet knives are also in this area.
One thing I learned about the internet, especially in the early days, was that nothing there was sacred. If you found it, (IT being patterns, tips, techniques and so on) it was best to print it out and store it somewhere because websites come and websites go and at any time, what you just found might never be accessible again. The notebooks on the shelves over the desk hold the items that I have found over the years. Some of them are duplicated, but as Granny once said: "Better to have and not need than to need and not have."
To the left in this photo you can see the screen for our server on which I have stored many of the videos and other information from our business. Here too are all the electronics for our household such as internet modem, wi-fi router and central printer. These are not specific to the crafting, but in today's world, the internet makes almost everything possible.
In the coming months, I am going to be giving presentations on several crafts including tatting. Area weavers have asked if I would give a demonstration and teach them the basics of tatting. For that I have set up my video station in this area as wel so I can create a visual to help them stay on task with the technique if I cannot give one-on-one instruction during the session. Currently the video set-up looks like this photo:
The table is on casters for ease of movement and the camera is above the space ready to tape the moves that demonstrate the chosen technique, not just for tatting, but for any medium. Under the table is an asortment of shoeboxes that contain adhesives, punches and embossing powders that remain accessible when I need them primarily for papercrafting. When the camera is not attached to the table, I can move the table into the center of the room and add a tabletop overlay for cutting fabric. This allows for dress-makeing, quilting or painting of larger objects. (Yes, all of these things are in the works!) Off to the right is a rack that holds papers and cardstock as well as my sewing machine, notions box and a few items for floral work. Of course the broom is for tidying up after the day is done.
This is the result of more than 25 years of dedicated crafting. While the organization has been coming together, the crafting has gone on. You do not see a "comfortable chair" in here. No, crafting can be dirty work that for me, at least, is often best accomplished standing up or sitting on a stool like the one in the photo above. There is, however more to come about that "comfortable chair."
