Changes and Refinement to the Craft Space

 Since our move into the new house, my craft space has evolved from a small outbuilding (hence the "Art Barn" designation) into a larger and better equipped basement room inside the house itself.  It remains "The Art Barn" but is better in every way!  Shelving is larger and more accessable, there is consistent heat and since it is in a sub-terrainian basement, during the hotest weather last summer, the room temperature was never above 72 degrees.  So far humidity has not been a problem.

With a speaking engagement with a local weavers guild coming up in May, I was in need of a desk mount camera stand that could handle video taping from overhead.  It has taken a while to find one (Good ol' Amazon!) and the unit arrived today.  It's not super complicated and since I don't expect to be live-streaming anything and have good edit software at my disposal, I can cut in shots, title slides or audio with explanations as necessary.  The stand can handle my Sony HDR-CX240 with ease.  First run of taping will come over the weekend.   This little device is full HD, lightweight and easy to use.  Like many similar camcorders, the microphone is the weak link in the overall function , but this camera was built for this sort of use.

Now that the tables and shelves are together and in the room, having the ability to tape instructions and demonstrations is exciting!

Move in Getting Closer

 I am growing more excited by the day!

Our new home is finished to the point that we are beginning to move in belongings!  I am beginning to sense that my new Art Barn - now a room in the basement - will soon be ready to hold my art and crafting suppies and provide me with the space I need for my creative endeavors!  

This photo was taken while we were still under construction, but it's clear that the structure is and Arts-and-Crafts style cottage that, like the Tardis of Dr. Who fame, is bigger on the inside!  Can't wait!

Here's how it looks at the moment:

The green item behind the stool is a drafting table that is folded down to conserve space.  The words of Mark Knoffler's song "Prairie Wedding" from the Sailing to Philadelphia album / CD (2001): "I know it ain't much, it needs a woman's touch" pretty much say it all!

 Most recently, my Art Barn has reminded me more of an Animal Barn!  When we first arrived, our son had 12 ewes, 2 withers and a ram.  Our camper was set up within sight of his sheep barn and by late into the fall, the ewes began having their babies.  The first was born on my birthday and was dubbed "Early Girl" because it was the earliest that this particular herd had ever had a first-born lamb.

Since then, a total of 17 lambs have been born.  Most of them were single births and likewise most of them were females.  There have been lots of opportunities to photograph them along with their mothers.  I have been able to take the time to create watercolor versions of them basing what I have done on tutorials by other, more accomplished water color artists.  Nuturally the first one is not as good as I would have liked:

 Oh there are all sorts of reasons (it wasn't loose enough; the proportions were off and so on) but it was part of a learniing process.  The next ones were a bit better:

       

Each of these was created more loosly with less attention to trying to make the resultiing images exact.  However, the tutorials I followed were of fleece sheep and our breeds are either full meat sheep (yes, there is a difference although fleece sheep are used for meat especially if the offspring is a male) or crosses between fleece breeds and meat varities.  So I must keep trying and see what I can come up with over the next attempts.

Meanwhile, it is looking like our house is about ready to be moved into, so watercolor, tatting and blogging may have to wait until I get that process finished.  Hopefully that won't take too long, but I know it will be a process.  Catch up with you soor!

Transitions

 After spending a goodly amount of time renovating the Art Barn to make it more weather-proof and comfortable, we find that we are moving.  The process has begun:  we have our site selected, the land has been tested for septic and water systems and we have our building permit.  We have been packing like crazy and that also means purging unwanted items from EVERYWHERE!  

One of the first things I came to realize was that many of my acrylic paints were only about 1/2 used and truly were not my primary media.  Paper crafting was accomplished either with alcohol, dye or pigment inks or watercolor.  All things acrylic that had not been used for a year or more was packaged up and sent to the local charter school that concentrated on the arts.  In addition to the ancrylic paints, colored pencils, some of the less costly or professional brushes and papers for drawing or coloring were included.  In today’s environment, teachers often have to provide their own supplies for the classrooms, and I was met with gratitude from the school when I appeared with several boxes of the supplies.

Yarns and threads, patterns and instruction books, tools that will have uses later on, paper materials, stamps and dies have been (for the most part) grouped and put into storage.  My concern for my inks, dyes and paints is  that once stored in an unseated location, they might freeze.  While cleaning out the garage, I found a thick, styrofoam container that had once held a gift of fresh seafood that our children had sent for a gift.  This I packed with all the alcohol inks, resist sprays and bonding solutions.  Alas it wasn’t enough!

Through persistence, similar packaging solutions have been found by appearing at local pharmacies and grocery stores which also receive shipments of medicines or seafoods that require being kept cold in transit.  The efforts were well worth it! Next, the ink pads - both dye inks and pigment inks - will go into the newly located styrofoam containers.  During the summers, such containers are a bit easier to find, but during the winter months, no one needs coolers!  Once packaged up, I’ll leave these in climate controlled conditions until the VERY last minute before moving them to the unheated space.  Perhaps it will be far enough into the year that freezing won’t really be an issue.  Meanwhile, I’d rather be safe and not have to replace any that I don’t have to.

Organization vs. Creativity

It has been said that we can organize or we can create. To a certain extent that is true. If our tools and supplies are in such disarray, when our creative urge strikes (or is harnaced,) we will spend all our time searching for the items we need rather than actually being involved in the creative process. This is especially true if our crafting space is small. Recently my Art Barn door has begun to deteriorate. When we built the space, we were using the most cost-effective (cheep) materials we could find. So this "exterior" door was indeed 36" wide, but only 77" in height. Add to this, the decision was made to have it open to the OUTSIDE, rather than to the INSIDE. The elements of nature are not kind to any door left open and swung to the outside for very long. While not left open constantly, the building is about 12 or 13 years old and time hgas taken its toll. Se we have made the decision to replace it. Standard doors are 32", 34' or 36' wide - not counting the door frame which comes with the "pre-hung doors" - and are usually 80" high - again not including the door frame. We have found and engaged one VERY brave soul who is going to take the necessary steps to remove the existing door and modify the opening to accomodate a new pre-hung door tht will swing inward. THIS IS EXCITING!! The door will arrive any day now! Once re-construction begins, I will have to be without my crafting space for a few days. That's not too much of a problem, however, I don't wany all my supplies and tools covered in sawdust and other nasties - hopefully they won't be wet nasties! So I am spending my time sorting, temporarily re-locating and covering my surfaces with protective barriers. While I would just LOVE to be creating with my Labor Day Weekend "free" time, that will have to wait for a bit. In the end, I will be glad this has been done! However, at this moment, I am ENDURING the process, all the while reassuring myself that it will be better in the end. It will be better in the end. . . It WILL be better in the end. . . IT WILL BE BETTER in the end!!

New Times, New Blog!

Through the recent pandemic, I've been as isolated as I neede to be to protect myself, my family, my crafting buddies and my clients from becoming ill. Being this sort of confined opened opportunities for continued growth in the crafting world. This has brought me a lot of happiness and made some of it shareable with those I care about. The first thing I was able to do was to turn an outbuilding into. . . The Art Barn!! It's not very big - about 12 feet square, but it has 2 lofts for storage and with the shelving, craft table and organizational items, has been a life-saver - well more of a sanity-saver - over the past several years! Since setting everything up, I have been collecting stamps, dies, papers and other embellishments for creating hand made cards for all occasions. Christmas card greetings for the holidays are items I have created during times gone by, but I'm adding to my skills and collections. Cards for birthdays, graduations, special events and others can be pricy! I checked out Target several years back and at that time a hand-made card was more than $7.00. It doesn't take long for that to translate into $100.00 or more and the crafting items will allow many more than the 12 or 13 cards that $100.00 will buy. Even from other outlets such as Dollar Stores and grocery or variety stores, the occasions rack up quickly. Tatting contiinues to be my primary crafting focus, although I have also renewed my interest in knitting and sewing. I'm sure there will be more to come - with Autumn and Winter approaching, outside times will become inside times.