This Is What I Strive For

My friend Ami is super organized. She lives in a two-bedroom condo, and has turned the smaller bedroom and closet into her studio. I am constantly amazed by her ability to absorb new supplies and class materials (she takes a lot of online classes, and keeps notebooks for each one).

This Is Ami

For my contribution to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog ( http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com ) during Organization Week, and my own blog here, I emphasized the concept of "Like with Like." Ami organizes her stash this way, too. But she is much better at Putting Things Back than I am. Her studio is not very big, but it has a nice picture window and a good-sized closet. She keeps her work space under the window; it rests on top of a wood cabinet (obviously hand-made) that her husband got in a sale of unwanted items at work. It had a couple of drawers missing, but Ami's son Matt is a cabinet-maker, and could whip up drawers to fill the gaps; Ami decided to use the space to hold some of her binders instead. She has a big board to work on, propped up to make it high enough, and this holds the stuff she uses most and whatever project she is currently working on. Next to that, she has a flat file bought at a garage sale years ago that holds lots of different supplies.

Ami's Cabinet and Flat File

On the opposite side of the room are book shelves, where Ami keeps her collection of binders, CDs, and boxes to hold papers, stencils, and other things.

Binders Holding Class Materials and Other Notes

Small Things Kept in Specialty Boxes on Bookcase

Project Boxes Hold Supplies

The closet wall has a row of Iris Carts that hold everything from rubber stamps to stamp pads to brads, and on top of these are more binders for acrylic stamps.

Ami's Iris Cart Wall

Acrylic Stamps in Binders and Ribbon Storage on Left

Notice how everything is carefully labeled. Sometimes the labels fall off or come loose, though. Ami says she doesn't worry about that, at she can always stick them back, and if they were more permanent, they would be difficult to change.

Rubber Stamps in the Iris Cart, Like Images Together

Small Things in Containers in Iris Cart Drawers. Everything is Visible.

In the closet are more Iris Carts, a big wooden cupboard with shelves, and lots of hanging storage for papers and fabrics. Magazines line the closet shelf.

Iris Carts in the Closet Hold Paints and Bottled Supplies

Hanging Pockets of Goodies in Back of Closet

Magazines on the Closet Shelf

In the Big Cupboard in the Closet

On the closet door and the back of the door to the room Ami has hanging vinyl pockets that hold decorative scissors, tape, brayers, and other odd-shaped supplies.

Decorative Scissors Hang on Closet Door

Oddly Shaped Stuff and Tape on Studio Door

Of course, none of this would work if Ami were not scrupulous about returning things to their proper place when she has finished using them She knows exactly where everything is, all the time, and if she forgets, she can always read the label.

The fourth wall holds Ami's computer and computer-related tools like her printer. She does a lot of digital art and attends many online classes and webinars, and so this area is where she spends a lot of time.

But back to the window wall, with that wonderful cabinet. Here are some shots of the cabinet's contents:

Little Things in Recycled Mustard Containers From Take-Out

Cabinet with Distress Ink Drawer Open

Inside the Paint Drawer

And a look inside the flat file shows again how organized Ami is!

Pens, Sumi-e and Japanese Paints in Flat File Drawers

Did I mention that Ami's wooden cabinet is a treasure? I am thinking how cool it would be to build one for myself one day. How hard could it be? If only I had a place to put it!

Thank you so much, Ami, for letting me share your wonderfully organized space with others through my blog, and for taking pictures of the cabinet for me. I am so looking forward to all the super art you will be making there!

Nan and Ami

Until Next time, Nan

Organization Are Us--in Theory, Anyhow

First off, I have to confess that I am (constantly) in the process of sorting and revising and planning my art-making spaces, so what I say now may be different a year, or even a week, from now. Art Requires Inventory, and I have a lot of inventory to deal with. Those who have seen it know that my inventory is pretty extensive. That's because I do Too Many Things, and need Too Much Stuff. So everyone was astounded that I would agree to do a guest blog post for Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com on Organization. Well, maybe not astonished so much as hysterical with laughter. Trust me, I do know how to organize. Really I do. But knowing how and acting consistently on that knowledge are two different things.

Because I teach, I have lots of duplicate supplies, and I try to keep the stuff I use for sharing in class in a different place than the stuff I use every day. So I am going to concentrate here on my Grand Plan to work with the things I want to use every day, more or less.

Like with Like is the organizing principle (the corollary is: Put It Back). I determine what goes into each category by choosing the most useful (to me) characteristic. For instance, I could put all my pens under the rubric “PENS,” but I have all kinds of pens, and if I put them all together I would be rooting though a mountain to find the one I want. So I have a drawer for alcohol-based pens like Sharpies and Bic and Tūl (but not Copic—they are a class unto themselves). I have another drawer for drawing pens, like Pigma Micron and Faber-Castell and Copic technical pens. I have a drawer for gel pens, and I put my Spica pens in with them as I would use them for the same purpose. I keep my professional pens and Pilot parallel pens in a plasticshoebox, and my Tria and Prismacolor markers in a divided plastic storage box, sorted by color range.Labeling storage places is essential. Otherwise, how would you know where to Put It Back?

The Marker and Calligraphy Pen Drawer

Labeled Drawers for Pens, Pencils and More

The Alcohol Pens Drawer 

My Professional Pens are Kept in a Shoebox. Note Sustaining Beverage at Right.

Letraset Tria Markers and Prismacolor Markers in Divided Box

I have special cases for my Ranger Adirondack Paint Daubers, a plastic box for my Ranger Crackle Paint, a plastic tackle box for my Distress Ink Pads, a wooden box for my Adirondack Color Wash and another for Ranger Distress Daubers. I keep a couple of Perfect Pearl misters in the color wash box (spray with spray), some small containers of  Glossy Accents and Claudine Helmuth’s Matte Medium, and a couple of empty spray bottles. And things have to be very portable, because I take them with me to ArtWorks in Edmonds, Washington, where I teach and there is an open studio most Fridays. My acrylic paints are presently all over the place, at home and at ArtWorks, so that part of the Grand Plan is still in flux. Right now, most of them are in clear plastic containers in the garage, from where I can load them easily into the car for travel. Or bring them in to work at home. A plastic storage box holds my stick pastels and oil crayons, and another my Martha Stewart Craft Paints. The above supplies I keep handy, along with my Art Journals, because I use them all the time.

Adirondack Colorwash Box With Extras

The Distress Stain Box With Gesso and Gel and Extras

Distress Inks and Re-Inkers in Plastic Tool Box

Paper is always a problem. I make books, so I need lots of different kinds of paper, in lots of sizes. Also, I collect Japanese washi, and I have many, many pieces of that, from parent sheets to scraps. I keep my collection of quarter sheets of washi in a large portfolio, and scraps in a small photo album. Parent sheets and half sheets are grouped on skirt hangers, the plastic kind with two clips, and hang over a door. The washi I use are separate from the ones that go into the collection—or, I will cut a quarter sheet off and put it in the portfolio, and use the rest.

Gift Wrap and Parent Sheets on Hangers

Washi on Hangers

Close-up of Washi on Hangers

I have a real problem with irregular sizes of paper, like long strips for accordions and tabloid size cardstock and book paper. So far I haven’t found a convenient and easily accessible way to deal with those. I just sort of lay them gently on top of whatever paper stack seems handy to hold them.

Long Sheets Lying on a Box in the Paper Room

There is a whole room of racks that hold 8-1/2 x 11 paper, ream upon ream in the basement. My husband made the racks from pegboard and dowels, and they sort of manage to do the job of holding boxes of paper. I try to keep each kind of paper labeled. So “Like with Like” doesn’t always work, what with cardstock and text weight and glossy and different colors. So I make sure the labels are visible.

Partial reams in Literature Sorter

Home Made Racks with Reams and Boxes of Letter-Size Paper

Letter Size Paper in Plastic Bins Recycled from Kinko's (Alas! They Don't Stack)

For most people, I suggest the skirt hanger method for parent sheets, keeping the different kinds, like lotka and kozo and printmaking and decorative on separate hangers. Smaller pieces can be organized by type, and further by color range within the type. Open file boxes with hanging files and file jackets for each color type might work, if you have the space. I have a couple stuck under tables in my workspace, but because I don’t see them, I rarely think of them. And 4x6 or 5x7 photo albums are good for the tinier pieces too wonderful to throw away. For reams and partial reams, a literature sorter will do the trick for most people.

Rubber stamps, both wood mounted and unmounted, are right now kept in cardboard boxes, sorted by manufacturer (mostly—there are several boxes menacingly labeled “To Sort.”).  Acrylic stamps are in binders and boxes. I try to keep those according to type: alphabet, design element, holiday, etc. I keep some, like my Tim Holtz stamps and my Character Construction stamps in their own category, and with Tim, I have subsets for holidays and ATC-sized images.

Home Made Binders with Tim Holtz Stamps

Inside Home Made Binder

Inside Detail of Binder

So in planning, take stock of what you have, put and keep things that have a similar use together. When I started out to get things under control, I wrote out a Master Plan: I made a list of categories and then listed what I would keep in each category, and then decided where each category would go. It wasn’t engraved in stone, and I do keep revising it, but at least it gave me a good place to begin.

I could go on and on—but I won’t. I will say that putting Like with Like won’t work for very long if you don’t Put it Back. That’s my biggest downfall—I gather things into a bag to do a particular project  at ArtWorks, for instance, and when I bring the bag home I just set it down and procrastinate putting things back. Don’t follow that example, please—it means you can’t find something when you want to use it. And being able to use it is the whole idea!

Next time I will share with you my friend Ami's studio; what she can crowd into a small condo bedroom with closet is mind-boggling! She is the model I strive to emulate. I just wish I were better at striving!

---Nan

A Bit of Bubbly for the New Year

Sometimes I just get carried away with the awesome tools at my disposal on the computer. Today I got to fiddling in Photoshop with some brushes of bubble wrap I had made from stamping the wrap itself on glossy paper with Ranger's Archival black ink. So in honor of the New Year and my soon-to-be-consumed champagne, while waiting for midnight and the fireworks on the Space Needle, I thought I would share some of my fun.

Here are three of the sizes of bubble wrap I stamped. I made Photoshop brushes out of them and several others, chose a background, and went to town. I made 31 iterations of bubble paper. I started with a background of Kim Klassen's paper texture, because it was a nice, neutral color. Kim probably had used many many layers to make the texture, and it saved me having to do that myself. Thanks, Kim!

Then I made a base layer of various sizes of bubble brushes, coloring them with the tones my color picker collected from Kim's paper. Normally I would have made many individual layers, one for each color I used, but I was anxious to see what my new brushes would do. So I put them all over my first layer. Then I remembered about putting them on individual layers, so I began to do that. Here is the first paper I made:

I was really happy with what the brushes looked like. I didn't resize them for this project--just used them all at the size I made them.

So here are some more. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

For this one, number 4, I played with the color balance on a couple of the layers, adding the green.

This one is number 8, and I used the Invert command to change the colors. Love the contrast of colors.

This one, number 14, used one of the distort filters, Spherize.

Number 15 uses the Twirl filter.

Now, I am a purple person, so I had to make some purple changes. This is number 22.

For this one, number 25, I added a red base layer and a couple of more layers of bubbles in red.

I altered the color on some of the layers, using the Invert command. This is number 28.

Did I mention I was a purple person? Number 30. There are also some drop shadows added.

Playing with the Twirl filer and the invert command. Latest, (number 31) but probably not last, attempt at bubble paper. I made them all 12 by 12 inches. The next lot will probably include resizing the brushes, and using the hexagonal bubble wrap I used in the virtual art journal awhile back.

Happy New Year! --Nan

Deck the Halls!

Tonight is the first candle of Hanukkah, tomorrow is the Solstice, Sunday is Christmas, Kwaanza starts after that, Las Posadas comes right after New Years, and folks are STILL complaining if you say "Happy Holidays!" Doesn't make any sense.

I am happy to celebrate them all! Each of them is important to some group or other, and some of them are important to several groups. So why the fuss? While I agree that it looks like the "Holi-" part has become more like an excuse to sell stuff than to rejoice in the season for its own sake, I believe one can take it upon oneself to remember what we are celebrating for.

Way back when, the Solstice was THE holiday--it meant the Sun was coming back to make the days longer and the crops grow. This is a holiday worth celebrating. What if the Sun stayed away? Let's not take a chance--light that Yule log, and put all those decorations on the tree! I'll bet there were songs, and an admonition to give alms to the needy. And lots of parties. It was such a good holiday, some Christian got the idea to move the celebration of the birth of Jesus to coincide with it. And adopt all the fun customs, too!

Kwaanza is pretty new, and I don't know much about it; I am willing to celebrate it, though! I think the message of Kwaanza is ecumenical, and I approve.

Las Posadas is celebrated up to the 6th of January. It celebrates the search for lodgings in Bethlehem, the birth of Christ and the journey of the Magi and their gifts. I am all for those Magi--and don't forget, at least since Ahmal and the Night Visitors, one of them was black!

Call me silly, but I still believe in Santa Claus. Not because he brings presents, but because he personifies the spirit of giving, and the reason one wants to give--Love. These days my Santa gets sort of run over by the more commercial Dude, but I still maintain that he is real, and active somewhere.

A couple of weeks ago I started to make an Advent calendar--from a kit, to be sure, but it didn't come with instructions, so I guess that made up for it. Advent is a Big Deal in some Christian churches, because it starts the week before Christmas. Most calendars I've seen feature Santa Claus in one of his many guises, along with some angels, reindeer, and other symbols associated with the season. My kit had 25 chip board pieces to make into open boxes, and several tabbed pieces of heavy bookboard that fit into slots on a 12 by 12-inch hardboard backing. And one mysterious piece of heavy board that seemed not to belong anywhere.

Oh, and it had a sheet of chipboard numbers. The idea is to make a calendar for the first 25 days of December, one that has hidden spaces behind each day for a small toy or piece of candy. I discovered that there were 25 boxes, but only 24 places to put them. That meant the big opening in the center was probably intended to be day 25. As I said--no instructions. So I found a piece of scrapbook paper to use for day 25.

I built a few of the boxes, using tissue tape and gel medium to hold them together. Then I decided I should paint the insides of the boxes, and it would be easier if I did that before I put them together. I also wanted to paint the tabbed pieces, and the back board behind the openings.

I used two colors of Martha Stewart craft paint, a bright green and a medium dark blue, and scumbled them on, mixed on the brush. I painted all the box insides, and the outside and inside of the boxes I had made already. The painting took about three evenings while watching TV.

I thought the number sheet should be gussied up before the numbers were punched out, so I chose several colors of Ranger Distress dye daubers to color the chipboard. Then I gave the chipboard a coat of Golden glossy acrylic medium. When that dried, I sprayed it with Perfect Pearls bronze glitter mist. Then I painted the numbers with Ranger's Rock Candy crackle paint and when that dried and crackled, I went over it with a dark green Distress dye dauber.

Next, I built the rest of the boxes, and painted the outside, and touched up where needed on the inside. I put the frame together, inserted the boxes, laid the scrapbook paper in the center, and sprayed the whole thing lightly with Perfect Pearls bronze glitter spray. I distressed the scrapbook paper with Ranger's seasonal Distress Blue Spruce ink pad, and while I was at it, I distressed some tags and paper that I planned to use for embellishments. The paper was from Graphic 45, last years' Christmas line.

I punched out all the numbers and painted the edges with Twinkling H2O Solar Gold. Finally, I embellished the boxes with the numbers, small motifs from the Graphic 45 paper, and some velvet flowers, attaching everything with Golden gel medium. It was interesting trying to get things to fit without blocking the finger holes in the boxes. I wasn't worried about things hanging over the edges, because the boxes could still be opened in those cases.

I decorated the sides with tags and put a saying on the top.

And then I was done! Except for filling the 24 boxes with toys or candies--maybe next year. While the gel medium was still wet, I took it over to my friend Brooke's store, Urban Scrapbooker, where she planned to display it.















It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. Oh, and I discovered what (I think) that mysterious extra piece of board is for. It is just the right size to put under the calendar to keep it from tipping forward--because of a slight difference between the edge of the tabbed pieces and the backboard.

Well, I just have one more thing to share tonight: