Whew! Where did the summer go! Last time I wrote, the summer was just beginning. Three months full of promise and plenty of time to spend working on my jewelry. Boy, did that fly by!
Now it's back to school and back to fitting in the jewelry thing any time I can manage. Of course, before I can actually create anything I need to organize my space. I've become a bit of a pack rat when it comes to jewelry items. The thing is, beads and findings are so small, it always seems like there is room for them! Well...right now that room seems to be on the floor of my basement. Not so conducive to creating. So I've taken a little break from designing jewelry to try and design an organized workspace. Here are some before pictures of what my area looked like:
As you can see it was sort of a nightmare. I had gotten into the bad habit of not unpacking ANYTHING I bought. I just took the bags down and dumped them under the tables or wherever there was a modicum of room. When I needed something I would root around in the bags until I found it or, in the event I couldn't find it (which is what happened more often than not), I gave up and moved on to something else. I am also extremely bad at putting things away once I am done with them, hence the items covering the table. If I am in the middle of a project I don't like to clear everything away even if I'm done working on it for the night. So, the next time I come to the table, I have all the materials spread out everywhere. If I decide to work on something different I push those things aside and get out my new materials. Not a good plan.
Time for cleaning...Where to begin? Well, I decided that in order to organize the space I had to pack everything up and start from scratch. I got some boxes and packed everything up. Having 2 large tables seemed to be counter productive for me. Rather than having a large work surface I ended up having more places to pile junk. So, I got rid of one of the tables and reduced my work space to increase my storage space. One trip to IKEA later (how in the world did I manage before IKEA came to Minnesota?) I found a unit with rolling shelves that would (hopefully!) house all of my stuff. Here's what the area looked like with the table removed and the stuff all boxed up.
I'm still in the process of getting the place organized, but I am well on my way to make my Sep. 30 deadline. I will update as things take shape!
Now it's back to school and back to fitting in the jewelry thing any time I can manage. Of course, before I can actually create anything I need to organize my space. I've become a bit of a pack rat when it comes to jewelry items. The thing is, beads and findings are so small, it always seems like there is room for them! Well...right now that room seems to be on the floor of my basement. Not so conducive to creating. So I've taken a little break from designing jewelry to try and design an organized workspace. Here are some before pictures of what my area looked like:
As you can see it was sort of a nightmare. I had gotten into the bad habit of not unpacking ANYTHING I bought. I just took the bags down and dumped them under the tables or wherever there was a modicum of room. When I needed something I would root around in the bags until I found it or, in the event I couldn't find it (which is what happened more often than not), I gave up and moved on to something else. I am also extremely bad at putting things away once I am done with them, hence the items covering the table. If I am in the middle of a project I don't like to clear everything away even if I'm done working on it for the night. So, the next time I come to the table, I have all the materials spread out everywhere. If I decide to work on something different I push those things aside and get out my new materials. Not a good plan.
Time for cleaning...Where to begin? Well, I decided that in order to organize the space I had to pack everything up and start from scratch. I got some boxes and packed everything up. Having 2 large tables seemed to be counter productive for me. Rather than having a large work surface I ended up having more places to pile junk. So, I got rid of one of the tables and reduced my work space to increase my storage space. One trip to IKEA later (how in the world did I manage before IKEA came to Minnesota?) I found a unit with rolling shelves that would (hopefully!) house all of my stuff. Here's what the area looked like with the table removed and the stuff all boxed up.
I'm still in the process of getting the place organized, but I am well on my way to make my Sep. 30 deadline. I will update as things take shape!