Storing pens and pencils

Because I love to art journal as well as quilt and scrapbook, I find that I have a lot of pens/ pencils/ crayons in fact anything that I can make a mark with in my studio.  If I only had a few supplies a pencil case would be the most convenient for me.  Because it is so portable and easy to use.  I have one I use for drawing on the run but most of my supplies have gone from container to container over the years.  I started having them in a wooden box but finding different tools I needed started getting frustrating.  Then everything went into jars and plastic Chinese containers.  then I moved onto bought storage with small drawers.  I find this the easiest to use out of the the 3 methods I have chosen especially now they are labelled. 

So I wonder what other ways people store these well used art supplies.  I found these ideas on line.

 

Recycled milk cartons

 

 

Wow!!!! is all I can say

 

 

An old tool box

 

 

 

Old cans

 

 



 

 

I thought these were cool

 

 

 

An old bucket....great for large projects on the go

 

 

A clear container

 

 

A can wall

 

Shoe boxes

 

 

A great multi layered  approach

 

 

In Labelled snap lock boxes

 

 

Cups on the wall

 

 

In shoe holders

 

Your imagination in your only limit

 

 

 

 

 

Sketchbook this week

I have carried on with the theme of people for most of the week. 

I love how everyone is so different and so beautiful. 

 

 

Storing ribbon and lace

I love ribbons and lace.  I don't normally use them in my quilts but I love to use them to wrap presents,  make costumes for the children and to add length to dresses (other wise known as long t-shirts :)  aren't skirts short at the moment)   I particularly love organza ribbon because it is so versatile and antique lace because....well it is antique and very unique. 

I remember as a child filling my hands with my mothers stash of ribbons and lace and imagining myself dressed in a period costume or dancing on the stage with a fully laced petticoat.  The smell takes me back years. 

Storing ribbons and lace can be a bit of trial and error.  I used to have them all in a big container.  But I found it hard to lay my hand on the right colour or pattern and I spent more time untangling knots than using them.  I then separated them out by colour only to find a similar issue with tangling. 



I now wrap thicker ribbons onto card,  put my antique lace in a box to display in my room and all the narrow bits and bobs go into ice cream containers and thread out through holes cut in the top of the lids.  My tiny bits left from projects go on embroidery floss cards and into a floss container to use for scrapbooking.

There are so many ways to store ribbons and lace.  These are some of the ways other people store theirs. 

 

 

 

I love this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool idea to wrap them onto ice block sticks

 

 

Great use for old rulers.

 

 

 

Lovely and neat and easy to see.

 

Great recycling

 

 

 

 

 

Photography this week

My boy does not like athletics very much.  He gets so frustrated when he can't run fast enough or jump high enough. 

 

 

 

 It is important to capture our moments we don't like as much at those we love.  The disappointments  in life are all part of our tapestry and who we are. 

Sketchbook this week

 

I have gone back to what I know well and love doing in my sketchbook.  Blank ink,  watercolours and patterning.  I love drawing patterns.  I think it is the way it makes me relax and the symmetry it has in my busy world I live in. 

 

 

 

 



 Patterning takes me back to my childhood making faces from the patterns in the curtains and using the patterns on the floors to play marbles. I use to love to look up at the ceilings at church when I was bored and count the tiles and the dots all in neat rows on the tiles and to wonder what I could hide in the old wooden patterning on the walls behind the pulpit.

 

When we first got married we had a lovely old patterned carpet that was magical for our children.  My babies love just to look at all the colours and patterns.  I wonder if they made faces from them as I did .  I will have to ask them:)

 

 

Patterns can make the unpredictability in life more stable.  Like getting up at the same time each day or setting the table with forks on one side and knives on the other side, getting down on my knees before bed to talk to my maker and to know that the sun will continue to rise each day no matter what else is going on.

 

Patterns add a solidarity to my life and keep my feet firmly placed on the earth I stand on. thats probably why I like them so much.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Storage in the studio

I think I love organising my studio as much as I like working in it.  I probably should be a organisation coach or something.  I have so much satisfaction at seeing my cottons laid out in rows and pins neatly put away.  I haven't always been like this.  As a child and teenager no one dared to go into my room for fear of getting lost or worse still being attacked by some sort of old laundry monster.  The only organisation I knew was hanging up my clothes on the floor.  I would argue with my mum that I knew where everything was.  It was partly true I knew it was in a particular quadrant of the room but that was about it.  Over the years I have grown to appreciate things in the right place and where I can find it straight away.

I have a lot of reels of threads in my studio in a variety of colours.  Storing threads can be quite challenging.  There a few things to think about.  They have to be easy to access, out of the sunlight,  organised  by colours and easy to see.  There are alot of ways to store threads.  They can be stored in drawers,  in containers,  on the walls and bags.  Some storage is purpose made for the job others can be made to fit the job. I have tried a few different storage ideas.  I really like using drawers with little pieces of dowel in them,   it keeps everything in the right place and nothing gets tangled up. 

There are many different ideas for storage.  Here are some of the different ways to store threads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I might try to find one of these beautiful antique boxes they would look so beautiful in my studio