Tips and Tools - Organizing Laces and Ribbons

It is always nice to find new ways to

organize.

Today I will show you a little trick

I have found for organizing all those antique and vintage

laces, as well as the small bits we just hate to throw away.

To start the first part of this project

 you will need an old 

deck of cards and a glue stick.

You may also want to place a piece of cardboard

 under your work space to protect your table.

Take two cards, put glue on the number side

of one of your cards. Place the other card on top.

Make sure your cards are straight.

You can make as many of these as you would like.

Then start wrapping your lace around

your card. Secure the end with

a straight pin.

These cards fit perfectly in my old library card case.

For all my small bits and pieces of antique lace

I like to re-purpose wine corks.

All I do is take a wine cork and wind my

ribbon or lace around it.

Secure it with a straight pin.

For easy access I place them in small drawers.

This antique doll's dresser works perfectly

for all my small pieces of lace and ribbons.

Tips and Tools - Corralling the Studio Chaos - DayThree - The Unusual

 I promised you the unusual

so here it is.

This vintage wooden turned flower frog,

is a perfect addition to my studio.

It's holes are just the right size for my hand made

repose and chasing tools.

The vintage glass frog above works well

for holding small tools.

This antique stamp holder now holds some of my pliers

and snips.

While junking one day I picked up this

kitchen knife block, lazy susan. 

I thought it might make a nice tool organizer. 

These small springs fit very nicely

in an old shot glass.

This wooden mortar lost it's pistal
while gaining other jeweler's tools.

Sometimes it is nice to have a container that will hold
 works in progress.
I am enjoying this vintage wooden divided lazy susan for
just that purpose.

This Mancala game was thrown out 

because it no longer had its glass game pieces.

I grabbed it up of course, after all it is wood and has

small dividers.

It works wonderfully for jewelry projects. 

One of my favorite game pieces in the studio
is this old wooden Cribbage board.
It is excellent for corralling my flex shaft tools.

This vintage drying rack has been in my studio
for years. It has held ribbion,
chain, bead strands and even tools.
Today it is working as a wire station.

Now that the studio is all clean and organized
it is time to start connecting some
of those many pieces.

Tips and Tools - Coralling the Studio Chaos - Day Two - Boxes

I have such a wonderfully peaceful feeling when I walk 

into my studio and everything is clean and organized.

Today I would like to share with you some of the things 

I use to organize my main studio.

One of my favorite pastimes is to go antiquing and junking.
 I love the feeling of going back in time as I rummage through
 things once loved and cherished. 

When I walk through a yard sale, junk store,

or an antique mall wonderful treasures of the past jump out at me.

Some of these treasures are wooden boxes.

The boxes that I have collected can be as large as a cabinet
 or as small as a pill box. 

The Primitive cabinet above works very well

for housing things I need but don't necessary

want to see.

The boxes I bring home are not always perfect.

They are often worn and scarred by time

bringing that old world charm to my studio.

This hand carved box has six dividers and

 works very well  holding some of my glitters.

I use to have a lot of small plastic containers in my 

studio. (We use what we have, right.)

The plastic boxes and containers worked but they just were not 

what I wanted my studio to look like or feel like.

While walking through a Goodwill store one day I noticed

several old wooden jewelry boxes. 

I bought them,

 brought them home, and they worked perfectly

for all the tiny findings I use for my jewelry.

The wooden cigar box is another favorite box of mine.

This antique "step back" cupboard has open shelves

and is the perfect place for some of my boxes.

I enjoy having easy access to so many of the 

small items that I work with.

This vintage sewing box has a lot of

separate compartments. It works well for holding

my tags and cards.

Other boxes that work well in the studio are

old crates. They can be turned on their sides

 making cubbies for all kinds of things.

With a board placed on top of these crates I can then 

place my old tool boxes on top of the crates.

This antique tool box holds my stamps and inks.

The typesetter drawers are perfect for corralling things

like keys, game pieces, charms and beads. 

These two boxes are the newest additions to my studio.

The bottom cabinet is an antique

library card filing cabinet.

Now it is filling old typewriter pieces.

This five drawer box below is an antique drug store

label box.

The drawers of this box are the prefect size for all my 

tiny screws, bolts, springs, hinges, screw eyes and more. 

Well, that is all for today.

Tomorrow I will share some things

 you may have not thought of to use in a studio.

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!