the machinery and brains of the studio
I am continuing the studio tour today by moving into my little bead room. So the last few days I showed you the front of the house...the shipping and beading spaces where our dining room used to be. We never really sat down to eat in there so it was wasted space. Much more efficient now. And of course, the mobile/modular beadmaking studio that is hidden in our living room. I am sorta spread out all over the house you see, it is a nice sized house, a 1939 bungalow, but the rooms are very small, so it is hard to squeeze normal contemporary sized office/studio furniture in them and work comfortably. That's ok with me, I like tiny spaces and nooks and crannies. We bought this house mostly because it has a large (it was unfinished) attic. That's Chuck's domain, it is one large space, and suits him well. But I live in these small spaces, scattered around. Thus the many organizing units on wheels and modular workspaces.
So we have a small spare bedroom that is my office, photography, storage, and glaze room I have two old wooden teachers desks in here that we got from a school thrift sale. One is for my computer, and it has many drawers (most are which are filled with more boxes of beads that I am not using....I have A LOT of beads.) Below, a pic of my desk and computer, with lots of eye candy on the walls and a hello kitty shrine in the corner. Above picture, to the left of the computer, is my photography area. Its hard to visualize without the camera on the tripod, but this is where I take the bead and jewelry pics. I use 3 ottlight type lights. There are piles of tile there that I need to photograph for the Etsy shop stored there right now. When will I ever get to that?
To the right of the computer, my big old second hand printer, which works great! I print all my invoices and shipping labels form it. Underneath, another Cute Thing shrine. I love cute things! So this space is where the thinking gets done, where the communication takes place, and where I spend a LOT of time. Behind this desk is the glazing area, and I will show you that tomorrow. There is also the scary craft closet...I will swallow my pride and show you that too! Then you may get a picture of where all the stuff really gets crammed to make these spaces look clean, hahaha!
It is appropriate that I am showing you my nerd space today, because we are getting ready to go to a really cool and geeky event: Penguicon We have some friends who told us about it...its a local Sci-Fi and Open Source Technology convention, which is really exciting. I am not half the geek I wish to be, so it will be kinda neat to be around people who totally surpass me in their knowledge of technology and computers. There is a Magic the Gathering event at the con, so at the spur of the moment, Chuck decided he will go and sign cards at it! Hopefully we will spend some times meeting people as well. I hope to learn a lot and bring back some stories.