Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Another Long Day in the Craft Room

   We still have cold and rain here at the lake, so another good day to work in my craft room. I put in another full day and got allot accomplished. Happy dance

   The closet area that has steep and very wide steps is perfect for clutter haha.  I have one side that is big pillowcases full of fibers to spin, and on the other side I have big plastic storage containers labeled with wools, my hand dyed fabrics and other fiber related goods.  What had turned this into a mess-was a huge stack of old sheets that needed to be gone through and torn into rags-I did that and so this space is pretty much back to normal again.  Towards the bottom steps I have boxes of essential oils, and melt and pour soap making supplies, along with lots of butters and things to make into salves, creams etc-leftovers from when I was selling in my Etsy shop.  Now I just make things for me and for gifts for slow mail friends.

  When I open up the closet door to the left are wide built in wood shelving-full of quilting batting and fabrics, and also books. Straight ahead looking into the space we bought shelving that just fits-that is loaded with my craft and art books. I also got several books posted now to my shop.

  We both have always collected vintage country farm items-crocks of all sizes, you name we have it haha. So sad there was no room for our crocks here at the lake house-I was able to bring a few small ones over though. Anyways, straightening up the closet I uncovered two vintage bread boxes-perfect for storage. I used one right away for all my acrylic paint supplies which made more room on my desk. 

  I also found my Navajo rug and hung that up right away so I can enjoy it again. I purchased this back in the late '70s when I was living in Denver Colorado and got the job working for the phone company, which ended up being my career. There was a sale on Navajo rugs of all sizes and all cost points. I always admired the Navajo weavers and looked and looked til I found one I could afford. I will always remember that I paid $75.00 back then which was allot of money for me. I have always loved this piece. The yarn is very very fine.

  and you can see the bread box to the left now filled with acrylic paints and brushes.


I also found a little paint easel I guess I would call it. It was super inexpensive when I was first starting to buy painting supplies. I had forgotten about that-set it up to see how it works.  Watching some your tube videos the other night to learn more about watercolor backgrounds-washes-one was showing that she uses these clear clip boards-takes the clip off and tapes her paper to the board and she can move it around for wet on wet backgrounds. Found that I have one-haha  I am thinking why not just use the clip instead of the tape?? I will try this out soon. 


Here is the other bread box and found this empty plastic container so two more storage units.


  A couple years before we decided to look for a lake home, I had the idea of looking for nice blouses at the resale shops and then natural dye them and sell on my Etsy shop. I did a few with annatto which was a long process in the end, but they turned out nice. I uncovered those today too These are pretty small size but I think I will hand wash them and iron and offer them in my shop.


  I have a couple pieces that I had dyed with goldenrod back then, that are big and bulky that I love, that dye usually comes out a bit blotchy so will keep those to wear for myself.  I had done a couple pieces of transfer silk pattern on cloth-over to another piece of silk cloth. That was really fun, and I sold that piece the day I put it in my shop. I would like to play with that again someday.

 Haven't checked the weather for tomorrow yet-probably more rain and cold. Hoping those of you that need rain will get some soon-I am ready to share-smiles

Have a good evening


30 comments:

  1. Kathy I so enjoyed reading and seeing your studio. It looks like you are really getting organized in there. The Navajo rug is such a wonderful accent piece. Also re-purposing the bread box to hold your paints is a great idea. I think too the clipboard would work well for either clipping your paper or taping. I rarely stretch mine and staple it and tape it. I know that is what many artists do but I use Formica boards and clip or tape my watercolor paper to them. It seems to work for me. Well have a good evening. Enjoy your studio time!!

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  2. Hi Kathy!! One reason to use tape is it gives you a nice clean border around your painting that looks nice ... in my opinion..lol Ofcourse you don't have to use tape. If you don't mind about the clean edge then i'm sure the clip will work. Glad your finding some storage boxes.. I'm still working on that craft project.. Bought some ribbon for it , now i need to cut the shank off some buttons.. 15 buttons! Thinking of using my Dremel.. I bought these buttons at a flea mkt in an old mason jar with other buttons. Good to use them.. I'm trying not to buy much to make this project but i did end up having to buy a few things....oh well it will be good to have it done.. Gald you had a good day! Hugs! deb

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    1. at first I thought I wouldn't like a white edge around the paper but then I guess that makes sense to do that for a piece that will be framed-I am not to that point of framing any thing yet-smiles
      awesome-I look forward to seeing your project progress-hugs

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  3. Have a good night get some rest after all that good work!

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  4. You have been working hard, Kathy. We are really lucky having almost summer weather in April. Hope that the nice warm weather arrives at your side soon.

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    1. thanks Angie hoping so too-this has been an unusally long string of days of cold and rain sunday they are saying 80 degrees

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  5. Sounds like you made good use of a rainy day. Always good to get organized and especially to find forgotten items. I keep trying to go through things around here. Sure is a process when there's so many craft supplies. The blouses are lovely. Take care.

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  6. That Navajo rug is gorgeous Kathy. I'm glad you put it up. Navajo weavers makes amazing pieces. Sounds like you had a good work day, and accomplished a lot. I cleaned the house, but just regular cleaning, which it really needed. Have a great Thursday. Hugs-Erika

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    1. Thank you, yes the Navajo weavers are amazing they spin a fine yarn and then weave beautiful pieces.
      Felt good to get allot done again-getting that room gone through during this cold and wet spell.
      I need to clean house too probably Friday as we may have friends come up over the weekend to go fishing

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  7. you have done a lot of different things in your crafting life! Your Navaho rug is lovely I would display it too. It feels so good to organize things
    cathy

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    1. good morning, yes I have bounced around allot in the fiber arts world-loved the natural dyeing very much

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  8. There’s so much to love about this post! The old bread boxes, Navaho rugs, natural dyed clothing! Yay for your having such a productive rainy day! And, wow, was it ever a rainy day. We got three inches yesterday.

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    1. wow thats allot of rain in one day. we have been getting rain about every day for a couple weeks now

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  9. Wow, you have had a busy day! When it's rainy weather, the craftroom is the perfect place to be 😀. That Navajo rug is gorgeous and looks perfect on your wall. Happy wishes! Hugs Jo x

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    1. Thank you so much Jo yes it was a perfect day--I finished up more today yeah

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  10. Something about Spring always gets the declutter juices flowing.
    xx, Carol

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    1. Hi Carol, we have been so cold and rainy here for a couple weeks now that I can't work outdoors soooo perfect to straighten out my very very full little craft room but spring is a nice time too-going into summer hugs

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  11. Hello~it's fun to discover things that have been hidden for a while. I do love your rug-it's beautiful. I bet you will do some awesome painting when you're done organizing. It always helps me to get stuff moved around and out!

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    1. thank you Debra, I am looking forward to learning watercolor painting hugs Happy weekend and my room feels so much better now-tidy and clean

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  12. You have been very busy again. That bread box is great for storing paints! Have a wonderful weekend, ake care of yourself, hugs, Valerie

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    1. Hi Valerie, yes the bread was perfect for the acrylic paints and brushes. now decide what would be nice in the other one-I may just put calligraphy supplies in that one

      you have a good weekend too hugs

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  13. Your craft room looks well organized and great.

    (It's Anne (Cornucopia) but Google wouldn't let me leave a comment, even though I'm signed in. I got the "whoops" error, which is actually some kind of bug with Google's software.)

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    1. thank you so much Anne, it feels so nice and welcoming in there now too-hugs
      google has this bright red "danger" over my blog links too craziness

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  14. Your art space looks so wonderful, I love it! I love the idea of using bread boxes for art supplies. I have made dye/ink from flowers and such from the garden, but mostly used them for painting, haven't tried them on fabric yet. Have a wonderful weekend!

    -Soma

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    1. Good evening, making dye/ink from flowers sounds lovely I never really thought about natural dye also being used as an ink-need to look into this more. Happy weekend

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  15. I am jealous of all those essential oils you have. I've used most of mine and they are SO expensive these days.

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    1. I still have quite a few of them, I had collected allot of them when I was selling my melt and pour soaps, and the company I bought supplies from let us choose free essential oils-glad they don't go out of date, or as least they don' seem too the goods are expensive

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