Breathing space at Studio136

My deadline for Phase I of the sorting of the studio was 12 noon on Friday. When I left it, the work surfaces were clear and most of the floor was clear too, apart from rolls of things and a stack of drawings lying on the floor in the Dark Corner, waiting for the return of a portfolio. There is a dusty area under and behind the sewing machine table which we'll ignore for now, and quite a few shelves above it that look to be under control but will need careful attention in Phase II. As for the cupboards - out of sight, out of mind for now!

It may be early days, but what I'm enjoying most at the moment is - putting things back where they belong! (Trying to make this a habit...) 

I'm also enjoying getting out a box that has the work-in-progress in it ... and then putting it away at the end of the session. Not that I've done a lot of that, so far - this breathing space with the clearing is so that there will be more "making". I'm not sure you can do both a major clearing and creative work at the same time. 

Another thing I've enjoyed - though it's a bit problematic at times - is coming across "blasts from the past", samples and unfinished projects and notebooks from courses. The problem has been: keep and continue, or toss out and move on? I'm so in the habit of wanting to do "everything"... and of thinking that there's still time to fit it in.

From the cupboard,, a tin of already-fused fabric scraps (some are with me at the CQ weekend)

Screen printed a few years ago, with flowers from the window box as a resist. It's
been folded up, with stitching threads, for quite a while

From my St Ives sketchbook - we bought a postcard at Tate St Ives with the task of doing 6 variations

(Rather blurry because the camera focussed on the "upstanding" pages in the middle)

These have been helpful for labelling things. A box of 1000 cost about £10, not
that I have 1000 things to label!

From drawers marked Ribbons and Wire - my collection of "bits of artificial flowers found
on the street" needs a home; the 1980s tin is full of bits of coloured wire; the lanyards, where did they come
from; and who needs all that fishing line? (it takes hundreds of years to decay)

In a corner of the boiler cupboard, years' worth of Morning Pages -
useful at the time but ready for repurposing, unread, now

Ah, the state of things under the sewing machine table! It's been there since 2010

Not so dusty - from earlier this year - but what to do with them?

As soon as the rolls of paper were halfway organised, another bag of
scraps from Bookwraps appeared

June 1997 is the date on there samples from a workshop at City Lit

Only this one still appeals

Before workshops, there were needlepoint kits ... actually I still love needlepoint

Experiments with BubbleJetSet; satin stitch on silk from my Chinese Characters
phase;  needlepoint "kit" made by painting on the canvas, stitched in silk

 "Florilegium", late 90s, includes flower petals in the handmade paper. At
the time, it was a complicated project, done step by step rather than totally planned

Cushion cover ready for stitching with Chinese characters; if I get back to this, I'll use
leaf or flower shapes and add a "strange" colour to brighten it a little

Accidental paper - the drip-catcher from the Daily Painting project;
layers upon layers

Another accidental paper - just a few splodges that went over the edge of something;
minimal, but intriguing