Tuesday, March 31, 2015

March Blog Carnival - Spring Cleaning


The topic for the Jewelry Artisans Community March Blog Carnival is "Spring Cleaning".  This is a timely topic for me as I recently wrote about my new studio, a room I'm very proud of and have found that I love to spend time in creating jewelry.

My old work space was a corner of my husband's office and consisted of a 3' x 3' drafting table and a 3' x 1' shelving unit.  When I first started making jewelry, this space was more than adequate, but as I accumulated more tools, beads and supplies I began to outgrow my space and it was becoming difficult to keep it tidy and organized.  I'm not a fanatic about having things clean and neat, but I find that my mind functions better when it's not surrounded by chaos.



Moving into my new studio was the perfect opportunity to sort, toss and organize those tools, beads and supplies mentioned earlier.  I was amazed at the things I found while going through all of the accumulated stuff that I'd forgotten I had.  It was liking meeting old friends that had drifted away over the years.





It took me away from making jewelry, but I spent an entire day going through everything, filled a large trash can, sorted my collection of bead soup (that is the container that we jewelry makers throw beads that are leftover from projects in rather than putting them back where they belong) and put like things together.  All of my beads are now in plastic containers with lids, the tools are all together in a drawer, chain and cord has it's own area and the components have a new home. 




My former space had become so bad, that I found myself avoiding it because it was such a mess that it completely killed creativity.  This new, clean organized space is a joy to work in and I feel like I've been possessed by a level of creativity I haven't experienced in a very long time.  There is still more organization to be done, but it's close to how I would like it to be.  My goal now is to clean up after every project and put things away.  So far, so good!





To read what other participants of the Jewelry Artisans Community have to say about Spring Cleaning, please click on the links below.

Bead Sophisticate

The Crafty Chimp

Cat's Wire

2 comments:

  1. I love your awesome new space, Dawn. I have a goal of putting things away after I finish too. We shall see!

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  2. At least I got that far that I put back the seed beads after a project. It's a start, right?

    I don't see how to stop you now that you've got that grand new studio!

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