Actually, as my main patron and sometime spouse likes to point out, it's one of three. Or four. Or five, depending on how you count the photography corner in the basement, the giftwrapping area, not to mention the ungodly amount of time I waste typing away creating web pages and whatnot in the attic, the stairwell of which doubles as bead storage. Plus, of course, the flameworking area. There's just no getting away from it all.
This, however, was the main studio until I took up lampworking and it's still the center of the business, if not my artistic production. The assumption, btw, is that you enjoy touring other artists’ studios; I do. If you don't this is gonna strike you as a really boring (or worse, self-indulgent) page.
The big oak desk has been the core of the stringing area for over 20 years now.
I'm not very good at shooting rooms, but this big oak desk is to the left of the entrance and faces the back yard. I traded this wonderful piece of furniture for two artsy painted chairs now in the collection of my dear friend Page; to the left are six reproductions of the tapestry series “The five Senses” (I think), a souvenir from the Louvre (oooooo, aren't you impressed?) plus other miscellaney. My theory is to have islands of victorian clutter amongst seas of serene Japanese-rock-garden like calm. (Except I cropped all that out because they got cluttered too. Ah well.)
Bead storage. Also still in use, though UV exposure is slowly destroying the plastic bins. Funny, I figured the wooden box my father and I built to hold them would go first.
Storage is the major bugaboo for any beader. This was for many years my “travel” beads, that went to shows for custom alternations or jobs. The two top grey cases are filled with ziplocks of seed beads and less commonly used stone or metal beads. The bottom, custom made wood rack holds my intermediate size 18 compartment bead boxes. This size box, with its 1-1/4” square openings approx. 1” deep, holds 4mm-12mm beads well—up to 1 complete 16” strand of 8mm beads as I recall (it's been a looong time since I've production strung).
The thread holder has been updated to something that doesn't dump the spools all over the floor (and also moved to a different area, along with the sewing machine).[1]
This shot shows my sewing machine cabinet, the impractical but fun shadowbox storage for machine thread (the hand threads are hidden away in the closet to protect them from sun) the wonderful mirror—again a gift from Page, and, of course, more storage. Filing cabinets aren't very romantic, but are essential to running any business. Beside the file cabinet I've dressed up 4 (2x2) of those infamous blue storage containers with an old oak bookcase salvaged from my grandmother-in-law's house, since torn down. These hold seed bead hanks and metal bead ‘backstock’ since the grey cases shown above typically only have a small amount of each kind of bead.
More bead storage.
A closeup of the previous shot, showing more clutter—samples or favorite beads, an airbrush assignment from way back, a piece of embroidery from even wayer back, and crayons from the absolute mists of time (like, my childhood.)
I still have a pinup board in my studio, but it is less inspirational and more functional, now.
Not shown are the nails with strands of semi-precious stone beads (stored behind a steel door, before I learned that thieves do not steal beads) or the apothecary chest, in which I keep strands of glass beads, and other miscellaney.
reformatting, (and more informative captions) 28sep2015.
[1]The filing cabinet and computer now live in an office along with most of the 2D art supplies, and this area is almost always the messiest. Someday. Someday I get it tidy too.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
