Inside the Studio Archives

In the Studio with Sarajo

January 22, 2015 by Heather Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, Handmade, In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Photography, Textiles & Pattern

This month I’ve tied the two artist featured In the Studio together via location, Maine! Today we are In the Studio with Sarajo Karl Belvedere. It’s all about connections and I’ll be continuing in this manner to connect the artist via medium, location or some other thread each month in 2015. I happened across this Antique Asian Textile shop when a friend was showing us around the Portland arts district. I saw amazing textiles in the window (which my friend is also a huge fan of) and so we were pulled right into the vortex…and so glad we were! I was mesmerized by the incredible textile collection at Sarajo. After a few minutes looking around I spoke with the young man working in the gallery and learned that he was the conservator and that he did the work right in the back of the shop…so I boldly asked right there on the spot of I could take some photos and “Interview” him via email when I returned. Thankfully Glen agreed and I’m so happy to share not only his work space at Sarajo but also his home art studio.

HKPS::What age did you suspect or know you were an artist?

GM:: I was drawing before I can remember and by age ten was determined to be a comic artist.

HKPS::What mediums do you work with and are there specific tools or materials you find challenging to keep organized or locate when you need to use them?

GM:: At Sarajo I work primarily on antique textiles and use basic hand sewing tools. Aside from textiles, I’ve also repaired objects made of wood, ceramics, glass, paper, barkcloth, hair, bone, metal, feathers and the list goes on. Hence, there seems to be no end to the tools and materials that I use at work. Most of my sewing supplies are attached to my work table or in the closets behind me. I keep my trusty shears in a holster on my belt.

HKPS:: Where do you make your art, how big is your studio and how long have you been in this space?

GM:: I repair antiques in the back of the gallery. My workspace is roughly 400 square feet and I’ve been there six years.

HKPS::How many projects are you usually working on at once? Is this due to space constraints, creative process, organizing systems or other influences?

GM:: It varies somewhat, depending on how many antiques my boss has purchased at the time and how time-consuming whatever I’m working on is. On average, I’d say that I repair four or five objects at a time.

HKPS::When you began working in this space did you plan any systems for the overall set up or did you let things evolve organically? How did past studio spaces or systems influence this space?

GM:: The set up definitely evolved organically. I wasn’t completely sure what my job was going to be and my boss had never hired someone to specifically do conservation before. Each new assignment required a new procedure that had to be researched. As I read everything from textile conservation manuals to woodworking guides, I learned which tools I needed to purchase or make and hung them from hooks on my worktable, the wall or made shelf space.

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?

GM:: I would say that I’m organized even if it doesn’t always look like it. I’ve mostly learned to organize by trial and error, due to the fact that I need to work in a space for a while before I can really know where everything needs to be. That said, I’ve also learned to organize from previous jobs and art school. I was a shop tech for the printmaking department at Kansas University and my primary job was to keep the place neat and clean.

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?

GM:: I do purge the space of things like spare cardboard and fabric scraps every few months or so. For safety’s sake I always try to keep the the floor clean and first aid easily accessible.

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?

GM:: As I work on more than one project at a time, it’s hard to keep the space continually clean. It’s also important to have space to work, though, so I take short breaks throughout the process to clean up.

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?

GM:: I work on antiques, so I suppose the historic value is already established. My primary goal is always to assure that these things will last as long as possible. Most of the textiles are folded and stored in rolling shelves, behind glass. The more fragile ones are rolled on tubes as they cannot withstand folding.

My greatest wish is that through seeing how other artist work we can learn from one another. There is no ONE correct system or way of organizing. There are as many creative systems as their creative makers! My aim is to highlight these unique makers in each interview. A HUGE thank you to Glen for allowing me to intrude and put him on the spot in the shop! It was so inspiring to see both his conservation and his personal art studio. Thank you Glen (aka Karl) for sharing both spaces with all of us and how organizing affects his creative process in all of his creative work. I’m envious of his job and was amazed that he learned all his conservation skills while on the job! His work is truly amazing and speaks to the historic value and cultural legacy of textiles all over the world. I’m so grateful for companies like Sarajo and the talented conservators who work with them. It was such a delight to stumble across Sarajo last fall and I’ve been so excited to share this. Please check out their website (or go in person if you are in Portland) and the personal work of Karl Belvedere who is a really talented artist working in all sorts of mediums AND you can Ask Him Anything!

* 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!

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In the Studio with SCAD Fibers

March 8, 2014 by Heather Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Photography, Systems & Techniques

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting my Alma-matter for the Fibers Open House. I am always blown away by the delightful work I see coming from this department and thought it would be a fun opportunity to visit In the Studio with SCAD Fibers students. I have such fond memories of my time there and the department has grown tremendously over the past 15 years. They are using the most cutting edge technology mixed with the best foundational teachings. This is a recipe for success!

Here are (anonymously) some of the studio work-spaces. Of course for the open house they were tidied up and I’d love to pop in and see how they look from day to day but in a setting like this you begin to see how different styles of organizing emerge.

Farewell SCAD Fibers…Till later!

In the Studio with The Simpson’s Double Feature

January 2, 2014 by Heather Filed Under: In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources

Welcome to 2014!! Today’s a special Double Feature day Inside the Home & Studio of my dear friends Sarah and Brad. I met Sarah and later Brad, while attending college at SCAD. Sarah and I were both fibers majors, both focusing on weaving and we have been fiber friends ever since. She is a very talented weaver and woven textile designer for her industry job at Pure Country Weavers. Brad, Sarah’s husband is a talented painter and more recently has embarked on a career working with illustration for the comic book industry. His most recent work is as a colorist for Marvel and you can see some of the work he’s done here. This creative husband and wife team bravely sold almost everything they owned and moved out to San Francisco about 5 years ago. These days they both work from their home and have learned to live a more simple life, in less space and value what is truly important to them.

HKPS:: At what age did you realize you were an artist?

Sarah – I never had an “aha!” moment where I declared myself an artist. As far back as I can remember, I was just always innately drawn to arts and crafts. Growing up in the mountains of East Tennessee, a lot of my parents’ friends were artisans of varying crafts and media, so I think that greatly influenced me.

Brad – I realized by the time I was 4 years old. I would draw all day and often go through those 200 sheet school notepads in one day.

HKPS:: What medium(s) do you work with?

Sarah – My main medium is textiles, more specifically weaving, but I love to dabble in drawing, painting and collage too. I work as a designer in the textile industry, so I spend a lot of time on the computer working mainly in Photoshop.

Brad – Currently, I work in the comic book industry as a colorist, so most of my work is digital. I use Photoshop and Corel Painter. I’ve done a lot of work in oil painting, but my favorite medium is watercolors.

HKPS::Where do you make your art & how big is your space?

Sarah – I work all around my home. There is no official studio space, instead my home and studio are integrated. This is necessary living in the bay area where living space is greatly limited. Our furniture has to double duty as art supply storage and work surface.

Brad – Living in small apartments over the past 6 years has taught me you really don’t need as much space as you think.

HKPS:: Do you consider yourself to be an organized person?

Sarah – I’m fairly organized, but I’m not overly concerned with it. Over the years, I’ve become more relaxed with organization. Most of my stuff has a drawer or a box or a shelf where it belongs, but that’s about as far as my organization goes.

Brad  – I’m an organized person out of necessity. I have various deadlines on a weekly basis, and I have to keep track of these obligations since I work for myself. With my personal art like painting and drawing, I’ve always taken an organized approach with my time management and layout of materials.

HKPS::How/Where did you learn your organizing habits and systems?

Sarah – My family was incredibly unorganized growing up, and I think that initially drove me to become extremely organized when I left for college. I guess I’m self-taught. However, I found myself being stressed out by keeping everything so orderly, and over time, I’ve learned to lighten up a bit and find a more balanced approach to organizational habits. I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore.

Brad – Early on in my life, I struggled with learning disabilities and I was extremely unorganized. When I went to high school, I had some great tutors that taught me some organizational techniques that I still use daily.

HKPS:: What types of cycles have you notices in your working process? Are there certain phases of projects that are neater or more disorganized?

Sarah – I actually work very organically. The more organic I work, the better my art turns out. I like to be spontaneous with minimal structure and planning. It’s where my magic happens.

Brad – When I have multiple deadlines with a hectic schedule, my working process becomes disheveled. So after a deadline or heavy work cycle, I take time to reboot and reorganize my space so I can start fresh.

HKPS:: What types of schedules, systems, tools or tips do you use to help maintain organization in your studio?

Sarah – I now use my iPhone for all task organization – list making, calendars, reminders etc.

Brad – I use gmail and all it’s features for most of my planning organization, however, I still like to make a list on paper with daily objectives.

HKPS:: What materials/tools do you find challenging to keep organized or locate when you need to use them?

Sarah – Having such a small living and studio space, I can’t hoard materials/tools. It actually influences me to be more purposeful with what I’m creating and less wasteful. And the added bonus is that I can locate my materials easily.

Brad – Physically, I don’t have any challenges with keeping my materials and tools organized. However, in my line of work, I have a tremendous amount of digital files that have to be catalogued. I find this to be extremely difficult.

HKPS:: How often do you purge or declutter your supply stash due to space or other constraints?

Sarah – Living and working in a small space requires constant purging of supplies. I evaluate my supply needs every couple of months or so. There are so many great re-use/scrap centers in the bay area, which is where I donate my purged materials. I also shop for new supplies at these reuse centers. Nothing goes to waste!

Brad – Every couple of months.

HKPS:: Please describe how creative cycles of organization or disorganization affect your creative process.

Sarah – As I stated previously, I work best in an organic state, so things can get messy. But I have to be respectful of my shared space with my husband, so I can never let it get too out of hand. This is where a separate studio space would be beneficial to me some day. But working with space restraints is a necessity and has been beneficial too. Living in my studio space keeps me constantly engaged with my art, a continuous creative hum to my daily living.

Brad – I begin my creative process in an organized state, but gradually as a project unfolds, my space becomes more cluttered. However, this doesn’t affect my productivity. After I’ve completed a project, I regroup and organize.

Thank you so much, Sarah and Brad for inviting us into your home and providing us with the photo’s and your responses. Each have shared some great insight and it’s fascinating how they both approach organizing and how plays into their creative process a bit differently. Living and working from home can be challenging and I’m certain these two have both had to evaluate and re-evaluate what it takes to stay successful. They have certainly created a beautiful and functional living and working environment. They will soon have the addition of a wee little one, congratulations!

My greatest wish is that through seeing how other artist work we can learn from one another. There is no ONE correct system or way of organizing. There are as many creative systems as their creative makers! My aim is to highlight these unique makers in each interview. A HUGE thank you to each one of this year’s artists for inviting us into their studio and sharing their systems and how organizing affects their creative process. There will be more to come next year and I’m working on ways to share this feature via other avenues. I am also planning to expand the series to include other sneak peek interviews into creative small business sometime around mid-2014. If you missed any of my previous Inside the Studio posts this year please go back and take a look!

* 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!

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In the Studio with Allegory Lanham

December 26, 2013 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Home, In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources

Today’s studio sneak peek is the last of 2013!! I am so excited to have begun this interview process and have loved meeting and learning about each of these artists, from local and afar. Some have been new to me, others are friends and artists I’ve known for quite some time. Each of them has shared something unique about how they work in their studio practice! I launched this series in March not knowing how I would find new artists but each interview has evolved naturally and I’ve featured 18 artists over the last 9 months! These artist have included textile designers, a garment designer, painters, a graphic designer, photographers, a music studio producer, a potter, a mixed media artist, and quilters!

Today’s interview is inside the Studio of Allegory Lanham of A Thousand Needles. We met while in Houston at Quilt market, where we both attended the Bad Ass Quilters Society Gala. Allegory has a distinct sense of fashion, topped with a funky hairstyle that matched the blue tunic shirt she designed and wore that evening. This is probably one reason I sat near her and and we struck up a conversation about life, quilting and how we both came to there that evening. I learned that she was born and raised in Kentucky where she learned first-hand quilting traditions passed down through her mother and grandmother. She didn’t come around to quilting as a form of her own artistic expression till years later…post college after trying her hand at all kinds of other forms of creative expression. She kept a needle close by throughout though and fashioned garments and garment patterns along the way. As she states on her blog, she turned to quilting when she desperately wanted to sew something flat! These days she teaches, designs and created both garments and quilts.

HKPS::What age did you suspect or know you were an artist?

AL::I know I was young when I realized I *wanted* to be an artist. Maybe 5? Or 6? At that age, the revelation just meant that I colored a lot and then read lots and lots of books (my other passion). I never started *feeling* like an artist until the past year or so.

A part of Al’s design and inspiration wall

HKPS::What mediums do you work with?

AL::My primary love is fabric but I’ve tried just about every medium you can imagine over the years. That idea of wanting to be an artist meant that I tried drawing, sculpting, painting, metal work for jewelry…all of it. My art supplies are numerous. On a typical day though I’m using fabric and embroidery floss along with my sketchbook and colored pencils (I do all my design work on paper).

HKPS::Where do you make Art and how big is your studio?

AL::My ‘dayjob” (I hate calling it that because I love it so much and really do it at all hours not just during the day) is done in my studio which is a side-room of the house. I’m lucky that there’s a bit of a hallway that leads to it and I can be slightly isolated. It’s not very large…maybe 10ft x 15ft? If that. I should measure some day. I’d say 90% of the fabric work is done here. Sometimes I’ll take a project out in the main house to sew by hand but not very often. Any time I want to play with some other medium, I’ll do it in the main rooms of the house. All the paint and such stays far far away from the fabric.

HKPS::Do you consider yourself to be an organized person?

AL::Yes? Depending on the day. Oh, more accurately, depending on the deadlines. Things have their place, certainly but if I’m in the middle of 3-4 large projects then the studio is a disaster zone. I think it’s important to note that only those large projects are thrown everywhere though. I like working in a small bit of chaos. If something isn’t going well, I can push it to the side and grab something else. But fabric has three main places it lives (depending on the size pieces), patterns have their own drawers sorted by types and interfacing has its own shelves. Those things never change no matter the chaos.

Visible storage of larger fabric pieces

HKPS:: How or where did you learn your organizing habits and systems?

AL::I feel like I just invented it by myself along the way. As I devoted more time to my work, it became necessary to find things. A *super* organized, labelled system didn’t work for me though. I need to see things sometimes when I think about them. Or move other pieces around while I puzzle out a design. Materials are always organized to save me time hunting but projects also live in bags and boxes. That’s not to say that at some point I’ll dump that whole project box out on a side table and look at it while I work. To see if the colors are working for me still.

Cubbies for small fabric storage

HKPS::What types of schedules, systems, tools or tips do you use to help maintain organization in your studio?

AL::I have a planner that I use for my teaching schedule and I’ll put major deadlines in there. That always helps to remind me. On the first of each month, I’ll sit down and write a list. Items that absolutely have to be done get dates next to them (and usually appear at the top of the list). Things I’d like to work on get cluttered on there as well. It’s always an ambitious list..let’s see…this month’s has 25 items on it and some of those have 3-4 components. I know not all of it will get done and things will get added to it as opportunities come up. But this system works for me because I feel like I can spend less time during the month figuring out what I *should* be doing and just sew. This year I finally invested in a wire drawer system from IKEA for my scraps and it’s helped a lot. They’re sorted by warms, cools, neutrals and holiday. I work in scraps a lot for my projects and I used to just have this giant tub that I would dig and dig through. Now scraps have a home and I can just yank a drawer out to work from.

HKPS::What kinds of materials/tools do you find challenging to keep organized or locate when you need to use them?

AL::Purse hardware and I are having a bit of a battle right now. I need to figure it out soon considering some upcoming plans that I have but right now I swear that I’ll have a magnetic snap then it disappears when I need it. Then reappears once I’ve gone out to buy a new one…in that same cup I swear I already looked in. I work in a lot of sizes that are very close to each other, too. For example, I have 1” and 1 1/2” metal sliders all mixed in a basket right now. There might be some 1 1/4” in there too…it’s a slight mess. I know there’s a cup of sliders but I’ll have to pull out and measure for making a bag. My dream is to have one of those tool cabinets full of purse hardware with each section labeled. That would make me incredibly happy but I can’t possibly fit another piece of furniture in my studio right now.

HKPS::How often do you purge or declutter your supply stash due to space or other constraints?

AL::It’s gotta hit me. Especially working in fabric and fabric scraps, I feel like I need access to a lot. I’m the type that’s more likely to mix lines and designers and such all together. So while I do buy bundles of fabric, I almost immediately break them down and split them into different projects. Which would make it difficult to buy for a new project if I cleared out my studio. Maybe twice a year or so, after I’ve worked on a couple of projects at once and my floor is full of fabric…I’ll just clear out all the pieces I just cut from. Instagram makes it easy to destash. Either full pieces of fabric or just snap a pic of the scraps left over from one and sell them as a set. That way they immediately go in an envelope and get shipped off, instead of staying and adding to my enormous stockpile of scraps in the studio. (Follow her on Instagram to find great de-stash deals!)

HKPS::Please describe how creative cycles of organization or disorganization affect your creative process? Are there certain phases of projects that are more or less organized?

AL::Like I mentioned before, I can’t ever just work on one thing. I think a lot about my quilts/bags before I ever sew them. Sometimes a stack of fabric can sit on my side table for a month. I’ll switch out a color or two in it and let it sit for another couple days. But this means when I go to cut and sew, it’s a whirlwind. So I think about two or three projects, leave fabric out for those while cutting another two that have already sat. It *seems* dis-organized whenever anyone glances into my studio. There are these little piles of fabric around, some of which live in baskets but most are just put on any available flat surface. If fabric is sitting in a pile, it can’t be pulled for anything else…that messes me up.
I try once every other month to re-organize the small things that end up getting scattered from work: that stray bit of embroidery floss or those buttons I decided not to use. I have a terrible habit of turning anything into a pincushion. So I’ll pull pins out of things and put them in an actual pincushion during this clean-up.

HKPS::Do you give much thought to your artistic body of work in terms of historic value and the overall artistic legacy you will leave behind? How do you store/archive your work or records? If not why?

AL::This is actually a strange question for me. I love quilting history. I have books on it and I’ll base my own work on some very traditional work that I’ll spend days doing research on. Yet I’ve never actually considered my own quilts a part of quilting history. My quilts will get labels, if I remember to sew them in but I don’t think of a legacy. Now that I’m sitting and thinking about it, I think that’s just tied into the fact that I see my ‘art’ getting used every day. My couch is covered with quilts and so is the bed. I can spy four handmade pillows from where I’m sitting. If I’m carrying a bag, it’s one that I made. I have plans for more work that can be displayed and is meant for hanging instead of carrying but I’m reminded daily that my art isn’t at all “hands-off.” There’s a quilt on my bed that has been patched so many times…and I love it dearly. My husband is hard on blankets. I don’t know how he does it. And that was always the reality of what I do, it was going to be beat-up and dropped and dragged and loved and torn. It’s so weird..because I wonder if those quilts of mine will even survive and yet in my studio right now I have three 1930s feedsack quilts that were found unfinished and I’m taking every care to finish them, knowing that I won’t get it exactly how the person who cut those pieces intended but I hate to see them undone. It makes me want to at least put a note in each of my project boxes that named what quilt I intend for them to become.

Thank you so much Allegory for inviting us into your studio space and providing us with the photo’s. Thank you for sharing some of the organizing methods and systems you use in your studio practice. If you would like to see more of her work head over to A Thousand Needles website or her Etsy Shop to see what’s available for sale. I’ll be back with another artist DOUBLE feature next week to ring in the New Year!

* 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 artist’s 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!

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Fabric Storage Makeover

December 22, 2013 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Organizing Projects, Systems & Techniques

This weekend I took a little time in my studio for a quick Fabric Storage Makeover.

As I get more into using my studio for sewing and quilting I have realized my stacking method for fabric storage just doesn’t work. Why would it? It doesn’t work for papers either!

I’d seen lots of file cabinets re-purposed for fabric storage and I had this dis-assembled rolling file cart I wasn’t using so decided to put it to good use. I love the results, all those gorgeous fabric’s right where I can see them to use!

I am always extra pleased when I don’t have to buy anything and can make use of something that wasn’t being used! Can’t believe I didn’t think of this before, but as they say…Necessity is the mother of invention and some new fabric’s in the stash made it clear that my system needed modification. What creative systems do you use to store your fabric (or yarn) stash?

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In the Studio with Sarajo

In the Studio with SCAD Fibers

In the Studio with The Simpson’s Double Feature

In the Studio with Allegory Lanham

Fabric Storage Makeover

This weekend I took a little time in my studio for a quick Fabric Storage Makeover.

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