Luna's Baublebilities

Let's face it.  I'm depressed.  It's January.  It has been freakin' cold and a lot of the supplies I had stored in my South Studio (enamel paints for filigree, acrylics, specialized glues for jewelry and textiiles)  froze and are ruined because we had to seal off that section of the house in order to make headway in the battle against Winter.

My North Side Studio looks like this.

It is the only warm spot in the house some days and this is where everyone wants to huddle.  My dye table is covered with other people's junk and stuff from other projects that I would rather do in the South Side studio but can't.  Because it is cold.






See the plastic?  Some days it billows out like there is some enormous, liquid animal trying to push it's way through into the rest of the house. 










The kids have been hacking and snotting and puking for over a week.  I've had a low level of ongoing physical malaise for most of the month.  I've been mentally incompetent and my work ethic is just gone.  Completely.

 The other day I took some time to thumb through some old journals because I wanted to revisit some favorite doodles.  And because I was too lazy to get up and do any actual work.  I discovered a few things;

First,  I was a much more interesting person before I became Maxx's Mommy.  I think that I might become more interesting again in the future - I remember feeling pretty burdened and lame when MB was small, too.  (So - if you have a friend who used to be lots of fun, deeply intellectual, insightful, creative and generally good to talk to and she now has kids and is a total bore - be nice to her, O.K?  It sort of sucks sometimes to have that part of yourself forced to the back burner or into total hibernation so that you can manage your kids and house and etc...)


Second, I found a great doodle I made during a talk by Pres. Monson during the April 2006 general conference.  Isn't he adorable?  Don't you feel bad for him?

Third, I found a good prose poem that applies pretty well to my state of mind this month.  I scribbled it sometime between 8/2000 and 5/2001 - certainly it is a winter poem and was written before we had to put our old Springer, Roxanne, down.  I miss her.

I know that what I need is to get the house clean, get some exercise and banish everything but fabric and dye from my North Studio & give myself permission to drag some beads and findings from the frozen tundra to the livingroom.  Emmeth encourages this.  He would like to help build a necklace.  Or take one apart. 



Anyway - here's the poem.  Careful.  It's ugly.








Welcome to my BioRythmic Trench

a trench = a ditch; a place to channel unpleasant/unwanted stuff from one place to its disposal; a place for smelly men with guns to lie in while they reload and to crouch in while they fire at the enemy; a long hole in the dirt; a place where people piss;

an entrenchment = a thing that soldiers dig and build to keep people out - to keep the enemy on the other side.

Who's the enemy??? 
Surely it is this old dog.

Blind, deaf, lazy, fat, stubborn, inconvenient.

I could just kick her.
But I don't
I know how she feels.

We really are about to move.  Really.  All the good new photos are on the camera, hanging on a nail over at the Beorningstead.  But here are a couple of shots of the progress on my studio sink area and a breif overview of what we've accomplished in the past few days.

The upstairs bedrooms are ready to prime and paint.  (Molly and Meemo primed her room last week!)  There are lights in each bedroom, though none in the hall or stairway yet.  (Again, thanks goes to Bry's mom for her patience and skill in wiring lights and decoding those jumbles of wire in junction boxes.)

I set up my brand new computer desk yesterday (it took nearly all stinking day).

Bryan finished installing my studio sink last night.  (Thanks go to Greg who helped with a few minor issues and consulted with us about the roof over the back of the house.)  Hot and cold water come in and go out of my new studio without leaks!  We can now wash dishes and scrub paintbrushes (and eventually dye scarves and threads and fabulous fiber!)

The shower and Potty have been operable for some time now - no door on the bathroom, just a sliding board for privacy.  That causes Molly a great deal of anxiety but she can cope for a little while until we figure out the door solution.

Things are still very rustic.  It will feel like camping - in my own bed! - for a while.  Which is fine.  Even nice.  I spent a good part of my childhood living in the basement of my parent's home while the log house was being built.  My grandfather ran a saw mill.  I really don't mind the sound of power tools and I actually like the smells associated with construction.  Dust, though.  There will be lots of that.  Have to remember to cover the computer and furniture all the time.

Maxx is having a blast.  And not watching TV when we are there.  Another bonus - he plays with his little cousin, Truman, daily.  They are becoming good friends, which is something Maxx needs.  Truman loves to run and play with him - they have squirt gun fights with lots of hilarious laughter, play Star Wars using big bubble wands as light sabers and just generally run amok.  Truman is no longer afraid to tell Max where to get off, he holds his own and is very straightforward about what he does and doesn't like. 

Goblin's Market and Luna's Baublebilities are very much on hold right now.  I fulfilled two wholesale orders this week.  One was for a bunch of dragonflies to New Zeland and one for a handful of gorgeous earrings to a customer who makes her own jewelry but also does several trunk shows a summer and fills out her inventory with work from other artists, like me.  Other wise things have been quiet, allowing me to focus on construction.   The break is nice but I've really been itching to be playing at something creative - especially since my old studio is clean for walk throughs.  That empty table makes my fingers itch.

Hopefully, this will help with that itch.  I just got a copy of India Flint's Ecocolor in the mail.  Velma brought some gorgeous fabric into the Arts Council a couple of weeks ago and I was just smitten with what she was doing.   I've played with rust dyeing before and have seen several of Velma's earlier experiments with composted cloth but never felt compelled to try anything this slow before.  The work she brought in on silk was just incredible - whole leaves and plant parts bundled in cloth and steeped for weeks left rich impressions reminiscent of solarized photography or x rays of flowers.  I hope to bundle up a few things myself later this week.  I have a nice sunny spot on my studio floor for batching bundles of slow cloth.  The timing is good for such an experiment, too.  I can't really do any other dyeing the way things are right now and this will drive me outdoors with the beast and the children to collect some goodies and walk away from the construction for a few minutes now and then. 

It's time to get ready for work.  I'm exhausted from insomnia and I'm hoping that I make it through the day happily.  I'll try to put up some new photos this weekend.

It is January 6, 2010 and it just keeps on snowing in Upstate NY.  The more it snows and the cold creeps further into houses and bones, the more apparent it becomes that The Beorningstead will not be move-in ready before March or April. 

Alas.  I will be asking Bry to move one of my large counter tops destined for my new studio into the livingroom here this weekend and will set up a dyeing area right here.  I've wasted enough time waiting for my new studio (curse you, banks and housing council!) and with both kids back in school, I'm ready to start really working here at home. 

Another thing I'm ready to work on are some more Mary Harding pandant necklaces.  I mentioned earlier that I had purchased a beautiful ceramic pendant from Mary at the Beading Party in October and that I had created a lovely beaded strand to attach it to - well here it is!    (Sorry about the poor photo quality, there's a lot of glare on my pendant.  My new studio will have a better photography set up, too!)

I used gold colored beadalon, copper colored toggles, some of my favorite Czech Glass beads, several interesting brass filigree components and created a big bail with a large brass filigree.  When I finished, I realized that the necklace was the perfect length for the plain turtleneck I was wearing while designing it, but a bit short for my favorite draped cowl neck shirt so I made a matching extension that allows the necklace to drape deeper OR that can wrap around twice so that I can wear it as a choker length bauble with tee shirts or open necked sweaters.  The bail I created is very wide and can slide off the necklace entirely so I can wear the bead strand alone or trade it out for a wide ribbon if I want to wear the pendant with a slightly more feminine style.

It is very versatile and I've had lots of compliments on it so I want to make several more to offer in my shops.  Mary has a very nice wholesale policy and I will be purchasing several of her pendants when my Christmas commission check come in.  You can find Mary's work on her blog, in her Etsy Shop or on her independent website.  She's a wonderful woman and her gorgeous work has been featured in beadstyle and a few other publications - stop by and take a look at all the amazing things she does with glass and clay!

Now - I'm off to work. Today I plan to finish a project that got stalled months ago.  I picked it back up yesterday and was re-inspired!  It may even turn out to be worthy of an article to submit to Beadwork.  Photos coming soon.



 . . . .

October's take it Further challenge is to think about our work spaces and how they affect our work. Way back in January, I posted photos of my messy studio and shared some information about the challenges associated with my space. As my business grows, and I have been expanding into selling supplies as well as creating accessories, I am coming to realize that my space is simply not sufficient. I need at least twice as much room as I have now, possibly three times as much, as well as better storage options and a reliable water supply.


I've been fantasizing about having a yurt studio. Bryan thinks I'm nuts - or just obsessed with yurts because I've also been suggesting that we ditch our bat infested, polluted water home in Ft. Jackson and go live in a yurt at his parents' while we build something smaller, greener and more suitable to the lifestyle we want to be living.














I used to want my studio to be integrated into the general living quarters of the house. I'm recognizing that this is not an effective strategy for someone who really wants to be productive. Plus, in order to have a studio the size I would need, that could mean that we would need to have an Enormous house. As things are now, I have to keep chasing Maxx out of my studio so that he doesn't get the scissors or chop up some important piece of paperwork with the craft cutter or get his hands on my creme brule torches (affectionately dubbed "mom's mini flame throwers"). He and Molly invariably seem to need my attention whenever I'm in my studio, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if the space wasn't already so cramped. As it is, if I get one more body in there while I'm working, even a small one, I simply cannot move to reach the things I need. If I had a space of my own that was larger and separate from the rest of the house, it would be easier to say "mom's working," easier to ignore the phone, easier to enforce mom-space rules and more possible to set up a small area for kiddy crafts.

Bry and I also used to think that it would be nice to have our work spaces in a shared structure. (His dream, and he's moving toward it, is to create furniture from recycled barn wood and to learn to make canoes.) Considering that my work is strongly leaning toward textiles and his would strongly lean toward sawdust and varnish, we are realizing that this may not be wise. Someday when all of this is working the way that we want it to, finished furniture can come into my studio for upholstery.

Bry & I had a conversation about my fantasy yurt studio a few days ago. His expression spoke "my wife is off her rocker" quite loudly as he tried to explain that he could easily build me a small studio separate from the house, if he had the materials, for about the same amount of time & money needed to put up a yurt. I looked at him as if he were the crazy one and pointed out that with a yurt, you set up the platform, put up the wall and roof, roll on the covering, install the wiring & plumbing and it's done. DONE. No measuring twice and then cutting and then adjusting your cut. No doors and windows to measure and install. No fiberglass insulation to staple on. No wall board to put up. No painting to do. No surprise expenses at the last minute. It could be all finished in three days to a week and then I would get to move in and get right to work. Just Like That.



He argued against the quirky geometry of living in a yurt. I love quirky geometry. My bedroom in my parents' log cabin was right under the spot where the two roof angles came together. I feel at home in a slanted ceiling with exposed structural elements. I really dislike big, flat planed boxes. I agree that shelving might be a difficult issue, but I'm sure I could find a way to make it work.



This is what I would need in my dream studio:
- really good lighting - maybe some portable& adjustable light fixtures would be handy here.
- a double basin sink with a sprayer and at least one laundry sized sink all at counter top level with running hot and cold water
- a floor drain might be handy near the sink area
- a work station dedicated to sewing
- a work station dedicated to bead work
- a large, long table of counter top height or of adjustable height for silk painting, dyeing, and other arts and crafts
- a small area, well lighted to photograph my work that includes both a table for photographing small works and a dress form against a clean wall area for scarves, wearables and larger works.
- a packing center to hold boxes, envelopes, labels, tape, baggies and bubblewrap.
- small shelves to hold all of my little bead barrels. They are taking over my studio. Something like a pumped up and overgrown spice rack with a white backing would be handy - then I could see everything in each barrel with a quick scan instead of having to pick each one up as I search for what I need.
- a Medium size bookcase to hold my studio literature
- Cupboards or shelves to hold all of my fabric, chemicals, dyes, paints, stamps and other miscellaneous arts supplies.
- drawers under table surfaces for tools, jewelry wire, adhesives, paper supplies etc . . . . .
- a small heating unit - whether that would be a little woodstove or a small propane or electric space heater, I'm not sure.














I'm wondering if a 16' yurt would do the trick - I'm thinking it probably would not be quite big enough. Maybe a 20 footer? What I should do is work out a floor plan with little scale model pieces of what I need and go from there. That would be fun to do today but I have aclass to teach tonight and need to go get ready for that and spend some time on the treadmill. The yurt photos I've pasted in here are taken from the following yurt companies' websites:

Bue Ridge Yurts
Spirit Mountain Yurts
Colorado Yurts
Rainier Yurts
Pacific Yurts

Maybe someday I'll get to buy a yurt of my own!

Yesterday I finally finished cleaning my studio. It was in really rough shape. For some reason my room is the place that everyone in the family uses as a dump when they are cleaning other rooms of the house. When someone comes across an item that they don't know how to put away, they put it in my studio. When somebody finds something that they don't want anymore, they put it in my studio. When the dog pulls something delectable out of the trash can, he carries it up to my studio. When we have company coming and don't have time to tidy everything nicely, everything gets shoved in my studio. Why is this?

This fall was so hectic that by Christmas time my studio looked like this.










There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth - not to mention shouting and tearing of hair in frustration as I attempted to work on gifts in the short time I had this season. In the end, if there was something I wanted, I had to step over piles of junk on the floor to get to needed supplies and drag them downstairs to work in the kitchen. It was very ineffective, time consuming and unhappy for everyone in the family. I'm committed to not allowing it to happen again.

In the process of cleaning, I stuffed three large garbage bags full of stuff to go away. I've been inspired by Sharon over at In a Minute Ago who just completed a reorganization and weigh in of her studio fabric stash. I did not weigh everything in my studio - there are just too many categories and too much crossover between categories to effectively "label" everything.

What did I end up throwing away?
- Several very old cheapo sewing projects that were begun when I was a sewing beginner. They were never going to be finished and weren't worth passing along to anyone to save.
- Several baggies of junk beads that I saved for my daughter to play with when she was small. She is no longer small enough to be interested in junk beads and I am getting rid of all baggies in my studio. (Come back in a few days to read about getting rid of studio "baggage")
- Lots of stuff that the dog dragged upstairs to chew on or lick out. His favorite in recent months has been empty cat food bags and fish sticks boxes. Sometimes he will steal a toy to hoard up there, too. I think the toys are a response to our 3 year old son who deliberately hides the dog's toys behind a large chair in the study so that the dog has nothing to play with.
- Lots of failed paper art and/or scrap paper, old handmade patterns that didn't make the cut, etc...

I also spent a great deal of time reorganizing various art supplies into small bins to be stored in a more accessible and logical manner. I've been guilty of keeping uncategorized things in cardboard boxes, the aforementioned plastic baggies, loose in drawers and in heaps for too long now. It has been a frustrating few days digging through the heaps and piles and clutter but it was so worthwhile!

Earlier today, I walked past my studio and saw the afternoon sun streaming in onto the clean (ugly - but clean!) carpet and felt drawn to the space instead of repelled by it. Last night my daughter complained that she wants a room with 3 windows and my husband admitted rather ruefully that I've got the best room in the whole house for my studio. It may be that all the stuff in there is going to have to start earning its keep this year or my family will start trying to encroach upon my creative territory!

Time to put a small person to bed and finish my bead reorganization project. I need to order some beads for a class I am teaching next Tuesday at the St.Lawrence County Arts Council and I need to get a good look at what I do and don't have enough of by tomorrow.