My Craft Room

I'm very excited to share photos of my craft room with you!

When we were looking at houses last year we knew that the second bedroom would be 'my room' for all my art and craft things, and also be used as a guest room. We were lucky enough to find a house with a second bedroom big enough for both of these functions, as we saw a lot of houses with tiny second bedrooms.

When we first moved in last August the room looked like this. Our bedroom was going to be our first decorating project so we squeezed all of our bedroom furniture into the second bedroom. It wasn't ideal but it was only for a few weeks while we got our bedroom sorted.
The previous owner had painted the end wall with this Mondrian pattern. Perfect for an art room, right? Well...some of the lines were wonky, and there was a lot of paint bleed and I was after a more fresh, white vibe. I thought it would take many, many coats of paint to cover up the pattern but when I looked closer I found that the paint peeled off!

I decided to paint all of the walls white and add colour with art and other decorations.
My Dad kindly made this picture ledge to go on the wall so I could display a lot of art and photos, and be able to switch them around whenever I want.

As this room will also be used as a guest room if we have people come to stay, we bought a day bed from Ikea. We looked at a few different sofa beds but decided on this day bed which pulls out to a double. It has two drawers underneath which I've had no problem filling with more craft stuff.
I've covered the mattress with a duck egg blue throw blanket from Wilkos and put my handmade patchwork blanket on top. The big stripey cushion is from my parents house, and I think I'll recover it when I find the right fabric, the seagull cushions, from Dunelm, were a gift, and I bought the raccoon cushion from The Range.

Once we'd picked out the daybed we found we had enough room to get a 4-square Ikea Kallax to add additional storage space, and we already had the white box inserts from another Ikea unit. (This room could also be known as 'the room that Ikea built'. Not in any way sponsored, their furniture is just so convenient!)
The globe on top is actually a lamp and came with us from the flat.

Something I knew I wanted for my craft room was a long table. When we found this house I checked the measurements on the listing again and again to make sure I'd be able fit a 2 metre work top. It fits perfectly in front of the window so it's a lovely, bright space to work at. The table top rests on two Ikea Alex drawers and cupboard. Initially I was just going to get the drawers but when we saw the set up on display in Ikea, Andrew noted there was still a lot of space underneath and suggested getting the extra cupboard. #keeper

My Dad put up the shelves, which were random ones found in my parent's garage. I painted them white and covered the tops with wallpaper the previous owner had left behind.
I also have one of my hand painted guitars on display next to my easel which is usually hidden by the open door.
My chair, which was my Chrismas present from Andrew, is from Argos and is very comfortable. The space under the table where my chair goes is also where the radiator is, so during the winter this is the perfect place to work.

Next to my desk is a double wardrobe and a single wardrobe. We used these in the bedroom in our old flat but our new bedroom has a built in wardrobe so we didn't need them there. I assured Andrew I could make use of them in my craft room so we brought them with us. As you've prbably figured out, these were also from Ikea.
I bought a magnetic whiteboard to go on the side of the wardrobe which I attached with command strips. I also attached my Macklemore lyric embroidery and a string of flower lights I've had since I was 15.

This photo shows the inside of the double wardrobe. The two drawers hold all my fabric and the bottom basket has rolls of paper. My favourite use of space is this hanger which attaches to the wardrobe rail and is used to store all my felt. It's so handy being able to separate it into different colours!

It is so nice having this space to work in and store all my things (and I have a lot of things). And Andrew likes it because it means my craft materials don't spread all over the house like they used to when we lived in the flat!

Goodbye studio

Two weeks ago we had to take down our studio spaces so that they could be turned into the exhibition spaces for our degree show.

So I had to say goodbye to my studio space.

My lovely, lovely studio space that had almost become a second home.

To see what it looked like back in October click here.

After taking down all the pictures, dismantling the shelves and bagging up our belongings, the only thing left for me and Natalie to do was remove the carpet and throw it in the skip.

Sad times.

Speaking of bagging up all of our belongings, these are mine.

And that's not even all of it, as I had already taken away a few bags in the days leading up to this one.

So much stuff!

Once I move back home for good I'll have to find somewhere to put it all.

My sister is moving out soon.....who thinks my Dad should let me turn her old room into my studio?

*Raises hand*

In the week before the studios got completely dismantled I took some photos of the room I was in.

This is Will's stuff. You can view his paintings here.

Scenes from the studio

My friend Natalie and I are currently working hard preparing for a little joint exhibition at uni next week.

So my studio table looks a lot like this.

(Note the packet of mini party rings - yum!)

And this.

There I am!

And that carpet I was so excited about is now filthy and could do with a good hoovering.

Natalie is currently producing portrait miniatures which is why our artwork will work well together in an exhibition.

The exhibition is called Too Small (or Two Small depending on which poster you're looking at) and will run 16th-20th January (on the paint landing of St.Georges for any NUCA people).

Studio tour

I've been back at uni for over a month now so it's about time I showed y'all my studio space for this year.

This is my table which usually looks this messy.

Most people - especially in the painting department where I am- use the wall to put their work up, but since my work is 3D I use my wall to put up things that I like to look at.

Like a photo of my friends back home and a Tim McGraw poster.

I share the space with my friend Natalie and we've really made it our own.

For a start, we got a carpet!

It's more comfortable with it because we can go shoes off.

We managed to get a 5ft8 square piece for £5. Bargain!

Now imagine 5ft2 me carrying it back from the shop. 

This is the shelving unit that I brought in for us to share.

Check out all our books. We impress ourselves with our mad reading skillz.

And that open orange drawer is our snack drawer! Nom nom nom.

And this is just to show you a little comparison between other peoples spaces.

Some people prefer minimalist, but we like colourful and comfy!

Joe Fig; my new favourite

Whilst doing some research for my dissertation I came across the artist Joe Fig.

He is amazeballs!

He creates miniature scenes of artists at work in their studios.

The level of detail is phenomenal.

Here's one of his Jackson Pollock pieces.

They kind of remind me action figures that you get for tv shows, that come with little props to set up a scene.

(I have a couple from Lost. Jack and Charlie in case you were wondering.)

Only these are artist action figures. And I want one. Or all of them.

He's made Chuck Close and his fascinating studio.

If you look back at this blog post about artist studios I actually used this image thinking it was a photograph of the real thing. That shows how realistic these models are.

I definitely recommend checking out Joe's website for all the other models he's made. He's a pretty good portrait painter too.

It's Andy Warhol!

Usually the use of figures in miniature models ruins it a bit for me, because they never look quite right and whilst the rest of the scene can look amazing, the figure always looks obviously fake. This is the main reason I don't use figures in my own work.

But these model artists are so well made and to the same standard as the rest of the piece that I think they're incredible.

Joe Fig makes the model I made of my studio space look pretty rubbish in comparison. Ha.

My Craft Space

While I've been home I've made it my mission to tidy up the backroom table which is the craft space I share with my sister.

When I'm at uni my craft space is just my bed so I have to tidy it if I want to get to sleep that day.

It went from this...

...to this!

Yes there actually is a table, it was just a bit hidden before.

I've got a lot of stuff so storage is sometimes an issue. There's paintbrushes in mugs, decorated stones in a bowl, glitter in little jars. A lot of stuff.

And while I was sorting through all this stuff I rediscovered these;

I made them many years ago out of fimo. They're magnets and badges.

I actually sold some at a school fete once.

There were also cats and dogs but I guess they must have been the most popular as they're all gone.

The Artists Studio

I recently had a contextual studies lecture which included stuff about the artists studio. I think it's pretty interesting to see where famous artists worked, especially if their spaces reflected their practice.

This is Francis Bacon's studio. I've had this photo saved on my computer for age because it's awesome.

I bet his Mum never told him to tidy up...

The studios of Kurt Schwitters, above, and Piet Mondrian, below, look like extensions of their artwork.

Then there's Chuck Close. This one is interesting because you get to see his painting technique, like there's a hole in the floor for the canvas to fit in when it's moved up and down.

Also, he is The Man.

And I guess it's only fair that I show you my studio space. It's come a long way since the miniature version I made in October, but that's because I've done a lot more work. And I've adopted an easel, acquired some storage, and gathered bags and bags of junk. It's also been messier than this: this photo was taken when my exhibition was up so all my miniature pieces weren't taking up space like they usually do.

Want to see my studio space?

This is my studio space at uni.

A tenth of the size of course.

There's a mini paint brush, painting, sellotape, masking tape, black and white paint, and even a mini-miniature room. But I didn't fill it with mini-mini furniture. I've got to draw the line somewhere.

My mini Peacocks bag of junk, sorry, 'art materials'.

Other mini plastic bags that litter the space under my table.

I even sewed a mini version of my coat to hang on the back of my mini chair. I couldn't get the arms to hang down though.

And here's the actual coat so you can compare. Not bad even if I say so myself.