Today I bring you Part II of In the Studio with JennyThreads sneak peek. I visited Jenny Threads shop and studio space in early February when I went to Asheville. Her fashion is fun, funky, sassy and flirty…just all around creative! If you missed Part I…check it out here before continuing.
In the Studio with JennyThreads-Interview and Studio Sneak Peek Part II.
HKPS:: Do you consider yourself to be an organized person? How or where have you learn your organizing habits and systems? Have you ever worked with another artist or gallery that you learned any organization from?
JS::Growing up, I was naturally messy, and my dad remembers nicknaming me “Tornado Jenny” because my room was always such a mess. When I was in graduate school in the late 1990’s, I worked for an antique repair shop in Savannah, GA. This place was absolute chaos inside, and as I worked on a project, I remember the owner, my boss, would take tools from my work area or unclamp wood pieces drying before I could, or leave his messes on my table and it started to drive me crazy. Fed up, I covered my table with white butcher paper outlined in blue painter’s tape, and told him that was my area and it was off-limits to him. From him, I had finally learned how inefficient and exasperating it is to spend more time looking for tools or supplies than actually working, and that’s when I started making an effort to be more organized.
HKPS:: What tips can you offer regarding your use of schedules, systems, tools or processes that help you maintain organization in your studio? Do you purge, clean or de-clutter your supply stash and space on a regular basis?
JS::My mom was and is still an incurable packrat, so my brother and I both really dislike clutter. In my home I LOVE to purge things regularly. I keep a constant Goodwill bag in the garage as things get edited out of the house. I never have enough for a yard sale because it is edited constantly and bags are taken as they fill, just as another mundane errand. At the studio, I tend to keep more things around because they are useful to doing many different things: samples for teaching, sewing notions that I would not have to re-buy after purging. I keep some stashes, but I keep them under control.
HKPS:: Please describe how creative cycles of organization or dis-organization affect your creative process? Are there certain phases of projects that are more or less organized?
JS::I try to clean and put things away as I go, and as I leave the studio or house I always spend a few minutes just tidying and putting this back before I go. Since I do studio production, I really like the linear process of getting pieces through their stages of surface design and sewing, all the way through tagging and hanging on the hanger or shipping out in a box, being done with it and checking it off the list. DONE is a very good feeling. I keep a monthly calendar on the wall for deadlines and make Today’s to-do list on a piece of scrap paper first thing in the morning that I cross off through the day, carrying over unfinished items to the next day’s list until they get done.
HKPS:: How much thought do you give to your artistic body of work in terms of historic value and the overall legacy you will leave behind? How do you store/archive your work or records?
JS::I began my career before the digital age, in the era of slides. The first 10-15 years of my work are all on slides, which I have edited out duplicates and keep in 3-ring binders at my house. I also have a file in a cabinet at home for all my paper press clippings. Paradoxically, I’ve gotten less deliberate about it in digital form; I just figure the large files are on my computer somewhere (and they are), but the massive number of digital photos in my Iphoto are in the thousands… and they are easy to avoid because they are in there not taking up any space. I know I need to go in and organize and back them up but like I said, it is easy to avoid because they are not in a pile on the floor in my way.
These bits get tossed after trying to recycle them into stuffing (it was just too heavy).
Thank you Jenny’s for inviting us in for this interview! She shared some great ideas and tips such as adding wheels to storage bins, using limited color threads, using display pieces for storage etc. Please be sure to see more of her work here.
* Inside the Studio was my brainchild in 2011. There are a lot of popular studio features on the web and in magazines but I’m specifically interested in showing how organizational process influences the artists studio work. These photo’s are not styled and are typical of how the artists working studio looks. I request that each artist leave their space as it would be on a daily basis (just like I ask my clients). This series is meant to highlight how artist REALLY work rather than showing STYLED shots (popular in home and organizing magazines and blogs). I’m sure just like me, you are fascinated by the “behind the scenes” sneak peek into these artists working lives!
If you are struggling with the cycles of order and dis-order in your creative process I’d love to help you out! I offer customized in person and virtual organizing packages, please contact me for more info or see my services page.
