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Monday, January 19, 2009

My Home is My Studio

My home is my studio . . .
. . . or should that be, "my studio is my home"? No, it really is a home first, but anyway, here's the view from somewhere near my front door which should give you some idea:
  • centre right foreground is my spinning wheel and stool. It's a majacraft "little gem" and well named as far as I'm concerned. It will spin just about anything and it's remarkably portable which suits me to a T
  • the fibre I'm currently spinning is on one of the chairs--an odd-ball black and white bag of roving from the back room at Bendigo Woollen Mills
  • on the far left, the couch is holding my latest quilt. It's a simple little 9-patch made as a demo & promo for the "Patchwork by Machine" beginners class I'm planning to teach at my local neighbourhood house next month.
  • next stop, travelling clockwise around the walls of the room is my weaving bench. The loom is an 8-shaft table loom made by Eric Noble in South Australia. The warp on it is left over from last year's certificate course at the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria. It's a supplementary warp, Turned Monksbelt. It was my contribution to the end of year round robin exercise and hopefully there's enough there for a scarf, now that all the other students have finished making samples for end of year folios.
  • above the loom is one of many box shelves--they pretty much line my walls. This one holds a collection of various textile related books and magazines, also my beads and jewelry-making supplies and a good few cones of wool for weaving to top it off.
  • then the sink in the corner. Currently holding the remains of a couple of meals that need to be cleaned up. When that's done it's available for my dyeing efforts again. I do a reasonable job of keeping my dyeing chemicals and foodstuffs separate even though they have to share the workspace. But it does often mean a quick clean up before I can switch from one to the other.
  • above the sink is my pot-rack--saves space in the cupboards--with the addition of several bunches of roses and herbs drying for pot-pourri.
  • Oh, one more important thing I missed on the shelves: my sound system. I pretty much always have the radio on, tuned to ABC Classic FM. I'm a happy girl today because the regular batch of morning radio announcers are back from summer holidays:)
  • microwave, stove and kitchen bench are pretty much the same story as the sink.
  • more box shelves on this wall. These ones are mainly for food.
  • ditto the fridge, though as you can see it's also a notice-board of sorts. Later today, the fridge will get a batch of earth palette dyes, though. We're in for a couple of hot days in Melbourne, which is perfect weather for cold pad batch dyeing.
  • and right in the middle of the room taking up a fair chunk of space is my BIG table: meal table, office table, work centre, social centre, repository of junk . . . it just depends on the day really. I made it from Tasmanian Oak floor boards and it's height adjustable so I can bring it up to work-bench height for a group of friends or a major project.

What you can't see

  • another loom in the far left hand corner of the room, near the big north-facing window. It's an 8-shaft Le Clerc, table loom, but with a stand and 10 pedals to tie up, so a bit of a hybrid really. I bought it second hand at the Guild and did a bit of repair and reinforcing work on it, but am yet to try it out.
  • a long shelf along the wall to the right of the photo: knitting machine and boxes of fibre, spun and unspun live there.
  • my big armchair, which sits just inside the door--to relax in, or sit and work in--the combination of comfy recliner and sewing caddy on the arm of the chair tells the story.
  • next to the armchair is a big basket of knitting stuff and a quilting hoop
  • dog leads hanging on a hook near the door--I live with a couple of middle-aged Jack Russell Terriers. I tell you, they do not look middle aged if I as much as touch their leads and they think a walk might be about to happen!
  • and just to be honest also out of sight near the door is a box of bits waiting to be taken the Op Shop.

1 comment:

Dee said...

look what i found.... :) happy, happy.