You've seen my workshop before...
We used this part of it for a video set for a long time. Sometimes, we still do!
As a matter of fact, I was just down there this morning. It's in one corner of the basement, a functional place where I do the wash and other sundry chores necessary to manage a home. It's a little 1950's style ranch house, and the basement can be a little wet, ugh. But....
When you turn the corner and walk into the workshop that 'older home needing work' feeling disappears, and you find yourself in another world. A creative world!
My creative world is a place of whimsy as well as a place to get things done. Everything that makes me happy surrounds me....all my tools, all my cute little things, vintage and handmade....my clay oven, big work spaces, my drills and torches.
Nothing in my workspace is for sale til I finish it....or you find it my Etsy, etc. Here, the host of jewelry making supplies and pretty things all belong to me. Periodically I do purge it, but it's rare. Most of the bibs and bobs filed away or hanging on the wall have some sentimental value, and are very hard to part with!
I have my television, my tunes and my coffee pot there, as well. Good to go, time to forget the rest of the world and get into the zone.
Quite a few of the pieces in my workshop are from down at the store we had some years ago. That place was a little chocolate box full of goodies and treasures. Many were sold when we came back home, but just as many were kept. I have my mannequin heads, my map chest, my type trays full of trinkets, my old coffee tins....they all make me happy. There are a lot of memories in this space.
This is the other side of the shop, where I have an L-shaped workbench with a tap line on both sides. I love that tap line, as I can plug stuff in at will. It belonged to my husband who used to repair small appliances and electronics about 30 years ago. When he stopped doing that, he let me have it....and I've made good use of it ever since.
If I'm going to make a mess with paints and patinas, usually it will happen on that side of the shop.
Under the benches you will see lots of sturdy plastic storage I picked up a bit at a time, as my space expanded. Now, all of the benches have storage underneath. The big table in the center of the room has plastic storage underneath and all around. The back bench you'll find my drill, clay oven and torches---also has storage all along the underside.
None of the storage is fancy; most came from Walmart or office stores, etc. But when I count it up, I've easily got a grand in that storage. Hard to believe, but true.
Most are quite full of this and that, too. Under the L-shaped bench are tools for soldering, leather work, UTEE (remember UTEE?) frying Friendly Plastic, and working with polymer clay. My hammers and big bench pad are on the counter. On the other side, I have a lot of cool paper stored as well as some resin supplies, etc.
I have a lot of pretty beads cute sentimental stuff on the back wall, as well as tools. There is a rack of pliers. Oh, did I mention, I have a work space upstairs in my office too.....there are twice as many pliers or more, up there.
For some reason I hung my 1920's era vintage dancing shoes up there. They make me smile.
Yep, it's true: happiness is something you decide ahead of time. If you want to be happy, it's up to you to make it happen. That's why I made this workshop, my way, with my special little things. I can always go down there when I need to clear my head.
Below, the view from the middle of the room....
The pipes hanging down are for exhausting out any glue or resin fumes. There are five of them.
And down the side:
All along the back wall:
My big work table has a history. It goes back to the early 90's when I began to make jewelry. My helpers and I each had our own little space, and we made jewelry for the gift line I produced and sold to over 500 store accounts all across the country. We did that in the basement workshop, too.
When we moved downtown to the shop, we took the table apart and put it together again....and when we returned, my husband took it apart and brought it back to the basement. If that table could talk, what stories it could tell!
Do you have a special place where you organize your tools and supplies, a place where you can make a mess, let it set, and come back to it? A place where you can shut off the world and just do your thing? I have Wi-Fi down there but I rarely ever take my phone or iPad into the workshop. There is a regular land line down there if I need it....but I rarely do. When I go into the basement workshop, it's ME time---forget the phone!
Whatever dedicated space you have, make it your own. It doesn't have to be fancy, you just need a place to create and be yourself. My first space was the kitchen table! Many of us began on a kitchen table and if you are still there, so long as it works for you, you're fine! Maybe you have a small extra room you can use, or space in your basement like I do. I know of artisans who gutted out a closet and made it work for dedicated space!
Find your own little getaway....and then be sure to go there often, to dream and create, away from the distraction of every day life.
Imagine the possibilities!
