Tips and Tools - Corralling the Studio Chaos - Day One - The Fibers

Okay!

 I have to believe that 

most artists and crafters have an 

occasional day when their work space

explodes!
I know mine does from time to time.

For the next two or three days I will share with you

 some of the tools I used to corral my clutter

in the studio.

I will start with how I store

my fibers.

As you may know I am a mixed media artist

working with all kinds of materials.

 It is very important that my fibers are not exposed

to my metal or wood elements.

I have remedied this problem by storing all my fibers 

in a nice size walk in closet. 

 It has open selves built from floor to sealing

which allows me to see all my fabrics, leather, 

laces, yarns, ribbon and twine. 

I have re-purposed old baskets that I made many years

ago, they now house my antique and vintage laces, dollies

and hankies.

I found a corner in my fiber closet 

for all my reference books and catalogs.

Just in front of the books sits an old chest

that my mother used for my baby clothes.

It is small and prefect for all my sewing things.

A drawer for knitting needles, 

a drawer for crochet needles,

a scissor drawer and a

miscellaneous drawer for sewing items.

On top of this dresser I have used 

vintage cedar boxes for sewing notions, pins and needles

and sewing machine items.

Labeled boxes sit high on my shelves.

 They store things that I do not use often

 like ribbons, old belts and scarfs.

I moved my yarn from the shelves to this

canvas shoe rack. This freed up shelf space

for more of my fabrics and also helped 

me to sort my yarns by color. 

The vintage ties that I use in some of my work

are light weight and hang nicely on hangers

after they are opened and pressed.

The hangers rest on clear thumb tacks.

The hanging wire rack works well

for the ties that have not yet been opened and pressed.

The antique spools!

 I have had these wooden spools sitting around for years.

I recently used one of them in a bird sculpture.

While cleaning the studio I decided what better way

to use these spools then the way they were first intended.

Stools are always useful in a studio.

This small antique stool fits wonderfully on one of my shelves

it works to lift spools up so that I can see them.

Other things can be placed under the stool or in front it.

This re-purposed basket 

holds all of my leather pieces.

So there you have it.

The fiber closet is cleaned and organized.

I can now close the door and move on to

the main room of the studio.

See you tomorrow!